By Caleb Pershan • Sep 9, 2019

Does E-40 like lumpia? Yup — so much so that the East Bay rap legend is now an investor and co-owner of a growing Filipino food business, the Lumpia Company, which specializes in the fried Filipino spring rolls he loves.

“Being from Vallejo, California, my surroundings was all walks of life, very diverse,” says E-40, whose given name is Earl Stevens. “Filipinos were a big part of Vallejo’s community... some of my best friends was Filipino. I ate lumpia with the kids I grew up around, and it became one of my favorite dishes of all time.”

So when the popular, SF-raised DJ E-Rock introduced Stevens to his friend Alex Retodo, a food entrepreneur who founded the Lumpia company in 2015, they had lots to talk about. Retodo sent a sample of his lumpia to Stevens, “and history was made,” Stevens says.