On Tuesday, E-40 [click to read] spoke to Hot 97's DJ Whoo Kid about his upcoming album The Ball Street Journal. When asked by Whoo Kid, who doubles as the official deejay for G-Unit, about Kanye West's recent affinity for the autotune, E-40 stayed tight lipped.

"I'll leave that up to everybody else. I ain't mad at [Kanye] for doing it, you know?"

He then went on to claim, perhaps in jest, that he actually pioneered the autotune trend.

"You know what though, that was my idea a long time ago, I ain't even gonna lie, about four years ago. I was going to fuck with it but my engineer, he didn't have it yet. Man, my old ass autotune protune machine," said 40 Water.

The Bay Area rapper kept the interview light, but also commented on T-Pain's infamous use of the autotune.

"T-Pain is one of the most talented cats of our time. I feel like he's not only just a singer, but he can actually sing without that fuckin' autotune. I seen him in real life. And he's a producer. Dude is mostly talented. And the boy knows how to work it. He could stop being a performer. He could just write and just kick back and just collect checks."

The two collaborated on 2006 hit "U And Dat," from 40's My Ghetto Report Card [click to read].

The Ball Street Journal is scheduled to release on November 25, 2008.

Reported by Salima Koroma.