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Too Short, E-40 and MC Hammer consult for film

Too Short, E-40 and MC Hammer have been hired as consultants for a 2010 film called "Weight," which tells the story of one of the Bay Area's youngest drug kingpins.

Executive producer Todd “Hollywood G.” Graham told AllHipHop that the veteran MCs were brought on board to increas the "authenticity of the project." All three were rising in popularity in the Bay Area and beyond at the same time as Darryl "Lil' D" Reed was taking charge of the Oakland drug scene. Reed took over in the late '80s and was allegedly making millions by 18, but ended up sentenced to 35 years in prison on federal drug charges, 20 of which he has now served.

Read more at AllHipHop.

E-40 trades Fatburger for Wing Stop, 40 Water

Even E-40 is not immune to the recession. E-40, whose real name is Earl Stevens, recently closed the Fatburger franchise he partially owned in Pleasant Hill, Calif., near his hometown of Vallejo. Next up for the Bay Area MC is the resurrection of his "40 Water" flavored drinks -- and possibly another fast-food venture.

"I'm moving on from Fatburger because it didn't really take off like it did in Southern California," E-40 told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm moving on to Wing Stop ... that's where it's at."

Meanwhile, having his name attached to a shooting outside one of his shows in Denver led to his manager addressing the situation.

"E-40 and [his] management want to state unequivocally that E-40 and his camp were uninvolved in the unfortunate incident at Club Vinyl in Denver on Dec. 27, 2008," Chaz Hayes said in a released statement. "Neither E-40 nor anyone traveling with him was in the venue at the time. In fact, E-40 had concluded his performance and [had] been back in the hotel room. During his time at the venue, and in fact during the trip to Denver as a whole, he encountered nothing but love and gave nothing but love back. E-40 had a crowd-pleasing and peaceful show. While he certainly regrets that this incident took place, E-40 and [his] camp are unable to control the poor and tragic choices that other adults choose to make."

Five people were injured in the shooting.

5 wounded in shootout outside E-40 show

A shooting spree outside an E-40 concert in Denver early Saturday morning left five people injured. Police told KUSA-Ch. 9 that several people opened fire around 2 a.m. outside of the Club Vinyl, which is located at 11th Avenue and Broadway in downtown Denver.

"It was bullets flying everywhere. It was automatic. It was like a machine gun, ba-dop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop. It was just really crazy," Kendall Davis, a security guard at a nearby hotel, told the Denver NBC station. "At first we hear a wave of shots and we didn't realize it was gunfire until we seen a lot of people running by. So then definitely I wanted to secure our building, so we hit all the lights, locked the front door, secured our business because we didn't want any shooters running in."

One eyewitness saw three men with guns and a knife chasing and firing at three other men. The shots were fired into a crowd of approximately 100 people, and five were hit. One victim's condition still was listed as critical condition as of Sunday. The other four were treated and released. No arrests have been made.