"Rappers' Ball" is a song co-written and performed by American rappers E-40 and Too $hort and American R&B singer K-Ci. It was released on September 18, 1996 via Sick Wid' It/Jive Records as the lead single from E-40's third full-length solo studio album Tha Hall of Game. Co-written and produced by Ant Banks, the song contains a portion of Too $hort's 1985 composition "Playboy Short".
Charting in the United States as a b-side of the album's second single "Things'll Never Change", "Rappers' Ball" peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 19 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, number 40 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, number 4 on the Hot Rap Songs and number 26 on the Dance Singles Sales charts.
An accompanying music video was filmed on July 13, 1996 by Eric Haywood. Beside E-40, Too $hort and K-Ci, B-Legit, Joe Clair, Mack 10 and Richie Rich among others provided cameo appearances. 2Pac, who also made a cameo appearance in the music video, winks at the camera when E-40 rapped in his verse "Don't buy an $85,000 car before you buy a house", making reference to the Notorious B.I.G. owning expensive cars but still not having purchased his own home. The music video was released for the week ending on September 1, 1996.
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1. | "Rappers' Ball" (Radio Version) | |
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2. | "Rappers' Ball" (Instrumental) | |
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3. | "Rappers' Ball" (LP Version) | |
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4. | "Rappers' Ball" (Acappella) | |
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- Earl "E-40" Stevens – lead vocals, executive producer
- Todd "Too $hort" Shaw – lead vocals
- Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey – background vocals, vocal arrangement
- Anthony "Ant" Banks – keyboards, drum programming, producer, recording, mixing
- Ryan Arnold – recording
- Eric Janko – recording
- Carlos Warlick – mixing
- Tom Coyne – mastering
- Pen & Pixel – artwork
- Chaz Hayes – management