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In California, E-40 is no underground rapper. He’s not an unknown. He’s a certified star, with a career portfolio of 12 solo albums.

If it was his days with The Click at the beginning of the ’90s or his verse on the Luniz classic “I got five on it” in ’95, E-40’s hits have been around since many rap fans were young kids.

Outside of California, however, E-40 is a rapper who has gone platinum once and has had a few good verses on a few good songs, “Captain Save a Hoe” and “Hurricane.”

Now coupled with southern producer Lil’ Jon, E-40 stands on the verge of becoming a huge crossover star with the release of “My Ghetto Report Card.”

While the album is a solid effort by an industry veteran, it isn’t good enough to send E-40’s star into orbit. It will please his fans, but a few missteps hurt the album’s overall appeal.

Highlighting the album are the tracks produced by Ricardo “Rick Rock” Thomas. “Go Hard or Go Home,” “Gouda” and “Do Ya Head Like This” are all quality tracks and “They Might Be Taping” as Thomas’ only production miss.

Another track that holds up is Lil’ Jon-produced “U and Dat,” which hit airwaves soon after the album’s release and is sure to burn up the clubs.

The album started making waves nationally when the album’s first single “Tell Me When to Go” started heating up the clubs and the video found its way into heavy rotation on BET and MTV. It looks like that momentum will not be sustained on E-40’s journey to become a nationally-recognized star.

The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard’s top 200 and then fell to No. 21 after its first week.

There are a few possible reasons for this. One is that his fans went out in force the first week to get the album they have all been waiting for, but the rest of the country just wasn’t interested.

Another possible reason is that E-40 is not gaining a new fan base. Maybe his sound is only built for California with some appeal to the South.

It’s possible that the “Ambassador of the Bay” who has been credited with inventing such phrases as “Pop ya collar,” “it’s all good,” and “fo’ shizzle” had a niche audience that eats up the slanguage and miscellaneous “Uhhhhs” throughout his songs.

It might just be that the album lacks consistency. E-40 doesn’t seem ready to turn his back on the underground that has been so loyal to him. Instead of getting more mainstream guest spots like Juelz Santana on “White Gurl,” he got lesser known artists like The Federation, Bosko, Turf Talk and Miko.

He also made the mistake of letting his family in on the album. The track produced by E-40’s son Droop-E is about as appealing to the ear as nails on a blackboard.

With six or seven good songs, people will skip though the misses. This solid effort will please E-40’s plans, but won’t make him a mainstream star.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Robert Alvis can be reached at [email protected]