"Captain Save a Hoe" (clean version titled "Captain Save Them Thoe") is a single by American rapper

E-40 Earl Tywone Stevens (born November 15, 1967), better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. Stevens is a founding member of the rap group The Click (band), The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 27 stud ...

featuring hip hop group The Click. It is the lead single from E-40's EP '' The Mail Man'' (1993). It is E-40's breakthrough hit and one of his most well-known songs. It has been featured in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of the video game ''

Grand Theft Auto V ''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...

''.

Background

The slang phrase " captain save a hoe" has come to mean a man who spends an excessive amount of time and money trying to please a woman, usually a promiscuous one. According to E-40, his inspiration for writing the song was that a lot of his friends were acting like that. Producer Studio Ton produced a "heavy mobbed out baseline" for the track, while E-40 came up with the idea and title. D-Shot of The Click thought of the hook, which was inspired by the song " Double Dutch Bus" by Frankie Smith. The song criticizes a man who tries to "save" and impress women, especially when their help is unneeded. It ironically depicts this man as a superhero-like character called "Captain Save A Hoe". The single was released through E-40's independent record label Sick Wid It Records. The song became more successful than expected and a clean version of the song was subsequently made, with the title "Captain Save Them Thoe". Following its regional popularity, E-40 signed to

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

. The label re-released the single on 12". The song also popularized the phrase used in the title.

Critical reception

The song was praised by music critics for its 1970s-sounding "radio-friendly, laid-back groove". Some feminists critiqued the song. Historian and cultural critic Davarian Baldwin notes that it portrays black women as gold-diggers who use their sexuality to take black men's meager earnings.

Other versions

The song " Saved", by American singer

Ty Dolla Sign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Griffin gai ...

featuring E-40, interpolates and pays homage to "Captain Save a Hoe". In 2020, American musician Fantastic Negrito reinvented the song in a track called "Searching for Captain Save a Hoe", which also features a verse from E-40.

Charts

References

{{E-40 1993 songs 1994 debut singles E-40 songs Songs written by E-40 Songs about fictional male characters