CATCHING UP WITH PAUL WALL.
Every couple of months or so, Paul Wall becomes a trending topic on Twitter.
It appears the Houston rapper (and self-proclaimed “people’s champ”), who dropped midaughts bangers such as “Sittin’ Sidewayz” and collaborated with stars including Kanye West and Nelly, tends to pop up on the social-media platform whenever someone brings up the subject of white rappers. It’s already happened twice this year. In March (the same month he celebrated his 40th birthday), someone tweeted that the late Mac Miller was the only white rapper who didn’t rip off Eminem. This prompted fans to come to the defense of Wall. (“Never disrespect Paul Wall like that again,” one guy tweeted.) Fans once again supported Wall a few weeks ago, when a Baltimore rapper tweeted, “what was it about the social climate that made Bubba Sparxxx n Paul Wall acceptable back in the day.”
“Every time I see it, it’s always, like, amazing to me, just cuz I kind of stay relatively out of the limelight,” says Wall (government name: Paul Michael Slayton), speaking at a recording studio near his home in the Heights. When it comes to people on Twitter occasionally testing his gangsta, the artist not only takes it in stride, he also gets it. “To be honest, when I see that, the criticism is still valid. It’s kind of like a hip-hop audit — and it’s not even just for hip-hop. It’s just in general, in entertainment and just across the globe.”
As someone who continues to make “music for the art and, also, for the fans,” he understands why detractors would wonder if someone like Wall is a bonafide MC or just another culture vulture. He does appreciate his longtime fans for coming to his defense. “Of course, it’s inspiring to me,” he says. “I’m grateful for it, even, sometimes, when it’s something maybe negative and, then, people come to defend me. Everybody is entitled to their opinion.”
These days, Wall is more concerned about coming with new music. He’s planning to release his “Hall of Fame Hustler” album later this year. And late last month, he released the single “Still Sippin’.” A quick sequel to “Still Tippin’,” the classic 2005 joint he did with fellow Houston MCs Slim Thug and Mike Jones, this one has him rapping with Thug and — another H-town vet — Lil Keke (who teamed up with Wall for the 2020 album “Slab Talk”). “We do a lot of touring together, a lot of shows,” says Wall. “Of course, they’re two of my best friends, especially in hip-hop — two of my closest friends.”
The song came about while they were at iMix Recording Studios. “We had the beat, which was produced by Platinum Hands, and it just reminded me of Salih Williams, who made ‘Still Tippin’, ‘Sittin’ Sidewayz,’ ‘Back Then’ and a bunch of other Houston classics from the Wreckshop Records era.
“It’s really just, like, a freestyle,” he adds. “There’s no hook on it. We just went back to back to back on it — me, Keke and Slim Thug.”
There’s a possibility that Keke and Thug will join Wall for a show he’s doing at the Secret Group this Saturday night. Wall purposely kept the special-guest list vague by titling the event “Paul Wall & Friends.” “I would hate to really, like, print their names and, you know, they don’t come,” he says, laughing. And since things still haven’t exactly cleared up on the pandemic front, the venue is taking some safety precautions. “They just added mask restrictions, so everybody in there is gonna have to wear masks.”
Even during a pandemic, Wall still continues his mission of being an underground hip-hop king — for the people. “Being the people’s champ, you know, it’s something I’ve always shown love to try and represent for the people,” he says. “When you’re the people’s champ, you don’t always win the actual championship. Sometimes, you just got the people’s championship. So, you don’t really get a lot of the same accolades, but you’re not doing it for that.
“People always tell me I’m an anomaly or an outlier,” he says. “I’m just me. I just try to live my life as who I am.”