also got Play-N-Skillz and Happy Perez. For collaborations we’ve got Too Short, Pitbull, Baby Bash, and my Texas homeboys Z-Ro, Lil Keke, and Trae. The first single is called “Busy Body” with Webbie, it’s produced by Mouse. We just shot the video a couple weeks ago so we’ve been rollin’ with it real strong.
Being the People’s Champ is not an easy occupation. People are fickle. As fast as they crown you, they’ll dethrone you. Paul Wall was at this crossroads in 2007 when he released his sophomoric major-label album Get Money, Stay True. Reeling FROM the success of his previous album The People’s Champ, Paul had gone from a regional star to a national figure with everyone from Kanye West to Nelly to Playmate Kendra Wilkinson wanting a piece of him. In true People’s Champ fashion, Paul actually pleased everybody, or at least tried to. Even though he explored his pop options by making songs with Brook Hogan he still made sure to please the diehard Houston fans by collaborating with Lil Keke. For every arena show he did with Travis Barker, he still did club dates throughout the South. But, he couldn’t keep everyone smiling. “When we did Get Money, Stay True we learned the hard way that you can’t buck the system,” says Paul of the album that was supposed to catapault him to pop star status. Instead, he did just as the title said and catered to his core fan base. “The only way you can have success all around is if you work with your record label instead of working against them. At that time we were working in different directions. Atlantic Records had different views of where we should go. I can be the flavor of the month at the label and the next month they’re on to a different artist and I’m not a priority anymore. We had to learn that the hard way.” Lessons intact, Paul Wall is planning to apply what he’s learned with his new album Fast Life. Powered by the lead single “Busy Body” featuring Webbie, Paul promises that Fast Life will be his most diverse project yet. Hopefully the people will be pleased. How long have you been working on Fast Life? Me and [my manager] T Farris have been in the lab working on it since we put out the last [album], so it’s been about a year and a half. Production-wise we’ve got Travis Barker on there, and Beans N Cornbread out of Houston. We’ve
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The title Fast Life seems pretty selfexplanatory, but tell us why you decided to ride with that. When people think of Houston Hip Hop, “fast” is the last word they think of. Yeah. For me, it’s more about the non-stop grind and hustle. I ain’t taking no breaks, I’m just grinding from sun up to sun down and back ‘til the sun comes up again. When you start living that fast-paced hustle life, when you grinding to get that paper mane, you start seeing the accolades of success, like cars, jewelry, broads, clothes, whatever money can buy. The album is about everything that comes with living the fast life. Is it pretty much a soundtrack to your life since things picked up a few years back, a soundtrack to whatever you’ve been doing on the road? Nah, when I say the fast life, I’m not talking about music-wise – I’m talking about life in general. I think anyone that’s grinding can relate to it, anybody that’s gotta go to work and pay the bills. Whether you work at McDonald’s, you’re a school teacher, or you’re in the streets hustling, you still got to grind. How fast you’re living depends on how hard you grind. When you came out with Get Money Stay True, I remember you saying you felt like you had more time to work on that album as opposed to The People’s Champ. You said you felt like it was a job, and you only recorded 15 songs for it anyway. With this new album, did you try to combine what you learned from both of those albums or did you try to do something completely new? I read an interview one time, I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but [Lil’] Wayne said he doesn’t care when they put out an album. He just records non-stop and whenever a label wants to put out an album they put it out. I thought that was a hell of a mindframe. Me and T Farris took that mindframe going in. Whenever we get a track we record to it. We might have a couple different songs on the same track just to try something different. Whenever we come up with a new idea we make a song about it. The more we recorded the more we got in a zone. So we got so many songs recorded for this album. We weren’t even worried about picking the songs for this album until they renegotiated the [deal] and started promoting it. Once they gave us the release date, that’s when we sat down to figure out the songs for the album. I think that’s what we’re gonna do for the next one too. Even though the album comes out in May, I might be in the studio with T Farris coming up with some new songs.
A lot of artists rely heavily on being inspired by things around them. With you being on the road, what did you rely on to come up with song ideas? T Farris comes up with a lot of the song ideas. Most of the time I vibe off him. For me to get in a zone, I put myself back in the mindset I was in when I fell in love with Hip Hop, when I was 15 or 16 years old. If I’m tryin’ to get in the zone I’ll throw on some Screw tapes, Fat Pat, or Lil Keke. With the other albums they tried to attach you to the “Houston movement. ” This might be the first time we’re getting a Paul Wall album by itself, without them trying to label you. Are you looking forward to coming out on your own and challenging this different atmosphere? Oh yeah, definitely man. It’s grind time. I think people are really gonna be surprised by the album, and impressed too. They’re really gonna like what they hear, and see how far I’ve come lyrically. We stepped the sound up a lot. We kinda came into our own being in the studio working on this album. What did you learn about yourself as an artist and what did you improve on this time? I think something I learned a while back is that what I like in music ain’t necessarily what the mass population likes. I’m very selective with the kind of music I like, but the stuff I like doesn’t always sell as many records. I’m trying to sell a million records so that’s the kind of sound I need. T Farris really helped bring that out of me. I might be going in [the wrong] direction and he’ll steer me in the right one. How different should we expect this album to be? “Busy Body” is jamming but it’s not something I would ever expect Paul Wall to get on. Me and T Farris have been talking for the longest about going down to Baton Rouge and hooking up with Mouse and Webbie. It was a long time comin’. Overall, you’ll hear the same Champ you’re used to hearing, but there’s also new, different themes and subject matter. I’m working with producers I haven’t worked with before. It’s a well-rounded album. My fans, the people that love the kind of music I make, are gonna love it. It’s gonna surprise a lot of people too. What are some of the surprises? One of the songs is about my mother. T Farris really motivated me to it. She means a lot to me. You don’t really hear people talk about their mama like that, except Tupac’s “Dear Mama.” But other than that, there’s other subjects like “Pop One of These” which is about popping pills and talking broads into poppin’ pills. I got Too Short on there with me. Travis Barker produced that one. There’s other songs that don’t really sound like a Paul Wall song but when you hear me on it, it all just mixes together. Who are some of the other people you worked with? What’s up with Z-Ro workin’ with everybody all of a sudden? It seems like everybody in Texas got a Z-Ro hook or a Z-Ro verse. (laughs) I been down with him for a long time as homeboys, and I did a lot of music with him too. He’s one of the hottest artists from Texas, so naturally all artists from Texas wanna work with him. It’s just a matter of who he wants to work with. It seems like we’re gonna get treated to seeing