Twenty years after the discharge of his breakout album, The Individuals’s Champ, Paul Wall has graduated to ambassador of the nice metropolis of Houston. For the previous twenty years, the previous Swishahouse rapper has pushed H-City’s diamond-grill carrying, slab-riding, 44 tippin’ tradition, and he is proven no indicators of abandoning his marketing campaign. Most not too long ago, Paul linked up with Oakland, Calif., producer DJ.Recent for the album The Tonite Present, the most recent version to Recent’s collab undertaking sequence. Paul and Recent sit down with XXL for Discuss It Up, powered by DistroKid, for an unique interview to speak about their new undertaking and hip-hop.
DJ.Recent Invitations Paul Wall to Be part of The Tonite Present
DJ.Recent began his The Tonite Present sequence in 2004, and has achieved joint initiatives with a cornucopia of artists like Freddie Gibbs, Curren$y, Raekwon, Trae Tha Fact and extra. After producing a number of tracks for Paul’s earlier albums, As soon as Upon a Grind (2024) and The Nice Wall (2023), the 2 determined to lock in on a joint launch.
“I really like DJ.Recent,” Paul says of their working relationship. “He simply brings life into the tracks. When he sends me the beats, they converse to you. It is like he is transmitting a frequency from one other universe.”
DJ.Recent recorded all the 13-song album on analog tape and recorded Paul’s vocals on SSL in addition to used actual musicians to accentuate manufacturing. It reveals on the cohesive undertaking of Southern grownup up to date hip-hop. In 2020, Recent discovered music idea. 5 years later, he is within the prime 10 p.c of keyboardists within the business.
Paul Wall and DJ.Recent Have Been Placing in Work
Recent has been placing in work in hip-hop since he was 9 years outdated. “I’ve a saying: The great distance is a brief reduce,” he says. “It simply means that is one thing we plan to do till we will not do it no extra. It is a course of. We not speeding it. We simply trusting it. The extra you do work for it, the extra it is going to give you the results you want.”
The rapper plans on doing this till he is 80. “It is superb that you just’re not boxed in the place you must do that, you must sound like this and once you’re this age, you’ll be able to’t do it anymore,” Paul provides. “I actually respect that there is so many alternative paths and avenues and so many alternative branches of the hip-hop tree. Not solely are the branches sturdy, the leaves are sturdy, the fruit that comes from them are sturdy, and there is a lot folks down there able to eat the meals.”
Drake and 50 Cent Love Houston
Each out and in of music, Paul is a revered determine in Houston, a metropolis that has turn into a spot the place some large rappers who hail from different states are actually calling dwelling. A-list celebrities like 50 Cent and Drake have not too long ago purchased native residences and been noticed round city.
“We like it. Houston has not usually been recognized as a metropolis the place celebrities would come transfer to exterior of Texas,” Paul Wall shares. “I grew up in an period when folks thought Texas was nothing however horses and cows. For there to be main celebrities, icons which are exhibiting like to Houston, transferring to Houston, hell yeah, I like it.”
Learn Extra: July 2025 New Music Releases
Along with their new undertaking, which will be heard beneath, Paul and Recent focus on what’s subsequent, taking The Tonite Present on the highway, the recording course of, Drake and 50 Cent residing in Houston, automotive tradition and extra within the video. Test it out.
