@getmoneytv recently sat down for an exclusive interview with SOHH. The People’s Champ discussed his latest projects, the thriving rap scene in Houston, viral debates on social media, and more.
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Follow us on all socials @sohhdotcom for the most trusted hip-hop coverage daily.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 You are watching SOHH.com.
00:04 Hey everyone, it's Serena here with SOHH.com and I'm here with Houston's own, the people's
00:10 champ, the poet, Mr. Paul Wall, y'all.
00:13 What it do?
00:14 Thank you for having me.
00:15 I'm happy to be here.
00:17 Thank you for joining us.
00:18 How's your day going so far?
00:19 It's going great.
00:20 Great day.
00:21 Great day today.
00:22 This is going to be a good interview.
00:23 I like the energy, so let's get into it.
00:26 So you recently dropped your new project, The Great Wall, and low key, people may not
00:30 realize that you've been dropping music consistently, but something about this project, it seems
00:34 like you're pushing it more mainstream, you know?
00:38 And you have a lot of great features on it.
00:40 Just to name a few, you got That Mexican OT, Little Kiki, Bun B, and I gave it a listen.
00:46 I actually like it a lot.
00:48 Swinging Glass is definitely one of my favorite songs, but I want you to tell us a little
00:51 bit about this project and what inspired you.
00:55 Thank you.
00:56 I wanted to put some good, positive vibes out there with everything from the production
01:01 to the lyrics.
01:02 Of course, calling it The Great Wall, I want it to be the best representation of me on
01:08 there.
01:09 So it was something I worked on for a long time.
01:10 I definitely put a lot of hard work into it.
01:13 It's something I'm very proud of.
01:15 Of course, shout out to my boy DJ Fresh.
01:17 He did a lot of the production on there.
01:19 Also, Solo, Big Swift, my boy Bruce Bank, Platinum Hands, Five Nine, all the producers
01:25 on there.
01:26 It was a lot of fun working on the music.
01:28 Of course, when you're thinking about that, when you're thinking about, "Okay, I want
01:31 it to be the best representation of me on each song," sometimes when you're making music,
01:37 you can get kind of...
01:39 Creatively, you kind of just throw stuff at the wall sometimes.
01:43 When you're focused and you're hyper-focused on it, being something specific, it's easy
01:47 when you're in there to say, "Nah, this ain't it.
01:49 Nah, that ain't it.
01:50 Nah, this ain't it.
01:51 Let's keep going.
01:52 We stay focused on what we're trying to do with this."
01:54 You're absolutely right.
01:55 I've been putting out a lot of independent music just kind of on my own over the years.
02:00 I've really been trying to focus mostly more on the music than on the marketing and promotion
02:06 side of it.
02:07 When I first came onto the scene, even from the very beginning, I came in 14 years old,
02:12 passing out flyers, putting posters up, bringing records to DJs.
02:16 So I was doing marketing and promotions from the absolute very beginning, even before I
02:20 came into the Switch House.
02:22 That's what got me in the door of the Switch House, was the fact that I did marketing and
02:25 promotions.
02:26 I did marketing and promotion for the Switch House before I even repped for the Switch
02:29 House.
02:30 So that's something that was always the number one on the agenda when we're thinking about
02:36 what went into putting out the music, was the promotion and the marketing.
02:41 But as I ascended in the mainstream, I feel like I kind of maybe...
02:46 I didn't lose track of who I was, but I think I allowed the music that came out to be less
02:53 representative of who I was and more kind of just whatever.
02:58 So I started focusing more on the type of music that I want to put out.
03:02 What do I want to listen to?
03:04 What do I want to be represented for with my music when we look back 30 years from now
03:09 and I put out my...
03:10 How does it get represented?
03:13 So that's when I started focusing more on the quality of the music, the type of music.
03:17 And now that I've been doing that for the past, I don't know, 10 or so albums, I said,
03:21 "Okay, let me shift a little bit, pivot more on the marketing and promotion."
03:25 And that's why this one, I've been a little more in it, a little bit more on that.
03:28 Yeah, I could definitely tell you put your heart in this one.
03:31 Because I'm just like, it was that feel good music.
03:33 And I was like, "Damn, we missed this."
03:35 Because the stuff that's out now, it's just not...
03:37 It don't hit like it needs to, like it used to.
03:41 You know, as an established artist who's in my career doing this, sometimes you find
03:47 yourself following the trends of what's successful or what works.
03:52 So throughout the years, there's always been certain sexualized things that will get pushed
03:57 or accepted more because you can cross over more to different audiences.
04:01 So they seem to work more because they're a little more successful.
04:05 Right now, what's very successful is any of the music that has a lot of hard hitting drums,
04:11 anything that's super hyper-sexualized, anything that's super hyper-violence based is really
04:17 getting pushed right now.
04:18 But there's all types of music being created and made.
04:21 But me as an artist, I got to try to stay focused on what type of music do I want to
04:27 put out?
04:28 What do I want to listen to?
04:29 Not necessarily what is the trends of the day.
04:33 So there's nothing wrong with, in my mind, the sexualization or the violence, whatever
04:37 it is.
04:38 There's a place for that.
04:39 But that's not necessarily my cup of tea.
04:41 What do I like?
04:42 I like the beats.
04:43 I like the bars.
04:44 The beats I like are more jazz based or blues based where you hear a lot of bass guitar
04:48 in them or you hear the hard hitting bass drums.
04:52 But not the war drum style where I want to go, you know what I'm saying, just tear somebody's
04:57 head off more, something where you can just vibe and relax to.
05:00 But that's more of my cup of tea, my style.
05:02 The artists that I listen to that I like to listen to, like Scarface or UGK or Lil Keke
05:07 or Rich Da Factor.
05:08 That's the type of music that they make.
05:11 That's what I like to listen to.
05:13 But there's nothing wrong with any of the other, you know, because to each his own.
05:17 That's what I like to listen to, just like you might like to listen to something else.
05:21 I'm not here to criticize nobody, just want to point out that, you know, that just right
05:24 now that is what seems to be more selling is, you know, the more hyper violence.
05:29 Now is it because there's record labels saying, okay, this is what we're going to put the
05:33 funding behind?
05:34 Because at the end of the day, you put a bag behind any type of song and you're going to
05:38 see some results.
05:39 You know what I'm saying?
05:40 No matter if the music is trash, no matter what the quality of the music or the topics
05:45 of the music are, you put a good bag behind it, you're going to see some results.
05:48 You see what I'm saying?
05:49 So, you know, as an artist, I want to put out what I want to be represented and known
05:53 for.
05:54 So that's what I try to do is put out, man, what do I want to jam?
05:56 What do I want to listen to?
05:58 Okay, well, let me, that's the kind of music I'm going to make.
06:00 I'm not going to complain and say, I ain't nobody making this kind of music.
06:03 Well, I'm an artist.
06:04 Why would I complain?
06:05 If I'm a chef and I want to eat some food, I'm going to cook the kind of food I want
06:09 to eat.
06:10 You know, I'm not going to complain to the other, I'm a chef.
06:12 I don't care what the other restaurants is cooking.
06:14 If I'm hungry, I'm going to cook what I want to eat, you know?
06:16 And that's just, as an artist, that's how it is.
06:18 I'm going to make the kind of music that I want to listen to or that people who have
06:22 been fans of me for a long time say that they've been missing or they've been wanting or that
06:26 they say, hey, man, keep making this kind of music because this is what they want.
06:29 This is, and it's not necessarily what gets pushed by the masses, you know?
06:34 So shout out to the underground.
06:36 For sure.
06:37 And thank you for staying authentically yourself in all of this whole transition and everything
06:41 too.
06:42 I mean, I mean, now for sure, ain't tripping if they won't put me on a song, you know what
06:47 I'm saying?
06:48 I'll step out.
06:49 But you know, sometimes you can lose who you are chasing a bag, you know what I'm saying?
06:52 Like I would, you know, if they want to give me a million dollars, go do a song with somebody
06:56 that is way out of, you know, I might do it, but there are some, there are some, you know,
07:01 we do have, we have a venting, a vetting process where we got to vet, you know, we got to make
07:07 sure they ain't got some certain racist things going on in the history.
07:10 You know what I'm saying?
07:11 You gotta be a little cautious sometimes.
07:12 Yeah, you feel me?
07:13 Well, it's just even then, you don't want to be, I don't want to be associated with certain
07:17 people.
07:18 I don't want my, who I am to be, you know what I'm saying?
07:20 With certain, certain things, but you know, definitely man, it's, you know, I look at
07:25 the people who are my heroes, my rap heroes, they've always been authentic to who they
07:29 are.
07:30 So I'm going to follow for sure.
07:32 Okay.
07:33 So next question, you just dropped covered in ice with that Mexican OT.
07:37 And in a few months back, you collabed with him on his song, Johnny Dang, which for many
07:42 people may not know is referencing Johnny Dang, who's a famous jeweler down there in
07:45 Houston, Texas.
07:46 So how did that collab happen?
07:48 And I love that song by the way, too.
07:50 Man, that Mexican OT has been grinding for a long time, putting in work on a regional
07:56 scale or independent scale.
07:59 So a lot of people don't know, you know, what's been bubbling under the scenes, but
08:03 he's got a man, he's got so much talent.
08:07 That song, he actually made that song a while back.
08:10 He just never released it.
08:12 And when they ended up putting me on the song, of course I was like, yeah, yeah.
08:18 He just so happens to be managed by one of my homeboys, B Don, who's a legendary producer
08:23 from Houston, G Luck and B Don, a producer duo.
08:26 You know, he's actually got a lot of production on my next album.
08:29 He's done a lot of production for me over the years, but that's who manages them.
08:33 And one time we were talking and we actually brought it up to him.
08:37 I was like, hey, you know, you think this is before I had met that Mexican OT.
08:42 And I was like, hey, you think he would be down to do a song with me?
08:45 How much would he charge me for a verse?
08:48 You know, because when you are an up and coming artist, this is a thing where, you know, of
08:54 course you got to pay for verses, but there comes a point where maybe you don't charge
08:59 a certain artist for a verse.
09:01 So somebody like that Mexican OT, maybe he was scared to ask me for a verse because he
09:05 thought I was going to charge him.
09:07 At the same token, when you're an up and coming artist and you getting your bag and you selling
09:11 out shows, these are all things that that Mexican OT was doing before the Johnny Dang
09:16 song came out.
09:17 Before the Johnny Dang song came out, he was doing his own tours, got his own merch, got
09:21 sold out shows, got pop ups with a line is around the corner.
09:25 I'm talking about going from city to city.
09:27 I'm talking about hottest fish grease.
09:29 So he did all of these things before we do the Johnny Dang song.
09:34 So for me to ask him to do a song, I almost missed my window of opportunity.
09:40 When you establish artists, you kind of got a window of opportunity, you know, with a
09:45 lot of these up and coming artists, any of these artists to come out of Houston, whether
09:48 it's Megan Thee Stallion, Travis Scott, Lizzo, Max O'Kreem, Tobey Nwigwe, all of these artists
09:56 or that Mexican OT, any of them, you know, there might have been some established artists,
10:01 you know, not maybe maybe their window of opportunity was when those artists were in
10:05 high school.
10:06 Maybe that was maybe that's your only window of opportunity.
10:09 But you do have a window of opportunity to do songs with these people and you put them
10:14 out.
10:15 So when you're an established artist, you usually don't try to do songs with just unknown,
10:19 unknown artists because you like men.
10:21 I know you try a lot of established artists who are, you know, career artists.
10:25 A lot of them just trying to maintain their relevancy.
10:27 So, you know, they don't really look at it sometimes as doing songs with young artists
10:32 or they might only limit a little what they're doing.
10:34 And you never know who's going to blow.
10:37 You know, I don't know who many too many people who could have saw Megan Thee Stallion or
10:41 Travis Scott or Lizzo, Toby, any of these people I'm naming, saw them in high school
10:46 and said, OK, they're going to be the world's biggest superstar.
10:51 You know, that's a that's a huge prediction because even the people most people predict
10:55 like that fizzle out and they don't become that big.
10:58 You know, there are a lot of really talented people.
11:00 Sometimes your talent can get in the way of your success because you feel your effort
11:03 and work don't match your talent.
11:05 And some people with less talent will work harder to overcompensate for their lack of
11:09 talent and that's how they get over the top.
11:12 You know, so you have a hell of a combination of talent and the work, you know, saying,
11:16 hey, look out because they coming.
11:18 But, you know, these artists, you know, saying when you see these artists who are huge major
11:22 artists, there were times when, you know, you might have met them and it could have
11:26 been a that could have been a perfect time to do a song.
11:29 But you miss your window opportunity.
11:30 Now these artists are larger than life.
11:32 They try to do no song with you because they looking at you like, man, I try to do a song
11:36 with you.
11:37 You act like you ain't know me.
11:39 You know, you doodle on me.
11:41 You know, you shit it on me.
11:42 You know, I'm not even going to do no song with you.
11:43 You just trying to ride my coattail, which they not wrong at all in feeling that way.
11:49 It don't always that's not always how it happens.
11:52 You know me, I'm I'm a little thoughtful when it comes to putting out music.
11:55 I don't I don't want to put somebody on it just so I can have them on there and mark
11:58 them off the list.
11:59 Yep.
12:00 I got him on the album.
12:01 I want it to be something, you know, almost magical when we make some some type of music.
12:05 I want it to mean something, not just a checklist of I got him on the album.
12:09 You feel me?
12:10 But some artists will do that.
12:11 Well, they'll just, you know, count up as many artists as they can just so they can
12:14 say, yep.
12:15 And then they'll hold their nuts on and say, yeah, I'm the reason why you pop it.
12:20 I'm the reason why you pop it.
12:22 Just because they were they came out before you did.
12:24 They make you feel like they the reason why you exist or have a fan base when that's not
12:29 it at all.
12:30 So for me to even do a song, I'm mixing.
12:33 There would have been nothing wrong with him saying, yeah, I do a song.
12:36 She was going to be 20 bands.
12:38 Nothing wrong with him saying that.
12:40 So I mean, that's how I got I missed my shot.
12:42 I should have done a song with him a year and a half ago.
12:45 You're still waiting.
12:46 You know, so me asking, be done.
12:49 I mean, how much you think Mexican or to charge me to do a song?
12:53 You know, him saying, man, we was about to ask you.
12:57 We thought you was going to charge us.
12:59 They think it is because that's just how it goes when you on the grind and the rap game.
13:03 Nobody I wouldn't be wrong for charging him the same way he wouldn't be wrong for charging
13:08 me.
13:09 But thankfully, we both on the same page.
13:11 We try to represent for, you know, good hip hop, which we try to represent for Texas.
13:14 We try to put music together.
13:16 We try to combine a fan base is me a little older fan, more age fan base him over a little
13:21 fresher fan base.
13:22 You know, so we try to bring all of that together and pass the torch around.
13:26 Keep it lit because I didn't I didn't like the torch.
13:29 I might have held it for a little bit, but I definitely you know, we play around with
13:33 that torch.
13:34 Now, one of us lit it.
13:35 You feel me?
13:36 Maybe look, he might, you know, Scarface.
13:38 They might be the ones who will be.
13:40 They lit the torch.
13:41 But we can't really know.
13:42 We I like the torch.
13:43 I'm just carrying it, passing it around.
13:45 So any of that for me to still be in that circle of the round robin, the passing the
13:49 torch around, you know, is something you uphold.
13:52 You know, these are, you know, different set of rap morals you adhere to when you in that
13:57 in that circle of, you know, the generations that come after you and the ones that came
14:00 before you, how you represent for them.
14:03 So for us to get in there and do that song, Johnny Dang, man, I don't think either one
14:09 of us thought it was going to go gold.
14:10 And it went crazy.
14:12 Like once it hit, it was everywhere.
14:14 And I was like, oh, shit, like, you know, actually, what Johnny Dang actually was like
14:20 the third song we did together.
14:22 First another song together, we went in the studio, did a song.
14:26 And then it was like, OK, I got a song from my album I want you to get on to.
14:30 And then, you know, for me, the Great Wall, the one he did.
14:32 And then, you know, right in the mix of that was like, hey, you know, we got this other
14:36 song, Johnny Dang.
14:38 We think, you know, you might sound good on you.
14:40 You know, of course, I'm gonna get on every song you send me, of course.
14:43 Or you got me pull up to the studio, I'm pulling up every time.
14:46 So, you know, when we did the song, that's when it was like, OK, it really took out,
14:52 man.
14:53 Say, man, shout out to that Mexican O2.
14:54 Shout out to Johnny Shipes.
14:55 Johnny Shipes really put a lot into it, too.
14:56 He really he's the one who really kind of was like, nah, man, you need to get on Johnny
15:01 Dang.
15:02 Johnny Dang, you need to, this the one.
15:03 And of course, so, you know, it's a man, I got another plaque on the wall.
15:08 What it do?
15:09 And that's all that matters.
15:10 So on the topic of Johnny Dang, so when fans think of grills in Texas, the first people
15:17 to come to mind are you and him, of course.
15:19 So how does it feel that you and him kind of like, well, pretty much popularized grills
15:23 for this generation.
15:24 And they're like, how did your relationship go from there?
15:28 It feels great, man.
15:29 Me, I started off as a customer for grills, even selling grills.
15:32 The only reason why I sold grills was to hook my friends up.
15:35 It wasn't ever to make money or, you know, have a, you know, saying just, you know, grow
15:39 an empire and sell world grills worldwide to everybody or birth the next generation
15:46 of jewelers to sell grills, which is all something that is amazing to see the same way Johnny
15:51 Dang gave me my start, you know, to really sell grills like that is the same way he gives
15:56 other jewelers their start every single day.
15:59 He has, you know, almost a thousand hosts.
16:01 It may be not quite that many, but he has a lot of wholesale accounts worldwide of jewelers
16:07 that, you know, are in their various city where they're selling grills or jewelry of
16:12 any type.
16:13 And it comes essentially from Johnny.
16:16 That same opportunity he gave me, he gives to other people.
16:19 So it's amazing.
16:20 You know, I have a big salute to my boy, Johnny Dang for, you know, for giving me that opportunity.
16:26 One of course, like I said, to help build an empire off of this, but also just to, you
16:29 know, I think back to all the doors that opened for me and my music, you know, the grills
16:34 was never a job that I wanted or a career goal.
16:38 It was just something I enjoyed.
16:39 It'd be like, you know, I love Cadillacs.
16:41 So if I can get a discount on Cadillacs, I'm gonna go work at the dealership.
16:45 Well, hey, I talked to my boy Storm, who's the GM at Central Houston Cadillac all the
16:51 time about the AC band.
16:52 If I can move it, what's the minimum I gotta work?
16:55 Same way I talked to, you know, the Astros about say, what's the minimum amount of hours
17:00 I gotta work to be an employee to get a ring when we went to wear a series, you know what
17:06 I'm saying?
17:07 What job was the, was the job, any of those jobs open?
17:10 Well, that's the job I want to apply for.
17:12 So you know what I'm saying?
17:13 So I could get, that's why I started selling grills in the whole first place.
17:17 So me continue to be a customer of grills or, you know, it's like, of course, I'm gonna
17:23 keep selling them as long as I'm buying them.
17:25 I'm gonna keep selling them as long as my partners want them or, you know, but like
17:29 I say, with the doors that are open for me in music, you know what I'm saying?
17:32 There might've been artists that maybe, you know, like I say, when you are established
17:36 artists, sometimes you don't give other artists really a chance, but if they gonna hook you
17:41 up with some grills or, cause even those days it wasn't even hook them up with free grills
17:46 or a discount.
17:47 It was just that to be able to sell them grills in general, cause there weren't that many
17:52 jewelers period, they were selling grills and the jewelers that did sell grills, they
17:57 were, you know, more so like in the flea markets or swap meets, they didn't have brick and
18:01 mortar big night stores.
18:03 Those types of jewelers didn't touch grills.
18:04 They didn't want to sell grills.
18:06 The jewelers that sold grills were a little more hood or, you know what I'm saying?
18:09 Off the radar a little bit.
18:10 You know, so for me to be a mobile grill salesman, well, me and Johnny, we're going to come to
18:15 you.
18:16 Where you at?
18:17 We're going to come to you.
18:18 We still do that to this day.
18:19 It's something that, you know what I'm saying?
18:21 It's amazing to be a part of, you know, to see that, you know what I'm saying?
18:27 And of course the song grills came, you know, came from it.
18:30 It was a huge billboard for us and for every jeweler that sells grills.
18:33 You know, that's the other thing is that, you know, the higher and the bigger the Johnny
18:37 gets, it's like all jewelers, you know, get bigger as well.
18:40 So a big shout out to my boy Johnny, definitely the number one, number one grill jeweler in
18:45 the entire planet, all time in the universe, in the history of the universe.
18:50 Definitely.
18:51 Okay.
18:52 So how do you feel about the current state of the Houston rap scene?
18:58 I love the current state of the Houston rap scene.
19:00 The biggest part of it that I love is the fan base is so diverse.
19:05 Being that there's a diverse fan base of the Houston rap scene that allows every branch
19:10 of the Houston tree to flourish.
19:12 Now, if there was only fans of one particular style, then you would only see one particular
19:18 style of artists or music flourishing.
19:21 But being that there's so many different fans, you know, that are diverse, you can see Don
19:27 Folliver just shining on them.
19:29 You know, you can see Mona Leo going hard in the paint with it.
19:34 You can see all of that Mexican OT and all the other artists, D-Baby, just really going
19:40 hard on another level.
19:42 But it all boils back to the fan base of it.
19:45 And it's a Houston fan base, but I would say it's bigger than that because maybe the Houston
19:52 artists, even though some of the artists aren't from Houston, like Bum B from Port Arthur,
19:57 you know he's been living in Houston forever.
19:59 Sometimes he's still a Houston artist.
20:01 That Mexican OT, he's from Bay City, but he still kind of gets grouped in as being a Houston
20:05 artist.
20:06 Or DJ Chose, being from just outside of Houston, he's still getting...
20:12 The fan base though is more Texas, you know, anywhere in Texas from the Rio Grande Valley
20:18 to Amarillo, Odessa to Beaumont Orange, Golden Triangle, Port Arthur out there to El Paso,
20:26 all over Texas.
20:27 The Texas fan base is what really is the heart blood that really supports and enables any
20:33 of us to do our thing.
20:35 You know, from San Antonio, Corpus Christi, all down there to the DFW Metroplex, Central
20:40 Texas in Austin, and everywhere in between.
20:45 You know, it's a lot of in-between towns that we really, as a Texas artist, this is a true
20:50 blessing as a Texas artist.
20:52 We can travel throughout the state of Texas only for our whole career, and we can tour
20:57 every week of the year and only tour the cities in Texas and never have to do the same city
21:03 twice.
21:04 That's 52 cities.
21:05 We got, definitely got...
21:07 I'm talking about when you really boil down to the Brenham and everywhere, Huntsville,
21:12 Madisonville, everywhere in between, we got a lot of cities in Texas where we can tour.
21:17 So as long as they are supporting the Texas music that comes out, and you know, even though
21:22 the artists, you know, like I said, the artists, the Dallas artists now, like I said, are really
21:26 starting to flourish where you're really seeing them take hold.
21:30 And that's where we really need to cross support, where there's Dallas people in Texas.
21:35 You go to the club and you say, "Dallas is where I would cliff at," they're going to
21:38 be loud as hell.
21:39 You say, "Fort Worth or in the house," they're going to be loud as hell in Houston, because
21:42 there's a lot of D.F.
21:43 Joe people that live in Houston, whether they moved down here for work, went to school down
21:47 here and stayed down here, or whatever, for whatever reason.
21:51 They down here represent the same way you go to Dallas or any of the major cities in
21:55 Houston.
21:56 You know what I'm saying?
21:57 So we got to cross-pollinate with how we support each other, you know what I'm saying, so that
22:01 it can keep flourishing the way that it is, so that we can have Sauce Walker take over
22:06 the world and really just bring a whole new, fresh take on the Texas sound and flavor,
22:13 and just really bring it and just wipe the whole world, the whole globe with it.
22:18 Because of the foundation that he had coming out of Texas and representing Texas from the
22:24 Texas fan base, you see all of these different type of artists just really, really take off.
22:29 But even with us, from the 2000 generation of artists, why did we have so much success
22:35 on a nationwide scale?
22:37 Well, it's because we had so much support and so much success on a local, regionalized
22:43 scale to where when we took that next step, our core foundation was there.
22:47 They were already ready, we were tuned in, we were, you know what I'm saying, the engagement
22:52 was there.
22:53 So, you know, shout out to all the fans that support and make the whole Texas sound just
22:59 possible at all, period.
23:02 That's great.
23:03 So are there any Houston rappers that remind you of the OGs, like Pimp C, Zero, Bun B,
23:11 even yourself, because you're considered an OG now, so.
23:15 There definitely are.
23:16 You know, some of them, it's with the style maybe of how their voice sounds.
23:20 Some of it might be their cadence or how they deliver things or how they, you know, some
23:24 of it might be their song topic where if they're, you know, some of it might be the production
23:29 style where they're incorporating certain styles of production that, you know, maybe
23:33 UGK used to incorporate.
23:34 So that's why it kind of reminds you, you know what I'm saying?
23:37 There's definitely some, I don't want to say their names because I don't want to offend
23:41 them because then it feel like they're trying to copy nobody.
23:43 But, you know, I would just definitely say that when I hear new artists that sound like
23:48 an older artist, I don't think that's an insult.
23:52 I think it's a compliment, you know what I'm saying?
23:54 As a fan of it, I like to hear the new artists sound sometimes like the old artists because
24:00 it's, you know, it's nostalgia.
24:01 It brings it back to, you know, representation of where they're from or what they represent
24:06 in general when they're doing that.
24:08 Where sometimes you see somebody, at the same time, you see somebody come where they don't
24:12 sound like anybody, that also can, you know, be fresh because then it's like, okay, they're
24:17 not sounding like nobody, but they still sound like us.
24:19 They might not sound like nobody else, but they still sound like us where they represent
24:24 us and you can hear where they're from in their music.
24:27 You know, you definitely, you can hear it and it's something to be proud of.
24:31 I don't want to say no names though, but definitely man, shout out to the artists.
24:35 I mean, I say me every time I ever get on the mic, I'm trying to sound like Lil Kiki
24:39 and Slim Thug.
24:40 Any verse you ever heard me say, I'm trying to sound like Lil Kiki and Slim Thug.
24:46 If I ever get, and some advice for anybody out there, hey, if you ever get writer's block,
24:50 you can't come up with a, say, man, think of your favorite rapper or hear the beat and
24:55 say, man, who would sound good on this beat?
24:56 And say, man, what would they say?
24:58 And then you say it.
24:59 That's what I do.
25:00 Anytime you hear me and the rest of you hear a song like "Swingin' in the Rain" and you
25:04 say, man, it sounds like Lil Kiki.
25:05 Yup, it do, because I was trying to sound like Lil Kiki.
25:08 You know what I'm saying?
25:09 Big shout out to my mentor, big bro, the greatest rapper of all time, Lil Kiki.
25:13 Big shout out to Lil Kiki.
25:14 There's nothing wrong with sounding like somebody else, man.
25:17 You know, definitely, you know what I'm saying?
25:18 Shout out to the young rappers that's representing that.
25:22 That's what's up.
25:23 So to pivot into our last question, you brought up Slim Thug and this brings up the debate.
25:30 It's been on social media and everything.
25:33 Still tipping.
25:34 It's a debate on who has the best verse on "Still Tipping."
25:37 Who do you think has the best verse between you, Slim, and Mike Jones?
25:42 I mean, well, you know, I would say it is, you know, it actually, it gets diversified
25:52 because then they bring up Chameleon Air's verse, but I would say if you play Chameleon
25:57 Air's verse, you got to do it on Chameleon Air's beat too, which definitely is a different
26:00 feel.
26:01 And then you hear all of J. Cole or anyone else who's, you know, done a freestyle over
26:06 it, maybe put them into the mix of it too.
26:09 And then, you know, of course you see other people like Yung Poodle who maybe have remixed
26:13 the beat or NLE Choppa who did it recently or all of the other artists who've done it
26:17 who maybe have, you know, remixed the beat a little bit.
26:21 But even if you, I mean, I still think, you know, the cream of the crop is still the cream
26:24 of the crop no matter who you put on it, no matter what rapper you ever put on that list
26:28 ever.
26:29 I think it's still going to be the top.
26:31 Even personally, you know, I would remove myself from it, even though people always
26:37 tell me I got the best verse, the best verse, the EV, I don't know, but I would remove myself.
26:42 I think your verse is the best in Thug's.
26:46 My personal favorite is Slim Thug because of the nostalgia of his original verse where
26:53 the hook sample came from.
26:55 When I hear it, that's what I think of.
26:57 And even his verse that he spit is a 2003, 2004 remake, remix of the original verse that
27:05 he did to the freestyle where the sample for the hook came from.
27:09 So there's a huge nostalgia factor with me for Slim Thug.
27:12 Now, just saying, token, Mike Jones has a lot of quotables in his verse.
27:18 Both Mike Jones, myself, and Slim Thug, you know, parts of our verses have been sampled,
27:22 you know what I'm saying, throughout the years for other songs.
27:25 That's another thing you got to take into account sometimes.
27:27 Well, you know, this person has been sampled, if you will.
27:29 All of us have been sampled a few times.
27:32 I don't know, you know, I personally would have to go with Slim Thug just because of
27:37 the nostalgia factor, but I wouldn't be mad personally if you put me three and you put
27:43 any Mike Jones and Slim Thug one or two, either one of those, I wouldn't be mad at that at
27:47 all because my boys came with it.
27:50 My boys definitely came with it.
27:51 But I mean, we all know who went the hardest.
27:54 We all know who went the hardest, you know what I'm saying.
27:59 But definitely, wherever you put me on that list, I ain't mad at all because it's a hell
28:03 of a list.
28:04 It is.
28:05 So this was fun.
28:06 I appreciate you so much for taking the time out of your day to interview with So.
28:11 Thank you for having me.
28:12 Definitely.
28:13 Thank you for having me.
28:14 Great to see you.
28:15 Great to meet you.
28:16 Definitely.
28:17 Can't wait to see you again.
28:18 For sure.
28:19 We're going to run this back.
28:20 So.
28:21 You are watching SOHH.com.
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