Paul Wall: The Peoples Champ : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

For a fella who claims that he only raps to promote his jewelry business, Paul Wall has picked a fine time to open his mouth. All eyes are on the rapper-producer's hometown of Houston, thanks in no small part to the track "Still Tippin' " -- Mike Jones' hit single featuring Slim Thug and Wall, which has spent the past year supersaturating the national consciousness. Like any regional music scene that blows up, H-town hip-hop arrives fully formed with its own choice accessory (icy grille), drug of preference (cough syrup), slang vocabulary ("chunk the deuce") and sound (real slow). The People's Champ is Wall's ready-made winner of a major-label debut, relentlessly celebrating all these key traits.

Album opener "I'm a Playa" finds the twenty-four-year-old, born Paul Slayton, cataloging his wares: "I got a deep freezer up on my neck/And sno-cones up in my ears/An ice tray up in my mouth/I'm looking something like a chandelier." Wall's deadpan sense of humor repeatedly redeems his less-than-compelling rhyme flow. "Internet Going Nutz" finds Wall meeting a girl in a chat room who's eaten too many Almond Joys and "e-mailed me this old picture, before she had a baby boy." "Sittin' Sidewayz" spots Wall "on the block, posted up like a mailbox," as the song's monstrously squelchy synth line and trunk-rattling bass kick make it an instant classic.

The album's back third drops off: For one, Wall comes off corny as a Lothario on "Girl." But if Wall hasn't made the Houston-rap album of the year -- Jones' masterful Who Is Mike Jones? gets that honor -- he's certainly made the album of the moment: The People's Champ is a quality option for both sizzurp obsessives and casual fans.