ARTSETC.
‘Dear Paul’: Letter to rapper for awful album
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Also by Andy Paschen:
- Acting bone-solid in 'Fracture' (April 23, 2007)
- 'Dear Paul': Letter to rapper for awful album (April 17, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Release captures live-show energy (December 6, 2004)
- Reverberated masterpieces (December 6, 2001)
- Kweli still impressing listeners (December 14, 2005)
- Agreeable Air album lacks substance (March 9, 2007)
- Sean Paul creates average album (November 7, 2005)
by Andy Paschen
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Dear Mr. Wall,
After listening to your sophomore album Get Money, Stay True, it is obvious that an intervention needs to be held on behalf of the hip-hop community. Your fellow MC, Nas, claimed hip-hop was dead on his last album, and it's now clear albums like Get Money, Stay True should be rounded up and questioned about the killing.
We understand that between promoting SwishaHouse records, designing custom grills and detailing cars, you may not have enough time to devote to your music, but we must insist you stop making music altogether if it is going to be this bad. The rap coming out of Houston, your hometown, has been riding a wave of successful artists like Chamillionaire, Slim Thug, Lil' Flip and Mike Jones, but Get Money, Stay True is an album H-Town will want to forget.
In every way possible, your album fails to meet even the lowest standards of your genre, standards that regrettably have been on the decline as of late. The production was forgettable; each song was so similar to the one before it that it was hard to determine when one song ended and the next began. To say that your lines were recycled would be like calling the ocean damp. There is no possible way you could have made it more clear that "you on your grind." The number of times you referred to money — whether you called it bread, dough, stacks, bank, paper or our new favorite, ching — dominated your cookie-cutter lyrics.
Throughout the album, you ridiculously likened yourself to various characters including, but not limited to, NBA players Steve Kerr and Yao Ming, resident monsters Godzilla and King Kong, real and fictional boxers "Sugar" Shane Mosely and Clubber Lang, Major Payne, Albert Einstein and magician David Blaine. But in truth, after listening to this turd of an album, it seems evident you have more in common with Milli Vanilli or Paris Hilton.
The only redeemable parts of the album were those performed by prominent featured guests. Jermaine Dupri's production on "I'm Throwed" and Snoop Dogg's guest lines on "Everybody Know Me" represented all of the handful of minutes that were remotely tolerable. With "Tonight," we are given the obligatory thug love song, and if lines like "love makin' under the sheets make the mission complete" are the best you can come up with, we highly doubt that you are much of a romantic in your personal life. Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker guest produces "Slidin' on The Oil," on which rapper Expensive Talent displays an awful voice that can best be described as some sort of whisper-yelling. The single, "Break 'em Off," is one of the few beats with potential, but unfortunately you are unable to do enough with it to prevent the song from joining the countless others that will be forgotten almost as soon as they are heard.
Look, it's nothing personal — you are not the first person to set new lows in the hip-hop community, and your previous work with other artists like Kanye West, Nelly and Mike Jones wasn't bad. We understand that this specific type of hip-hop has its place in the genre and that music can be devoid of meaning or substance yet still be considered to have quality. But Get Money, Stay True at its best points sounds like it was mailed in, with beats and lyrics that have been heard a thousand times before and at its worst, a disgrace to the city of Houston and to us, the hip-hop community. Undoubtedly, this will not be the last time your name will grace the front of CD covers, and we can only hope for all of our sakes that next time you will pull yourself away from your other enterprises and try a little harder.
Sincerely,
The Hip-Hop Community
Grade: 1 out of 5
Anonymous (April 17, 2007 @ 5:22am):
"Expensive Taste" is the name of the group consisting of Paul Wall, Skinhead Rob, and Travis Barker....
Anonymous (April 17, 2007 @ 8:05am):
ok this is absurd
this album is the best of the year so far as far as commercial releases are concerned - better than Buck the World, I Need Mine, Rich Boy, etc.
yes, it has its filler, but dude, I was very impressed with the production
7.5/10
Anonymous (April 17, 2007 @ 1:35pm):
I love snotty backpacker college kids trying to tell guys like Paul Wall what hip-hop is.
Look, I don't like the album either, but I don't like hip-hop cops even more.
Sitting there and calling out music that millions of hip-hop fans enjoy, especially in such a smug, nerdy way, just because it doesn't meet your little def jux expectations, is the reason you will never be real hip-hop.
Anonymous (April 25, 2007 @ 9:59am):
Paul Wall is terrible and should never rap again
Anonymous (April 25, 2007 @ 10:24am):
Thank You!! I can't believe cats on here are actualy defending Paul Wall's retarded ass.
If you like him or his music, KILL YOURSELF
Anonymous (April 25, 2007 @ 10:28am):
very legitimate. why don't we expect these guys (paul wall, mike jones, who?) to ever change their sound? they give me nothing new to think about, and i choose not to download any of their singles or albums, and i sure as hell will not be kopping get money stay true on LP. If music is your profession you should be committed to changing it, growing it. there is nothing unique about this album, i probably heard it in my mind long before it was even out.
I'm on my grind too, but when i listen to music, i'd rather not be reminded of it continually on an entire album that sounds just like everything else swishahouse.
peace, love, The Gap...standards are dropping all over
miguel viezcas (April 25, 2007 @ 11:30am):
just like ive been sayin the whole time...paul and mike make music about cars, money, jewelry etc....they cant talk about anything else...always repeating their lyrics..now chamillionaire in the other hand is the best rapper out there cause he has different styles and is a real lyricist
Anonymous (April 26, 2007 @ 3:50am):
"ok this is absurd
this album is the best of the year so far as far as commercial releases are concerned - better than Buck the World, I Need Mine, Rich Boy, etc."
No, that's absurd. Better than Consequence, Prodigy, Joell Ortiz, Redman? We're talking just mainstream right? Cause with Black Milk added to that list it's over.
Even if I agreed with you about this album being the best comemrcial release this year that's still not a reason to give it a good review. HipHop doesn't have to swallow shit sandwiches just because there's even worse crap out there. There is no valid reason to accept mediocrity.
Anonymous (April 26, 2007 @ 6:55pm):
First of all, as a person in college, I think it's the stupidest thing anyone claiming to love hip-hop could say when you go on about "snotty backpacker college kids" analyzing the music we all love. Don't be an idiot. If increasing knowledge decreases membership priviliges in this community, then the community will die.
Also, Paul Wall's album was not horrible to everyone. It was only bad to people who have more than thought over the course of the hour that it takes to listen to his CD. It all comes down to one thing with him and with most of the other mainstream H-town rappers: Money. Get out there and explore with your money, you'll see that there is more out there to talk about.
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