If people were still handing out invites to “the cookout,” Paul Wall would be near the top of the list. In a recent interview, the Houston rapper revealed when he learned he was white. Although the 43-year-old grew up in a diverse community and always loved Hip-Hop culture he didn’t have a full grasp of racial identity until middle school.
“I didn’t know I was white ’til white people told me I was white,” he told The Breakfast Club. “They was like, ‘You white. Why you talk and act like that? You white. And I’m like, what do you mean?’”
Evidently, this reality never crossed his mind due to the variety of people that were around him. “I mean, all my friends were Black or Mexican or Asian,” he asserted. “I lived in a very diverse neighborhood. There were white people there, but it was Mexican, Black, Vietnamese, Indian … A lot of everything.” He claimed that his mother did an ancestry test and learned she was 3% African-American, but asserted it was not enough for either her or him to say the N-word.
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Despite learning and accepting his race, Paul Wall still drew influence from the Black rappers he enjoyed such as Big Pokey, Big Moe, and Mr. Scarface. “I never thought of it like this is something I shouldn’t be doing,” he told Complex in 2020. “Because even though white rappers were out, I wasn’t following them. No disrespect intended, I just didn’t follow that lane, I followed this one.”
Wall’s decision worked out well for him, and he’s delivered hits like “Sittin’ Sidewayz,” “Grillz,” “Drive Slow,” “Still Tippin’,” and more. These days, he’s still churning out music to this day and released his newest album, Once Upon A Grind, last week. The 12-song effort features Slim Keke, Lil’ Keke, Z-Ro, Freeway, Big K.R.I.T, and more.
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