Paul Wall & DJ.Contemporary Speak The Tonite Present, Hip-Hop, Drake

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 20 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 just lately, Paul linked up with Oakland, Calif., producer DJ.Contemporary for the album The Tonite Present, the newest version to Contemporary’s collab challenge collection. Paul and Contemporary sit down with XXL for Speak It Up, powered by DistroKid, for an unique interview to speak about their new challenge and hip-hop.

DJ.Contemporary Invitations Paul Wall to Be part of The Tonite Present

DJ.Contemporary began his The Tonite Present collection in 2004, and has carried out joint tasks with a cornucopia of artists like Freddie Gibbs, Curren$y, Raekwon, Trae Tha Reality 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 like DJ.Contemporary,” Paul says of their working relationship. “He simply brings life into the tracks. When he sends me the beats, they communicate to you. It is like he is transmitting a frequency from one other universe.”

DJ.Contemporary recorded your entire 13-song album on analog tape and recorded Paul’s vocals on SSL in addition to used actual musicians to accentuate manufacturing. It exhibits on the cohesive challenge of Southern grownup up to date hip-hop. In 2020, Contemporary realized music concept. 5 years later, he is within the high 10 p.c of keyboardists within the business.

Paul Wall and DJ.Contemporary Have Been Placing in Work

Contemporary has been placing in work in hip-hop since he was 9 years outdated. “I’ve a saying: The good 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 dashing it. We simply trusting it. The extra you do work for it, the extra it would give you the results you want.”

The rapper plans on doing this till he is 80. “It is wonderful that you just’re not boxed in the place you need to do that, you need to sound like this and if 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 robust, the leaves are robust, the fruit that comes from them are robust, 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 change into a spot the place some enormous rappers who hail from different states are actually calling house. A-list celebrities like 50 Cent and Drake have just lately purchased native residences and been noticed round city.

“We find it irresistible. Houston has not sometimes been recognized as a metropolis the place celebrities would come transfer to outdoors 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 might be exhibiting like to Houston, transferring to Houston, hell yeah, I find it irresistible.”

Learn Extra: July 2025 New Music Releases

Along with their new challenge, which will be heard beneath, Paul and Contemporary focus on what’s subsequent, taking The Tonite Present on the highway, the recording course of, Drake and 50 Cent residing in Houston, automobile tradition and extra within the video. Test it out.

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