(November 1, 2005) — With bass thicker than cough syrup, time-stopping tempos and laid-down hooks with that all too familiar H-Town (Houston) element, Paul Wall has once again stepped up his rep with the Swishahouse crew. He has made waves in the American hip hop community ever since people began noticing the hook that Wall laid down on fellow Houstonian and labelmate Mike Jones’ “Still Tippin” and his 20 karat “ice grille” embedded in his teeth. Following his 2004 release Chick Magnet, Wall has made an original recipe better with the highly anticipated 2005 release, The People’s Champ , keeping it in the same slowed tempos and trunk-booming bass that made Houston the new home for lowriders, ice grilles and a growing rap movement that people call “screwed and chopped.” Despite his race, as another white rapper in an African-American-dominated league, Wall has left mentioning of his own color out of the equation rather than capitalizing off it, proving that as long as you can spit, you’re in the game. In fact Wall’s verbal skills put him in the spotlight, his rap distinctively characterized by his low southern drawl but with clear articulation. For instance, it is apparent in tracks like “Sittin’ Sidewayz” which contrasts guest MC Big Pokey’s “lean”-based slur. Also included as guests on The Peoples Champ are rappers T.I., Bun B, Three 6 Mafia, Freeway and the acclaimed Kanye West. The People’s Champ itself is a blazing testament of Houston-based rap, which has remained underground for most of its history. The People’s Champ is the definitive Houston LP to bump: it is with Houston legend, DJ Screw’s stylistics of thick, viscous viscous trunk “poppin” bass, Houston slang (swangaz, vogues, lean, slabs, etc.), and much mention of Wall’s jewelry catalog (“I’ve got a deep freezer up in my mouth and sno cones up in my ear”). As New York fathered the precursors of hip hop and rap, Los Angeles gave it the “gangsta” element and elaborated on the George Clinton/ P-Funk beat, and Atlanta had made it into anthem, Houston has given rap its own signature, which can’t be better said than “chopped and screwed.”