Paul Wall “Get Money, Stay True”

1. Get Your Paper Up (FT. Yung Redd)

Mr. Lee made the beat and we just went in the studio. My boy Yung Redd came up with the chorus and you know it’s just about getting on the grind and getting money. It was the concept of the album you know, getting money and staying true.

2. Everybody Know Me (FT. Snoop Dogg)

That was another one that Yung Redd came up with the chorus to. T Farris came up with it because he was like "everyone know you Paul, no matter what age they are." Old people know me, people you would have no idea know who I am. First, it was me on all three verses, but T Farris was like "everyone know Snoop too, so why not get him on the album." We reached out to Snoop and he did the song for us the next day. One of my favorite lines on the song is that Snoop say "I’m the only rapper known by your grandmother" and that’s exactly how we felt about getting Snoop on the album.

3. Break Em’ Off (FT. Lil Keke)

We took the sample from one of my favorite freestyles that Lil Keke ever did. It was from an old Screw tape, the part where he said "I’m a break ‘em off real bad" and I loved that because that’s what we was gonna do with the album. Mr. Lee produced the beat, T Farris came in and contributed to it, and Lil Keke and me just came in and did our thing lyrically.

4. I’m Throwed (FT. Jermaine Dupri)

We recorded that in Atlanta with Jermaine Dupri and he let us hear a couple of tracks. He asked me what the album was about; we was talking and kickin’ it for a minute. We talked about the concept of the album, what type of songs we trying to do, and that I wanted a monster beat. I wanted a mean track like "Grillz" and he said, "hold on right quick," went in the other room, came back like 5 minutes later, and came up with something that quick. I told him that it was throwed and he asked what that meant and I told him. He put all the definitions of throwed and put it in the chorus and it fit right in perfect. I loved it because with the screwed & chopped choruses being so popular, the way that he switched it up where he was having half of it screwed and half of it regular I never heard anything like that before, so it was a lot of fun doing it. The track and the chorus was so jammin’, I couldn’t go wrong no matter what I said on the song.

5. Call Me What U Want (FT. Yung Redd and E-Class)

It was on the album "The Day Hell Broke Loose, Vol. 3" and it was one of my favorite songs on the album. E-Class and Yung Red they both did their thing and killed the song. I came in and did my verse, dealing with people who be hatin’ on ya. You can call me what you want, just make sure it ain’t broke.

6. On The Grind (FT. Freeway and Crys Wall)

It was a song that when I heard it I wanted to do something on it because Mr. Lee did some hellafied production on there man. When I heard it, it made me want to do something different. It made me want to do my rhyme scheme a little bit different, it made me want to talk about some different things. My wife came in, she sung on the track, she helped me write the chorus, and we did it. It sounded like something that Freeway would rip. I think T Farris came up with the idea to get Freeway on there.

7. Bangin Screw

Bangin Screw was a song that Gee Roberson came up with. He came down to contribute and these are one of the beats that he had came up with. A guy named Aaddict produced it. He brought me the track and he wanted me to do something to it. The chorus that was there at first was a little bit different; it’s not the chorus that you hear on the album. When we do the screwed & chopped hooks, we don’t lay it; we do it a little bit different. We don’t lay the hook and then put an effect to it. We come up with an old sample of something that was said, and then we mix it in and screw it. Usually Michael Watts mixes it in, but this one was done a little bit different. At first I was a little hesitant because the way the chorus was it wasn’t a Houston style song and you could tell because Aaddict was on the chorus and you can tell that he wasn’t from Houston. Gee was like "why don’t you flip the chorus around a little bit?" So I changed it around a little bit and threw some Houston stuff in it. I liked how it sounded then and when Aaddict went back and said it again it just came together and was jammin’ like a muthafucka. T Farris and Gee Roberson was like just freestyle to it and that what I did. I shouted out a of of my partners, and talked about a lot of stuff that’s going on in the hood. It turned out to be one of the best tracks on the album.

8. How Gangstas Roll (FT. Crys Wall)

It’s another one I heard that Mr. Lee made. When I heard it I was like "man this track is just jammin’!" and every time I heard it I just had it on repeat and I just wanted to keep jammin’ to it. When I heard it, it reminded me of ridin’ in my lac, top down, seat back. Everything on the chorus is just reminding me of what I heard when I heard the beat. I can’t sing and I originally wanted to have Z-Ro come through and sing it, but he ended up being in jail, so he couldn’t get him to do it. I can’t sing for nothing, so I wasn’t even gonna play myself like that. My wife was there and she had the idea of me just rappin’ it and her singing it in the background. That’s how it ended up on the album and it was a nice fit. My wife was on it singing "I’m throwed" and she did her thing on there.

9. That Fire (FT. Trina)

It was just a chorus that I came up with. My wife used to always tease me about it by saying she had that fire. I decided to make a song about that, having that fire, and that good shit. It was me talking about my wife and how she got that good after she get under the covers. Originally I had three verses to it, but T Farris kept saying that it sounded like it was something up Trina’s alley and something that she would wreck and sure enough she wrecked it.

10. Tonight (FT. Jon B)

Jon B came through to Houston to get me on a song and while we were recording that song, my wife was in the studio, Keke was in there coming up with some stuff for his album, and we heard the song, my wife and Lil Keke came up with the chorus for the song "Tonight" and Jon B just killed it. It’s another one of those songs that I can put on repeat and jam about 30 times straight and never get tired.

11. Gimme That

T Farris brought me the track and Drumma Boy produced it. T Farris asked what I thought about the track and I thought it was jammin’. We rode around for a while and I kept coming up with choruses and every time I wrote a chorus it kept getting a little bit better. T Farris would tell me he liked this part or likes that part and he pretty much was coaching me. I loved how it turned out and T Farris loved it too. I went to the Grid Iron with my boy Pretty Todd and laid it down and recorded.

12. I’m Real, What Are You? (FT. Juelz Santana)

That was a song that my boy KLC had. Fiend had did a chorus at first saying "I’m a real money maker, what are you" and T Farris was like you should say "I’m a real muthafucka, what are you" instead of saying "I’m a real money maker." That’s what we did and we laid it like that. My boy Juelz Santana came and laid a verse on it and there you have it.

13. I Ain’t Hard To Find

That was another beat that my boy Mr. Lee had produced and Gee Roberson had heard it and loved the beat. He asked if I wanted to do something to it and I while on the way to LA I wrote to it. One of my homeboys Lew Hawk always had a different style and his rhyme pattern would always be a little different. How he approach the track he might be a little off beat, but he never rushes his stuff when he raps. He says how he says it regardless of how the beat was going and I kind of took that from him and just ran with it. My rhyming pattern was a little bit different, so I told Mr. Lee when he mixes it down to screw my ad-libs. I got the idea from "I’m Throwed."

14. Slidin’ On That Oil (FT. Expensive Taste)
It was one of the first songs that my group Expensive Taste had recorded and I already said that I got to put one of our songs on the album and introduce the world to our group. We recorded the song at Travis Barker’s studio in LA and it’s one of my favorite songs.

Paul Wall on recording "Get Money, Stay True"

It was a lot of fun man, a whole lot of fun. We just went to the studio, did our thing musically, we kept an open mind for criticism with each other. We had an ultimate goal in mind to come up with the best album lyrically, musically, production wise, and feature wise. We had an open mind on everything and after a couple of months of recording; we got into the swing of things. About 6-7 months later, you got a hell of an album on hand.