With the music industry flooded with Youtube videos and fake beefs, it seems the use of a gimmick is no longer an option. But Southern rapper Paul Wall says he will never bow to the pressure, regardless of how it might improve his record sales.
According to Wall, he's always used the industry to build relationships and puts his focus on making a quality product.
"It just seems like the music industry revolves around hype, it don't seem like it revolves around music anymore," he said in an interview with iHipHop. "I've built my career around making good music, building relationships up, and going out there to put in real work ... I've never tried to build hype, or use a gimmick, or anything like that. If I did, I'd probably have way more record sales, but for me to have longevity, I feel like I have to put out good music...You see artists like LL Cool J and Snoop [Dogg] and it seems like they've been in the game forever. You see rock artists like ZZ Top, and they're d*mn near 70 still going on tour and I don't see why rappers can't do the same thing. I want to be on tour at 70 too, I love music. So hopefully I'll be able to do this for another 50 years."
Wall's perseverance has seemed to pay off, as he has also been seeing profit from his grills business despite the fickle economy.
"Oh yeah it's definitely been slow," he said in a previous interview with SOHH. "All around the mall stores are closing down. One thing though, sports and entertainment are still thriving so there's still movie stars and athletes. They still got two commas coming on their pay check everytime so they come up in the mall and ball out like it ain't a recession. So we get to receive those benefits here and there."
- By Erin T. McMillon
