After the originators spent years fighting an intellectual battle over their legitimacy, the latest generation of southern rappers are crossing-over with little resistance. The success has become a double-edged swords for long-time fans, however, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a song that isn’t about a dance or how awesome Lil Wayne [click to read] is. Nevertheless, some of the guys who put the third coast on the map are still active and Texas hall-of-famer Paul Wall [click to read] is among them. While the Swishahouse family doesn’t go back quite as far as the UGK‘s [click to read] and OutKast‘s [click to read] of the world, The People’s Champ is still taking more cues from the past than the present, making Fast Life a welcome break from the usual.
Paul starts off strong early on the tight, focused track list. “Got to Get It” is the kind of slab music that you want from the album, even a few little modern updates. Paul shows his usual wit with lines like “I take the paper real serious like Dwight Schrute,” but doesn’t try any harder than needed to to keep the pace with his rhymes. “Pressin Them Buttons” does the same while getting a little bit harder, and “I’m Clean” (with one of the multiple Z-Ro features) sneaks some unexpected musicality into the track made for double time raps, reminding you why the Screwed Up Click are among your favorite trapper’s favorite rappers.
Of course, this is 2009 and Fast Life is a major label release so there is a certain expectation that he sprinkles in a few club tracks sprinkled. While some of that bouncy material is frankly just annoying (“Lemon Drop”), “Fly” with Yung Joc [click to read] and Gorilla Zoe [click to read] doesn’t cross the line and serves it’s purpose fairly well. “Pop One of Those” with Too $hort [click to read] isn’t exactly a masterpiece but it isn’t the worst way to slip the Yay Area legend into the album so it gets a pass.
Despite a few mistakes in the usual places that rappers make them (trying make songs for the radio five years ago), Fast Life is one of the better albums from Paul Wall and definitely has a handful of gems. If you’re having trouble remembering what the south sounded like back when you still got mixtapes from a trunk instead of ZShare, you won’t find much better than this. Yachts and champagne are fun sometimes, but when you need a break from that, Fast Life is a good way to slow down.
