Hot 21 Radio

During a recent interview with HipHopDX, Houston rap legend Paul Wall was asked if it was important to have that kind of confidence as an MC,

Eminem during an episode of Drink Champs. The unabashed bravado was palpable as Game spoke, despite many rap fans disagreeing with his self-assessment. The Compton native has since doubled down on his statement regarding Slim Shady and supposedly has a diss tracklocked and loaded for the anointed rap god. During a recent interview with HipHopDX,Houston rap legend Paul Wallwas asked if it was important to have that kind of confidence as an MC, no matter how preposterous a notion may sound to the outside world. While his Start 2 Finish partner-in-rhyme Termanologypreferred to stay out of the discussion as it pertained to Eminem and The Game, Wall was willing to offer his opinion on the matter while making a surprising admission about his own journey. I had a lack of confidence growing up my whole life, he tells DX. Its is not even until the last year that I started actually having any confidence in my own personal stuff. I think Lord Jamar was the one who said white MCs are guests in the house of Hip Hop and I cant disagree with that. I agree, but I feel like were all guests in this house and I just feel like theres just a lack of respect for our elders as a whole. And I feel like no one is entitled to the door being open front row access, red carpet access to the house of Hip Hop. I feel like everybody has to humbly come in there, earn it and work no matter who you are or what youve done. In terms of The Game and Eminem, Ill separate them two as individuals from my thoughts, but I definitely feel like I dont think theres anything wrong with having confidence in yourself and your skills and your talents and what youre capable of doing. He adds, And I feel like The Game is right. The artists that are confident, the most confident sometimes they do things and try things that others with less confidence maybe wouldnt do, because theyre confident in the fact that it could work. It can be successful. A post shared by HipHop-N-More (@hiphopnmore) Hearing Paul Wallhas struggled with having confidence throughout his life is hard to believe. After all, hes the same guy whos responsible for the 2005 hit Sittin Sideways,which found the undisputed king of the parking lot flossin his famous grillz and rapping about being something like a baller. But hes taken some lessons from what hes observed about fame. With me, I got a lack of confidence, so its like, Man, I dont even want to try it. Let me just stick what I know, whatever, let me just whatever,' he continues. We as a society, we judge people based sometimes off of their fame. Youre more famous, youre a better person. Youre more famous, youre richer, youre richer that means you worked harder. You got good things happening to you thats because youre a good person, but we all know thats not true. Theres a lot of evil people out here who are greedy. Sometimes theres circumstances or happenstances in life they can help get you a leg up that the next person didnt have. One thing though that I also agree with is that record sales dont mean youre better. And I think back to Vanilla Ice who sold 40 million records, and I dont mean no disrespect to Vanilla Ice, but Ive never heard someone claim he was the greatest MC of all time. Vanilla Ice sold over one million copies of the 1990 hit Ice Ice Baby using a slick sample from David Bowie and Queens 1981 collaboration Under Pressure and some funky dance moves. The accompanying album, To The Extreme, reportedly went on to sell over 15 million copies. Still, it never put him in a GOAT conversation ever. Paul Wall understands its different with Eminem. There aint no side, Im only going bring Eminem back into it because I want clarify that I dont mean anything bad at all, he says. If Eminem never sold any records, he definitely has a skillset and a talent. He is elite. Aint no denying that. His dopeness, you cant get around that or deny that in any aspect. The Game let me just go all the way there with it The Game, theyre different fan bases. Read more