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The Houston rap duo of Paul Wall aka 'The People's Champ' and Chamillionaire 'The Mixtape Messiah' have put in a long 11 year grind to reach the place they're at in their careers.
The two friends from high school formed the group, The Color Changin' Click and began to grow a large southern audience through their mixtapes and album 'Get Ya Mind Correct'.
The friendship soured at one point and the two parted ways only to come back together recently.
Paul and Cham sat down with Hard Knock TV and talked about coming up in the game, being a mixed race group
"Major labels would get excited about something like that [a mixed race rap group] cause they'd see some kind of gimmick," Cham says. "But that's what makes us authentic because it was more natural. A lot of people didn't even know Paul was white at first. They used to hear the freestyles and didn't know."
Paul said that a lot of people mistook him for being hispanic or Louisiana Creole in the beginning.
Like with any other group, Paul and Cham had to fight to get that initial respect.
"I think at the time [the beginning] maybe it might have been like there were a whole bunch of people already established and we were just the two new guys. So looking at us they were like 'what is this coming into this new situation?' Cham explains. "Then as time progressed we started to earn our respect."
Paul did remember one time when race was an issue early in their careers..
"We used to do a lot of shows in Pensacola, Roy Jones Jr [boxer] had a club, 'Star 69'. We were first coming up we did a show there, the show was sold out," Paul tells Hard Knock. "I went to the bar to get something to drink and I overheard someone next to me say 'when Paul Wall coming on stage?' And I just leaned over and said 'yeah wassup man I'm bout to go on in about 20 minutes. And he's looking at me like I was crazy. He was like 'why you talking to me?' 'Nah you just said Paul Wall and I'm Paul Wall' and he was just puzzled like 'nah nah'. Then later on after the show he came up and was just laughing and i said 'what's up?'. He said 'mam I'm just torn between two worlds cause I hate white people with a passion, I hate crackers, but you're my favorite rapper so I don't know if I should love you or hate you. Damn I just gotta love you cause I love your music'".
Paul Wall's new cd 'Heart Of A Champion' is in stores now so go cop that.
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