Over the course of the past couple of years Paul Wall has turned himself into one of the game’s marquee metaphor connoisseurs. Whether it’s candy paint or a mouth full of platinum and diamonds Mr. Slayton has a surreal life analogy for the topic. Yet being one of the pivotal players in H-Town’s ’05 ambush into the mainstream Paul hasn’t always gotten the respect or recognition he may deserve. Get Money Stay True serves as his third solo outing and the first-second effort from any of the four platinum H-Towners. Riding the heels of his major debut effort The People’s Champ Paul can’t afford to abandon his H-Town roots for the sake of the illustrious mainstream prestige. Judging from the sonic sounds of his Lil Keke assisted first single Paul hasn’t let the major money go to his head yet! 

Paul Wall opens the album with one of the collection’s best efforts in “Get Your Paper Up”, where Yung Redd showcases his ability to work with the smoked out Swishahouse sound courtesy of Mr. Lee. Both Paul and Snoop both turn in pointless verses over another one of Mr. Lee’s predictable sound gardens on “Everybody Know Me”. Mr. Lee goes three for three on the album’s opening efforts by claiming rights to the deep drum kicks on the aforementioned Lil Keke assisted first single “Break Em Off”. By way of the ATL Jermaine Dupri tailors an arrangement of patterns for Paul to spit his normal over whelming lingo over on the bouncy second single “Get Throwed”. Philadelphia Freeway adds a much needed non-southern twist to the album on the Issac Hayes influenced “On The Grind” which is followed abruptly by Paul slowing down the tempo to take time to pay homage to his home town culture on the sunny and syrupy “Bangin’ Screw”. Mr. Lee lands another ace of spades on the Trina assisted “That Fire” as he uses a slow synthesizer to accentuate the x-rated mood laid down by the baddest bitch and the grill king. Unfortunately this is where the entertaining portion of the album ends, the rest of the collections fourteen tracks could’ve been acceptable filler material but when the album clocks in at just over 48 minutes there’s no room for error.

Unfortunately on his third effort Paul Wall turns in an overly saturated project. Metaphors can be catchy if used in the right proportions, but when taken out of context as is the case here, the ride turns out to be a hot and dry thirst trip. Lyrically Paul Wall didn’t even attempt to grow from what seemed to be a promising transgression into the elite fraternity of MCs. Get Money Stay True though sonically appeasing at moments turns out to be a big step backwards for not only Paul Wall but the entire H-Town movement. 

VERDICT – 13 / 20
LYRICS: 3
PRODUCTION: 4
DELIVERY: 2
CONSISTENCY: 4