Crate Digging is a recurring feature that takes a deep dive into music history to turn up several albums all music fans should know. In this edition, Paul Wall and Termanology team up to share eight essential boom bap albums.
Paul Wall is best known for emerging from the breakout Houston scene with his verse on Mike Jones’ hit “Still Tippin'” and his own “Sittin’ Sidewayz,” while Termanology cut his teeth on the East Coast after being discovered by DJ Premier. On paper, they couldn’t come from more different backgrounds. With their recently released second collaborative album, Start Finish Repeat, however, the duo has once again demonstrated how they bring out the best in each other over boom bap production from the likes of Statik Selektah, Large Professor, and Diamond D.
As Paul Wall tells Consequence, the similarities between Texas hip-hop and boom bap music made it a natural fit. “A lot of the boom bap music has a lot of horns. And it’s a lot of jazz in a lot of it,” he says. “Now, a lot of the older Texas hip-hop music has a lot of blues with bass guitar. There’s horns as well, but they’re kind of tucked underneath the bass guitar and the more of the blues instruments. It’s more of the blues horns as opposed to the jazz horns.”
“Each one has a little bit of uniqueness, but that’s why [when] you hear Bun B rapping on boom bap beats, he kills it because it’s a crossover. When you hear me rapping on boom bap beats, I’ma kill it,” he continues. “The same way if you hear Termanology or you hear Nas or some of these dope boom bap MCs, you hear them rapping on classic Southern beats, like some type of Organized Noise or Mike Dean, they’re going to kill it as well, just because there’s a crossover in there.”
To get more insight, Consequence asked Paul Wall and Termanology to pick eight of their most essential boom bap albums. Read on to find out how Paul Wall was drawn to New York rappers like Nas and GZA while growing up and learn how Termanology drew influence from Big Pun, Mobb Deep, and Black Thought. As a bonus, Termanology explained how he was drawn to West Coast hip-hop through two classic albums.
Check out Paul Wall and Termanology’s full deep dive into the crate.
