Music

Paul Wall Says He 'Didn't Know' He Was White Until Classmates Told Him

The Houston rapper said according to a genealogy test, his mother is 3% African-American.

Paul Wall visits SiriusXM Studios on December 11, 2024 in New York City.
Image via Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

It was later in his childhood that Paul Wall discovered he's white.

The Houston rapper, who recently dropped his latest album Once Upon a Grind, appeared on The Breakfast Club radio show this week and shared that he was close to middle school age when he learned his race.

"I didn't know I was white 'til white people told me I was white," Wall said around the 17-minute mark of the video below. "They was like, 'You white. Why you talk and act like that? You white. And I'm like, what do you mean?'"

The "Sittin' Sidewayz" rapper emphasized that he had a multiethnic friend group.

"I mean, all my friends were Black or Mexican or Asian," he said. "I lived in a very diverse neighborhood. There were white people there, but it was Mexican, Black, Vietnamese, Indian ... A lot of everything.

"So we got a great mixture of growing up in America, I guess," he added.

Wall joked that he "cried in the car" after finding out he was white but that his mother took a genealogy test and found out that she was 3% African-American.

"I know she can't say the N-word, that ain't enough for her to say the N-word," he jokingly added.

But while he's interested in taking a DNA test himself, the "conspiracy theorist" in Wall refuses to get one.

On a 2023 episode of The Clearly Culture Podcast, Wall explained that he'd never been mocked about his race but instead "took it as a challenge" to prove himself as a rapper.

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