An esteemed figure in Texas hip-hop, Paul Wall is known most for his equally affable and boastful rhymes delivered with a thick drawl best suited for the syrupy rhythms he favors. Also a DJ who fell under the spell of the pioneering , Wall came up with Houston's label, recording in tandem with . Wall made local and regional moves before reaching a larger audience through ' "Still Tippin'," a platinum hit that set him up for crossover solo success with The Peoples Champ (2005), a Billboard 200-topping release. Wall kept rolling with a featured role on 's "Grillz" -- a number one pop hit nominated for a Grammy, it was good for Wall's custom mouthpiece business -- and Top Ten follow-up album Get Money, Stay True (2007). After a couple more albums with , Wall went independent and for the most part has stuck with street music tailored for leisurely drives and hedonistic parties. He has likewise remained prolific with a combination of over two dozen subsequent solo albums, duo albums, mixtapes, and EPs. Among Wall's frequent collaborators is , with whom he made Start 2 Finish (2022) and Start Finish Repeat (2023).

Born Paul Slayton, Paul Wall grew up as a hardcore disciple of fellow Houstonian and became so familiar with the pioneering DJ's woozy, slowed-down style of remixing that he had to adjust to hearing hip-hop at any other tempo. Wall started rapping and DJ'ing in the late '90s. Before his nationwide breakthrough, he was involved with promotional street teams, spun records at parties, put together underground mixtapes, and was half of the Color Changin' Click with . He recorded 2002's Get Ya Mind Correct with and then followed that with the 2004 solo effort Chick Magnet, his first album. Later in 2004, released a version of "Still Tippin" -- featuring Wall and -- that would reach number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually go platinum. During its ascent, Controversy Sells, another disc billed to Wall and , hit the streets and set up the September 2005 release of Wall's -distributed second album, The Peoples Champ. Appropriately titled, the album went to number one on the Billboard 200 and featured a pair of gold singles with "Sittin' Sideways" and the Top 40 crossover hit "Girl." It was around the same time that Wall was featured on another big single, 's number one pop hit "Grillz," a track also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Get Money, Stay True, Wall's 2007 follow-up, became the rapper's second Top Ten album upon release that April. Similar to the debut in its uncomplicated approach, it included the charting singles "Break 'Em Off" (featuring ) and "I'm Throwed" (featuring ), along with "Drive Slow," which originally appeared on 's The College Dropout. Wall would release two more solo albums for . Fast Life appeared in May 2009 and entered the Billboard 200 at number 15. While it served up plenty of party tracks, it also revealed another side of Wall with the introspective "Daddy Wasn't Home." Just over a year later, Wall was back with the number 58 chart entry Heart of a Champion, half of which was produced by drummer . Having set up , Wall eased into label independence in 2013 with #Checkseason, and over the next three years continued to churn out solo albums on an annual basis. The Po-Up Poet, a collaboration with producer June "The Jenius" James, was trailed by Slab God, boasting appearances from and , and the Houston Oiler, including featured spots from well-known locals like , , and, naturally, . The 2018 release Bounce Backs Over Setbacks was Wall's final studio album of the 2010s, a decade in which he also recorded co-billed projects with the likes of and and further supplemented with a handful of additional mixtapes.

The rapper entered the 2020s as a bona fide Houston hip-hop veteran and continued his prolific release rate. Mind Over Matter and Subculture, Wall's 11th and 12th solo studio albums, both landed in 2020, as did Slab Talk, co-billed to . Solo album 13, Hall of Fame Hustler, was out the next year. In 2022, Wall teamed with for Start 2 Finish and with for the third volume of their mixtape series The Legalizers. Wall linked again with for Start Finish Repeat, released in 2023. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi

Atlanta's party rap duo Ying Yang Twins scored a hit with the single "Whistle While You Twurk," which received nationwide airplay on urban and crossover radio stations. Their full-length debut album, Thug Walkin', appeared later in 2000. Alley...Return of the Ying Yang Twins from 2002 sold well down South, but it was the duo's 2003 team-up with -- "the King of Crunk" -- that brought them nationwide success. The party anthem "Salt Shaker" was a massive club and radio hit and soon had the TVT label chasing the duo to sign. They did, and their first album for the label, Me & My Brother, yielded two more crunk hits, "What's Happnin!" and "Naggin'." The same year the duo appeared on ' album In the Zone and her television special of the same name. In 2004, TVT released the remix-filled My Brother & Me with a bonus DVD of the group's videos. USA (United State of Atlanta) appeared in the summer of 2005 as its single "Wait (The Whisper Song)" was dominating urban radio. Chemically Imbalanced followed in 2006. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

With an imposing figure and booming voice to match, Slim Thug (born Stayve Jerome Thomas) began his rise by dropping in for guest verses -- on mixtapes and other artists' albums -- for several years before making his full-length debut through ' label. Based out of the northern part of Houston, the MC fell in with Swishahouse's Michael Watts and established a following in no time. This strategy had a lot to do with his business instincts: mixtapes released on his own Boss Hogg Outlawz label circulated throughout the region. (He also acquired a couple record stores and became involved with real estate.) Already Platinum, distributed by Geffen, sustained several release-date delays before its July 2005 street date, and featured production work from the Neptunes and Jazze Pha. The Boss of All Bosses followed in 2009, with Tha Thug Show arriving one year later.

In 2012, Slim Thug kicked off his Thug Thursday mixtape series (the sequel dropped in 2014, with a third part of the trilogy arriving in 2016). He also released the Welcome to Texas series: 2013's installment featured Rick Ross, Pimp C, and Ludacris. That same year, Thug issued a joint album with Lil' Keke titled The Big Unit, as well as his fourth LP, Boss Life, which featured Big K.R.I.T., Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Bun B, Yo Gotti, and Kevin Gates.

Thug would have another busy year in 2015. Launching his Hogg Life series, he unveiled the first part, The Beginning, that February. Still Surviving followed that summer, with Hustler of the Year arriving in October. A year later, the fourth volume, American King, debuted in the Top Ten of the Billboard rap chart. Thug had a banner year in 2017, with the February release of his Welcome 2 Houston mixtape followed in August by Havin Thangs 2K17, a collaborative album with Killa Kyleon. The World Is Yours, his third major release of the year, arrived in December and featured guests like Cam Wallace and Paul Wall. In 2019, Thug paired with Boston George for the mixtape Big Bad Boston and the Boss. ~ Andy Kellman & Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi

Amid the flourishing underground rap scene of Houston, Lil' Flip rose to quick and prosperous fame after his independently released 2000 album, The Leprechaun, broke through to a national audience, prompting the young rapper's signing to Universal Records soon after. Nicknamed the Freestyle King, a teen-aged Flip won the attention of the immortalized DJ Screw, who ushered the rapper into his loose-knit Screwed Up Click. The affiliation brought instant respect for Flip throughout Texas as well as the greater South, and his Leprechaun album capitalized on that, moving an impressive number of units for an independently released album. The album's slowly mounting yet ultimately broad reach and Flip's youthful appeal attracted Universal Records, who signed the 20-year-old to a major-label contract in 2002 and released Undaground Legend later in the year. Driven by the lead single, "The Way We Ball," as well as a remix of "I Can Do Dat," a hit previously released on The Leprechaun, the album extended Flip's audience nationally and heralded him as one of the South's most promising young rappers of the early 2000s. (Photo Lil' Flip with his artist Red Dollaz)