In the mid-to-late 90s, Southern Hip-Hop was bubbling up in Atlanta with Outkast, Rap-A-Lot out of Houston, Three 6 Mafia out of Memphis, and Master P's No Limit out of New Orleans. By the early 2000s, Southern Hip-Hop was overtaking East Coast and West Coast acts with national radio and video play. The Chopped and Screwed style made popular by Houston's DJ Screw's mixtapes was also spreading nationwide. In 2005, another H-Town indie label, Swishahouse, was blowing up with a deal they had inked with Warner Music Group's resurrected Asylum label. Founded by Michael "5000" Watts and OG Ron C, Swishahouse released the single "Still Tippin" on The Day Hell Broke Loose 2 compilation. The single, which featured Mike Jones, Paul Wall, and Slim Thug, would be added to Mike Jones' debut album Who is Mike Jones? leading to the first platinum album under Swishahouse and would set the stage for Paul Wall's major label debut.

 After releasing several albums and mixtapes with fellow H-Town rapper Chamillionaire, Paul Wall signed a deal with Atlantic/Asylum/Swishahouse and released the gold-certified single "Sittin Sideways" in the summer of 2005.The People's Champ , featuring Paul Wall's famous platinum and diamond grillz on the cover, was released on September 13, 2005, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Charts. The album is an ode to the laid-back Houston culture of hustling, cars, sippin' on purple drank while listening to Chopped and Screwed music. The album had the internet goin' nuts with features from Texas contemporaries Mike Jones, Big Pokey, Bun B, as well as southern rap stars Three 6 Mafia, T.I., and Lil Wayne. The album spawned another gold single from the Kanye West-produced track "Drive Slow" and would push sales to Platinum status. Paul Wall went on to release fourteen more albums, with his latest, The Tonite Show, this past July.