Saul Paul (2022)

One Liner: Acoustic hip hop (but also real beats) for the Kiddies

Wikipedia Genre: Rap, Acoustic Hip Hop
Home: Houston

Poster Position: Not on the Poster
Both Weekends.  Saturday and Sunday.

Thoughts:   Last here in 2018.  At first, I was unsure whether this was a Kiddie Limits guy or a gospel guy.  On the one hand, the name SaulPaul invokes the transition of general jerk Saul into the Apostle Paul (from the Bible, not some weird Breaking Bad episode).  On the other hand, his tunes are less gospel and more positivity rap with titles like "Encourage Me" or "Do That Hula Hoop," which sounds more kiddie.  

He's actually pretty solid.  Beats are pretty basic, and his flows are similarly simple, but I appreciate that he sounds like legit rap instead of obviously pandering stuff for kids.  Moms and dads can snap and bounce to "Do That Hula Hoop" just as easily as the toddlers.  His biggest streamer is also his most recent single, 2021's "Best Day Ever," which is pure and fun.  157k streams.

I wonder if Apple is cool with him using their emoji head for a video.  But that is a cute video and a cute track.  Let's have some fun!  Way better than the brooding 80's music I just had to listen to.

His top song back in 2018 was "Rise," a 2013 single, boasting all of 4,612 streams on Spotify back then, but now up to 23k.

Acoustic hip hop.  Actually a cool angle to take on the overproduced world of rap.  After that, he put out a handful of albums over the years.  2016's Tower to Tower 2, 2017's We Dream in 3D, 2018's All Star Anthems, 2020's Be the Change, and then 2021's Okay to be Different.

If the dude's Wikipedia is to be believed, he has a very cool story.  Raised in the rough parts of Houston, kicked out of college for grades, and ended up in jail for two years.  Got out of jail, got into Texas, and graduated with honors.  He also got notoriety for doing rapped recaps of ESPN radio shows (based on his skills at just making up raps on the spot), which is a weird thing, but seems like a cool talent.  

Pretty clever.  OK.  Very interesting dude who seems to be doing good things.  I hope the kids enjoy the hula hooping!