Paul Wall “Feels Bad” About Introducing Juelz Santana To Lean

Paul Wall has a sting of guilt when it comes to introducing Juelz Santana to lean (or “purple drank“).

In a recent conversation with The Art of Dialogue, the Houston-bred emcee responded to Santana discussing the ordeal.

“I feel bad about that now,” Wall stated. “Yeah, I did [introduce him to the substance] but at the time, you know what I’m saying, we all drank, we’re all dranking. And you look at people that drank … they’re not crackheads.”

The “Sittin’ Sidewayz” rapper explained, “We’re not breaking in people’s houses, selling your mama TV, pawning it to buy drank. Drank wasn’t even that expensive back then. You wouldn’t even do that to get, you know, drank was cheap as hell back in those days.”

Wall later addressed “long-term addicts” that were overweight because of “the lifestyle that came from sippin’ drank.” He noted, “No exercising. Eating fatty foods. Drinkin’ soda left and right all day. Drinking sugar, adding sugar, this and that. It was not directly from the drank, but indirectly from the drank and all of that was all something that’s manageable to some extent.”

He revealed that after he introduced Santana to lean, he had a “full-on bottle” the next time they ran into each other. Wall reflected, “Of course, I didn’t — you never know how it’s going to affect different people, how people are gonna immerse [themselves] in it. It’s harder for others; it leads to other things and definitely affects your lifestyle change.”

Wall even shared that sometimes “sippin’ drank can lead to poppin’ pills and [that’s] what really f**ks you up.” His intention isn’t to “defend” the substance, but he believes that it’s not the “issue,” but is just the “gateway to what is the issue.”

During Santana’s interview from January, he admitted that he wanted to try lean to get a feel for what the Houston “culture was about.” He said, “It was sweet, it was tasted like candy [but] I didn’t even really know about the effects and all that I gradually learned about all that as it was [happening] to me.”

He ultimately began to feel “physically dependent” on it, but “fought hard” to overcome the addiction.