Is there a shopping center anywhere in America as gangsta-riffic as our own Sharpstown Mall? Each of the mall's entrance halls is lined with jewelry stalls — or bling counters, as we like to call them. Of course, there's the Johnny Dang/Paul Wall joint venture TV Jewelry, which now has multiple outlets in Sharpstown Mall alone, and there are about a dozen competitors. All the clothing stores sell throwbacks and other hip-hop gear. The rock and country bins are afterthoughts in the mall's FYE Music store, but the rap bins are stuffed to the gills. Every local rapper from the underground to the top of the charts has a section brimming full of not just all their official releases, but many of their street mixtapes as well. And where most malls would have kiosks offering up scented candles, Sharpstown's have silk-screened Bun B T-shirts and hats that say "Southwest Side" and "Fifth Ward Posse."
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