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Papoose dropped a new mixtape last week, Second Place Is The First Loser, and with so many people around these parts hailing him as the future of New York rap I had to check it out.
Just to refresh my memory on this dude, I checked out his Wikipedia page which was clearly written by someone on his promotion team. I thought Wikipedia had someone checking these entries for bias, but Papoose's entry somehow slipped through the cracks with lines like, "Bottom line, Papoose is the hottest upcoming artist in the world and his street buzz is immaculate." I also learned from his entry that Papoose's name comes from the Algonquin word for "child", because he apparently looked like an Indian baby as an infant. Word?
The mixtape did not do much to change my opinion that the next generation of NY rappers is going to be led by Cory Gunz or Saigon or some as-yet-unknown rapper, not Papoose. Pap can rap for days, no doubt, but I'm unable to get that excited about him. His voice is often flat, his lyrics are filled with tired thug posturing (though he is admittedly more lyrically proficient than most other rappers out there) and he just does not have the charisma of a Jay-Z or Biggie that will lead to album sales. The mixtape has about 20 tracks on it, and they all sound more or less the same. Sure, the beats are different from track to track but Pap's delivery never changes up, whether he is rapping over a club banger like the Sexy Back remix or discussing the problems in his personal life on Wake Up Everybody. If Papoose ever manages to show some emotion in his voice my opinion of him would change dramatically, but at this point he just sounds like every other mixtape rapper from New York.
That being said, I can't deny that he has a huge following in New York and he just signed a record deal with Jive for $1.5 million, so clearly he is doing something right. I have to wonder, though, whether the people who were supporting him as an "underground" artist will still be with him once he goes mainstream. And while his fanbase in New York is solid, will he get the same kind of love down south or out west? We'll find out in December, when his album comes out.
Here are a couple of tracks from Second Place is the First Loser:
Wake Up Everybody
Broken Language 2006 (remake of Smoothe Da Hustler's classic song)
If you are a fan of Papoose, then you should definitely go pick this tape up. Otherwise, I can't recommend it unless you want to see what all the hype has been about. You can buy Second Place Is The First Loser here.
Previous Papoose posts:
Papoose's first track
Busta, Papoose and Cassidy
Papoose vs. Mense
10/18/2006 10:40:34 AM posted by Fresh