50 Cent revolutionized the mixtape circuit and Lil’ Wayne worked it better than anyone else ever has, but if I had to pick the king of the mixtape, I’m going with Papoose. King Of New York is the 25th tape Papoose has released since 2004, which could lead one to conclude that he’s either the hardest-working man in hip-hop or he has an obsessive compulsion that forces him to record three verses a day over someone else’s beat and release them no matter the quality of the end product.

There are moments on King of New York that make you believe that either scenario could be true. The first song on the tape is an absolute annihilation of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis.” Lyrically, Papoose doesn’t top Watch The Throne one-liners like “Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive,” but his flow is a virtuoso performance in breath control. He spits couplets so fast that you stop listening to the words and start trying to guess when he’s going to stop for a breath. Then the song ends. He definitely earns the right to start the next track by telling us “I killed the Otis beat.”

Papoose is definitely at his best when he’s explaining to his audience why he’s tougher than whomever he’s making eye contact with at the moment, in rhyme form. But after four pretty badass tunes to start the tape, things go over the edge a bit (for the first time) with “Name Callin,” which somehow features the incarcerated Remy Ma (who is also Papoose’s wife, fun fact). The song is literally a list of insults that includes but is not limited to “Republican,” “peeping Tom,” “slut,” and “Call Of Duty nagger.”  Not exactly Biggie-level MCing.

In traditional mixtape fashion, most of the beats are taken from previous releases by other artists. When a rapper can simply impress the listener lyrically, a track is considered a success. But there are times when the remix (which Papoose hired a little child to shout out at the beginning of each track, apparently) actually transcends the original, as Papoose does with “Party Bout To Pop.”  I should mention that it features Lloyd Banks and Busta “How About The Reason You Niggas Hear Me All Over The Street Cause You Know A Nigga Harder Than A Mafucka” Rhymes. There’s no formula to making a great hip-hop track, but if there was, it would definitely include paying Busta whatever he asks to hop up on it in 2011.

There are also, however, times when Papoose veers off the tried-and-true course of verbally abusing an imaginary opponent, and these never end well. The best example is “December,” which features Papoose naming one thing he did with a woman (non-sexually at that) in each month of the year, leading up to December, the month in which “I told you I loved you.”

Regardless, for the large part Papoose brings the fire. He may not have convinced me that he’s the heir to Big’s throne, but he’s not as far down the line of succession as you might think.

3/5 bars 

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