User:W guice/sandbox/papoose/article

Biography
Papoose made his first attempts at being a rapper at the age of eleven. He was given his name by his grandmother because of his childhood resemblance to a Native American child. Inspired by Rakim, Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane, he made his first recorded appearance in 1998 on Kool G Rap's Roots of Evil album. The following year, he released his first single, "Thug Connection"/"Alphabetical Slaughter".

After an early record deal failed, he decided to produce and sell his own mixtapes, one of which he presented to DJ Kay Slay outside the offices of New York's Hot 97 after the latter's radio show there. This led to Kay Slay inviting Papoose onto the air, and, impressed by his rendition of "Alphabetical Slaughter", signing him to his Streetsweepers Entertainment label. He continued to release mixtapes at a prolific rate – over a dozen between 2004 and 2006 – and won the Justo Mixtape Award for Best Underground Artist in 2005. As of 2008, he had put out his twentieth, Build or Destroy.

In 2006, he made a series of guest appearances on artists by others, most notably on a remix of Busta Rhymes' US Top 20 single "Touch It" and Joe's Top 30 single "Where You At?"

On August 24 2006, his official website announced that he had signed with Jive Records in a deal worth $1.5 million.

In September 2007, Kay Slay revealed that he and Papoose had left Jive, commenting that they had "almost [become] victims of A&R hell."

In early 2006, his StreetSweepers crew linked up with Busta Rhymes' Flipmode Inkprint to co-executive produce Papoose's first official album. Papoose is no longer affiliated with Flipmode Squad.