Album Review: The Nacirema Dream by Papoose

A couple years before this official debut landed, Papoose was hip-hop's great East Coast hope, but by the time the much anticipated The Nacirema Dream landed at least five years late, the million-plus-dollar Jive Records contract and the aboveground "buzz" had both vanished. Nacirema -- and that's "America" backwards -- barely cracked the Top 100 its first week, but you can blame the long birthing period and the miles of bad road to get here because Papoose is as angry, as snide, and as clever as the man who burned up the mixtape circuit. He's no serpentine or subtle rapper either, preferring to pull curious listeners instantly into his "Motion Picture" by telling a paranoid story of his crew and their willingness to mutiny, rather than the usual don't-jack-my-swagger track.

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If the past couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that patience really does pay off. Saigon released The Greatest Story Never Told, Duke Nuke Forever saw the light of day, and the world kept spinning after December 21, 2012. Maybe it’s not so impossible to think that Dr. Dre might one day put out Detox.

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At one point in time, armed with a record deal worth over a million dollars, Brooklyn, NY MC Papoose was heralded as the future of NYC street rap. But then industry red tape meant the momentum he built with a mountainous slew of mixtapes dried up, and then his wife, fellow MC Remy Ma, was incarcerated. Papoose's profile virtually slipped into the ether.

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There was a time when Papoose looked like the heir apparent to New York’s hip-hop throne. Over the course of a dozen or so street mixtapes, the Brooklyn-bred MC generated a huge buzz which led to his infamous $1.5 million deal at Jive Records in 2006. His debut album, The Nacirema Dream, was supposed to come out soon after and many hoped it would mark mainstream rap’s return to the grimy realism of New York hip-hop in the 90s.

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