New Papoose, Kay Slay, Busta interview

[Meho]

Though Busta Rhymes' buzz for The Big Bang is reaching deafening proportions, the dungeon dragon has been overshadowed by the murder of his bodyguard and a recent incident with former publisher of The Source Dave Mays. DJ Kay Slay is no stranger to controversy either. It is partly what helped the self-proclaimed "drama king's" stock rise. By recently entering a joint partnership with Bus and Slay, Papoose is sure to deal with his share of quagmires.

Yet, the new trio wants to leave the drama aside. There will be no addressing previous incidents here -- just a celebration of their recent union. So sit back and enjoy Busta Rhymes, Kay Slay and Pap as they get SOHH Exclusive.

SOHH: Can you explain the Flipmode/Streetsweepers deal? Is Papoose on Flipmode like Rah Digga? Is it a joint venture? Break it down.

Busta Rhymes: I ain't seen a present more consistent and more potent than the Papoose and Kay Slay presence on the mixtape grind. Papoose shit consistently is the highest selling mixtape, the fastest mixtape out of all niggas on the street level. So it just started to grow my excitement about knowing who dude was. Me and Slay got a relationship, so I started inquiring about Pap through Slay. I also said it to my own analysis, "I'm like... if the nigga is so crazy why is niggas just jumping at the bit to sign son?" The conclusion of that came to... wasn't that niggas don't wanna sign him, it's that a lot of niggas is scared of son. Feel me? And I see why niggas is scared of dude. Duke is super lyrical. Duke is super consistent. And duke is super, super humble about his whole shit. And that's actually the thing that magnifies his greatness to the millionth power to me. He ain't gotta show off. His work shows off for [itself]. So for me... before I sit around and be another one of them niggas on the list that is considered to be one of the fucking fools for not jumping on the situation, I hollered at Slay and I asked Slay if I can have a meeting with Slay and Pap. They embraced me with open arms in they situation. They already had the streets poppin. All I wanted to do is contribute what I knew I was able to contribute to the situation and that was just to bring Papoose's exposure to a good level. Now we're a unified front. We're an alliance that's an official one. Streetsweeepers, Flipmode -- Thugacation.

DJ Kay Slay: Papoose is Streetsweepers. Yes, Papoose is Flipmode. Yes, Rah Digga is Flipmode. Rah Digga is Streetsweepers. We're all one unit. It doesn't make a difference however you put it. We're one fucking unit and Violator is the management. So it's like, I don't want niggas to say, "Pap is only with Busta now. Pap is only with Slay now." We're together. We need to get that shit up out there.

Papoose: Ya'll so used to hearing people going at each other that when ya'll see people uniting it seems to be confusion. Understand that we came together to make everything stronger.

SOHH: That was my next question. With all due respect to Busta; Papoose and Slay have been grinding for while, so they had options. Why did you wanna unite with Busta?

Slay: You know why we wanted to unite with Busta? 'Cause Busta was the only real veteran rapper around that was not afraid to step up to get on the mic with Pap or give him his props and his just due. And all the rest of these niggas just sat around and watched because they knew he was a threat. He's the only one who came forward and agreed to put him on a fucking top 10 single around the world and put him in a video. And then he did this before we was on paper. We could have let Busta do that and say, "Ah well, that's on him. Good looking out Bus. Fuck you." Nah man. We real niggas man. We see a real nigga step and he extends his fans to us and what he got to offer. A lot of niggas seen us out here for years. He's the only one that stepped up. Why should I go sign with another team or something when this is the man that stepped up and tried to motherfuckin take us to the next level. Fuck that!

Pap: From day one. We've been the most hated on the scene. A lot of dudes is fearing like, 'Kay Slay, is he gonna do this when I deal with him.' Let me tell you this. As long as you come straight, as long as you put everything on the table on don't try no sideways bullshit, you're not gonna have no problems with an individual like Slay. So as far as me, I like to stay humble about my shit but a lot of emcees fear what I bring to the table. And with Slay behind me, they fear that also. So me and Slay, every award that we won, every piece of shine that we got, we put forward with pure talent. Pure talent took us this far. We're linking up with Busta to take everything to the next level. Busta Rhymes is a living legend. Like Slay said earlier, he was the only individual that wasn't afraid of coming to the table. Why? Cause he's sure of himself and he can bring it to the table lyrically. So all those other fake emcees that was sitting acting like they don't see what was going on, that's why we didn't link up with them. We're linking up with Busta Rhymes cause he was sincere with it.

SOHH: Why do you feel you're the most hated?

Pap: Kay Slay is the most hated because they know that when they deal with other individuals, you can pull all that sucker shit. When you're dealing with somebody like Slay you can't pull none of that. A lot of dudes don't wanna be straight up with it. They know Slay gon address it. They wanna deal with people they can get away with all the bullshit with.

Busta: A yo, I can't even front. I've definitely witnessed that on several occasions first hand. And that's part of the reason. Even through encounters that I've seen Slay have -- even with me -- that might not have been as pleasant, all niggas could do is respect it as men if you're a real man. And come back to the round table and kick it to each other on some real man shit. If you ain't a real man, your heart ain't gon be built strong enough for you to step back to a nigga that you might have a situation with and be able to still break bread with him. All you can do is respect the undisputed truth even if the shit is brutal nigga. [With] Slay sometimes... the truth will get a little brutal my nigga. And it comes off fucked up, but if you're a man, you'll be able to respect the truth even when it is brutal, come to terms with it and still be able to vibe with a nigga. Even after the fact and be able to understand that, it ain't really personal.

One time me and Slay was on the phone [and] the nigga said, "It don't matter with all the fucking powers combined in the world nigga, a nigga can't stop destiny, homie." That stuck with me because it's ill that we're all coming together at the best time of our lives. Papoose is in the best situation of his life. The nigga got million dollar offers as of last week. This is destiny calling.

Slay: Bottom line, Bus, the biggest problem niggas got with me. I don't know [who] the biggest website is that may have billions of dollars compared to the site that you write for, [but] if the site you write for at this particular time is outshining them, I am the nigga who will say that. But everybody else would be like, "Well, these niggas got billions. I don't wanna say that. Let's be careful, cause that might fuck my opportunity up." I don't care about that shit. What one nigga eat don't make me shit, so in the event in the industry... it don't matter if a nigga got a million dollars or a nigga got ten dollars. If this nigga's nice, this nigga's nice! If this nigga's a cock sucker, he's a cock sucker! They're used to niggas sucking dicks. And we don't suck dicks over here.

SOHH: Busta just said something about million dollar offers, reports were saying that Pap wasn't signing because he wanted a million dollars. Now that it's being offered, are we closer to seeing Papoose sign with a label?

Slay: Yeah, we're getting real close but you know what the situation was, for one the million they wasn't offering. Now that we superseded getting that, they offering a million, we want a little more now. We was where we was when we deserved that and niggas ain't acknowledge. So now, niggas acknowledge, I think you know we gotta get a little extra for pain, suffering and punitive damages.

SOHH: Pap, Slay said people didn't acknowledge. Why do you think that is?

Pap: I mean that's how it is. I feel like some of the things that I was putting out was ahead of its time. When I said, I'm just getting started I'm kicking out from '98, no bullshit. A lot of the records and the rhymes that ya'll hearing and ya'll saying, "Oh, this is hot." It's the same shit that I was spitting to ya'll a while ago. I ain't had the biggest outlet like I got it now, but this is the same shit that I created years ago. So, I feel like now, times is catching up. Also, the fact that I linked up with Slay. He's similar to me at what he do. A lot of people fear Slay for various, different reasons. The reasons why I keep saying this shit is because, I hear it all the time. I even hear stupid motherfuckers that come to me with dumb shit like, "Yo Pap, you need to do this." Shut the fuck up! The reason why the industry is afraid and wanna block Kay Slay is cause he give people opportunity. They don't want individuals like myself to get an opportunity. They wanna keep us in the dark and never let us get on. And I wanna say also that we've been turning record deals down for the past year. A lot of these record deals that these other dudes took, we told them no. We didn't want them. A lot of these record labels can vouch for it.

[QuietTruth]

Good read!