The last time Papoose was in the headlines was when he seemingly rushed the stage at Summer Jam. It was later revealed that Kendrick played a role in bringing him out, something he did out of respect for Pap's support early on in his career. Papoose has flipped his position on Kendrick however, in wake of K-Dot's declaration that he's "The King Of New York" in his lyrical onslaught earlier in the week. The NY rapper went in on Lamar in his own "Control" verse, and has taken the time to explain his intentions in a new interview with XXL.
“Even if I wasn’t from New York, I would respect that enough to not say that I was the King of a place that I’m not even from,” he said. ”I had to just represent for my city. It was defending my city where I was born and raised, blood sweat and tears. I felt like, all y’all media outlets and award shows and different platforms, y’all make these dudes feel like they’re greater than what they are, and it ultimately leads to a situation like this, where they feel like they can just disrespect everybody like that.”
“He invited me on Summer Jam,” he added, “But let me ask you a question—does that make him the King of New York? [Laughs] As far as our relationship, I leave that up to him. But nobody—and I mean nobody—is gonna disrespect where I was born and raised.
Pap was confident that his influence in his city is still strong. “I’m the King of New York,” he said. “This is my kingdom. I feel like what Kendrick tried to do was the kicking down the buildings thing that Snoop [did]. I listened to how he set it up—in the beginning he said things like, ‘I’m Makaveli’s offspring’—so you knew the disrespect was coming. And he knew what he was doing; the disrespect was intentional. It is what it is, bro, I just feel like New York gets disrespected so much, and that’s why the game is the way it is now. These cats feel like they can disrespect us whenever they feel like it, but they got all the love here. It is what it is, just don’t disrespect New York, ’cause I’ll have to disrespect you.”
The rapper voiced that NY has to stick together the way that other regions have been doing the last few years.
“A lot of the other regions say, like the South says, ‘The South stick together.’ You know what? It’s kinda true. We gotta come together, New York, so I’m gonna shout out everybody that spoke up, I don’t want to leave anyone out,” he said. “
Pap stressed that NY rapper's shouldn't let K-Dot claim that kind of a title, especially considering he's not from the city. "I want these New York cats to understand, it’s not just about me, me, me, and when a cat disrespect your city you afraid to say something ’cause you don’t know down the line if you’re gonna need a verse from them? Fuck that, man. Fuck that. To claim King of New York and you’re not even from New York? There’s no explanation for that.”