All month long, WBLS along with our sister station HOT 97 will be celebrating young professionals that are making Black History today.

Papoose, born Shamele Mackie started his rap career in 1998 after hopping on Kool G Rap's album Roots Of Evil. After a stint at Rikers he decided to take hip hop seriously.

After being persistent trying to hand his music with the late DJ Kay Slay in 2004, and ended up getting signed. Around the same time he had also signed to Violator management.

"Put of the reason I took that deal was because [Chris] Lighty was president," he said.

That relationship with then President Chris Lighty led him to an appearance in the 2008 film 'Rightous Kill' starring Robert Deniro and Al Pacino. During this time his mixtapes starting causing a buzz in the streets with tracks such as "Law Library," and "Alphabetical Slaughter."

After much delay and features alongside Busta Rhymes, Joe, Shaq, Maino and more he finally released his anticipated album The Nacirema Dream after much delay in 2013.

After a successful career, the Brooklyn native decided he wanted to retired from music in 2021. He did so with a bang.

Papoose decided to release 12 albums that year, one themed for every month of the year.

"I put my artists before myself..."

Tunecore contacted him during that time wondering what his strategy and inspiration behind those releases were. This opened the door for him to become an executive and his current role as Head of Hip Hop.

"I'm happy and proud of myself that I was able to transition from artist to executive."

He shares his most proud project with Tunecore so far was finishing and released the DJ Kay Slay track "Rolling 200 Deep."

For more on Papoose visit his page @papoose.

#BlackHistoryNow #WBLS #Papoose
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