Papoose will be taking over for the late DJ Kay Slay on his Sirius XM show The Drama Hour – and it’s thanks to the station’s owner, LL COOL J.
Ahead of his radio premiere on the Rock The Bells station on Friday night (August 11) at 9pm ET, Pap smoke to TMZ about the major shoes he’s filling and how it came about.
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“I’d be a liar if I sat here and said I know where my life would be without Hip Hop, because Hip Hop saved my life and so many others,” the Brooklyn rapper told the outlet. “And Kay Slay – he had that same testimony. Hip Hop saved his life. And the platform that he created is so tremendous! You gotta understand, so many careers started on The Drama Hour.”
He continued: “The first time I ever heard Nipsey Hussle was on The Drama Hour. The first time I ever heard Kendrick Lamar was on The Drama Hour. That Dip Set movement started on The Drama Hour. I could keep going. Even the G-Unit movement! All of these movements, even if it didn’t exactly start on The Drama Hour, that’s where it lived at.”
“That’s where you constantly seen it and you heard it consistently. Not just the radio joints, the popular hits, but that content that we wanna hear. You know what I mean? that authentic Hip Hop. That authentic feel that we love. My career definitely born on The Drama Hour, bro.”
“Me as a younger brother, I feel like it’s something that needed to be carried on,” Papoose explained. “So many people from all different corners of the planet were like, disappointed, like, ‘Damn. It’s over now for Hip Hop, Slay not here no more.’ So I’m like you know what? His platform gotta live on.”
“So I had that conversation with LL and he’s just an opened minded individual. He’s a giant in the game, the first one to ever use the terminology GOAT. That’s where that came from,” Pap noted. “That came from LL. He understood. Because LL and Kay Slay – don’t get it twisted, they had a very tight relationship as well. He was at the funeral. He was one of the few who came through and showed love, who actually sat through the service and showed love to Slay.”
He concluded: “So I knew he would understand. And I knew how him and Slay rocked with each other and me and him had a conversation and within that conversation, he understood. He seen the vision. He understands what Kay Slay means to the culture.”
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DJ Kay Slay (real name Keith Grayson) died at the age of 55 in April 2022 following a months-long battle with COVID-19. He was laid to rest at a memorial service at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater exactly one week later. Fat Joe, LL COOL J, Busta Rhymes, Kool DJ Red Alert, Papoose, Melle Mel and Remy Ma were among the many who showed up to pay their respects.
On Sunday (August 13), a day shy of what would have been his 57th birthday, the DJ Kay Slat is set to be honored with his own street at East 105th Street and 1st Ave. in East Harlem. The event will be hosted by Papoose, Slay’s manager Jarrod “General” Whitaker and his niece, Ladi Kutz.
