Papoose has been around rap the game for over two decades and he’s revealed what he thinks is the “hardest” verse he’s ever heard.
The NYC-bred rapper joined Joe Budden for a debate on the AMP platform where he declared Kool G Rap’s 1995 track “Take Em To War” to contain the toughest set of bars he’s ever heard.
“[Kool] G Rap wrote the hardest verse I ever heard in my life to this day. It was on ‘Take Em to War.’ I never heard a harder verse in my entire life to this day,” Papoose told Joe.
“To this day, hardest verse every [and] I’ll argue anybody down. They can spit what they think is hard and I will spit that shit word-for-word.”
The militant “Take Em to War” landed on the Queens native’s debut album 4,5,6, which was released by the Juice Crew legend via Cold Chillin’ Records in September 1995. The fiery tune was produced by T-Ray and features assists from B-1 and Upper West Side resident MF Grimm.
Lloyd Banks actually released a song by the same name which features on the former G-Unit rapper’s The Hunger for More 2 in 2010.
Meanwhile, Papoose parlayed his bevy of Hip Hop knowledge into an executive role as he was appointed the Head of Hip Hop at TuneCore earlier this week.
“Today we announce my transition from artist to executive,” he wrote on Instagram. “As ‘Head of hip hop’ at the best distributor in the world. @tunecore I’m feeling truly blessed, humbled, & honored by this amazing opportunity.”
Pap continued to explain how excited he was to pay it forward and help the next generation of rappers navigate the music industry.
“It feels great to take all of my experiences, everything I’ve been through, all of my hard work [and] turned it into something positive and give it back to the up-and-coming artists,” he said.
“[It’s] very important. Follow your dreams and now you got someone in position who knows what it’s like to be an artist, who knows how hard it is, who knows how discouraging it could be at times.”
Reminiscent of AZ on It Ain’t Hard To Tell w/ some Wu griminess and syllables were like Big. Strong verse
I can tell you’re a golden era cat. Me too. Even though the focus in music is way different now, I’m grateful we were there when hip hop was at its strongest all around. Not saying there aren’t any dope rappers/emcees left with the current gen, but back then, it wasn’t a game. Beats, verses, crews…the whole nines. It was all about getting that verse of the month in The Source too! Salute!!!
AZ isn’t on It Ain’t Hard To Tell.
Excellent verse. I must listen to this song once a week. His verse on The Realest is pretty dope. Glad Pap is showing love to G RAP too. 1st time i ever heard Pap was on G RAP’s Roots of Evil album.
I’m hard, Jehovah said I’m barred from the pearly gates
Fuck him, I didn’t wanna go to heaven anyway
But my momma had me on my knees with my hands gripped
Talkin’ about some “Praise the Lord” shit
Hail Mary, fuck her
I never knew her
I’ll probably probably screw her and dump her body in the sewer
Nothing beats this. Period.
This is the type of debate we need back in Hip-Hop. Without thinking off the top of my head… Scarface on Can’t Be Life, Nas verse on Life’s a Bitch, Jay-Z verse on Never Let You Down, Andre 3000 verse on Sorry, 2Pac first verse on Me Against The World, AZ first verse on I’m Back. Rakim on Paid in Full… I’m jumping eras. I’m a cat that started with Public Enemy but still enjoys 21 Savage.
If we just talking hard, not necessarily super lyrical, then Heat from 50 is still that for me. He was talking crazy to a real killer:
If you were smart you’d be shook of me/ cuz I’ll get tired of looking for you, spray yo momma crib and let yo ass look for me/
Does this Papoose guy sleep with the hat on his head? How about when he takes a shower; does he even then remove the hat?
Yes. He also has sex with remy ma while he wear the hat.
What do his hat got anything to do with what he said? SMH
That’ll be a Hard No. That was definitely not the hardest verse ever by a long shot. And I love Kool G Rap. He has much harder verses than that. I know many other rappers with verses that would eat that live. Scarface has bars harder than a diamond. Anyway the hardest rapper ever in my opinion is dead. So whatever.
I’ll never knock someone’s opinion because, it’s their opinion, but the hardest, coldest verse I’ve heard spit comes from Bun B of UGK off the Murda track.. Pimp C killed his verse too, but Bun blew my mind away.
I’m just happy MF Grimm got a mention in this. Dude was gonna be huge until his life got turned upside down. People say 50 was the hardest given his story but how about getting shot with your brother getting killed next to you, becoming permanently paralyzed, then getting locked up for life, then bailing out on 1 million bond and recording a whole album in 1 day, then going back to jail and studying the law and getting your conviction overturned? Now that’s real
I’m just happy MF Grimm got a mention in this. Dude was gonna be huge until his life got turned upside down. People say 50 was the hardest given his story but how about getting shot with your brother getting killed next to you, becoming permanently paralyzed, then getting locked up for life, then bailing out on 1 million bond and recording a whole album in 1 day, then going back to jail and studying the law and getting your conviction overturned?
I’m just happy MF Grimm got a mention in this.