Whether from the pages of popular magazines or from the regular folks hanging on the street corner, Papoose received countless accolades before the release of an official album. Equipped with his signature, hard cadence, he managed to release over a dozen mixtapes under the guidance of high-profile mixtape-slinger DJ Kay Slay between the years 2004 and 2006, which in 2005 earned him the Justo Mixtape Award for Best Underground Artist. A more striking Streetsweeper mixtape series, but he essentially founded the Street Sweepers Entertainment imprint to help gear up the unsigned artist to be New York's next legend MC. nPapoose particularly enthralled the mixtape circuit with the songs "Alphabetical Slaughter," a lyrical onslaught of vocabulary running down the letters of the alphabet, and "Sharades," a narrative about the hip-hop police that oscillates from a first- to third-person viewpoint. He patiently took his time to find the best label situation but did broker promotion deals with Violator Management and Busta Rhymes' Flipmode Squad. After guest appearing on a few tracks in 2006, including the remix of Busta's Top 20 pop-charting single "Touch It," he finally signed a $1.5 million contract with Jive Records in August 2006. His debut album, The Nacirema Dream, was practically already finished, but in the meantime, he held over fans with The Best of Papoose: The Mixtape, a succinct synopsis of his prolific mixtape run. ~ Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide