While his wife, fellow rapper Remy Ma, continues to serve out her eight-year jail sentence on assault and weapons charges stemming from a July 2007 shooting, Papoose stays holding down the fort with the kids. But, through it all, Pap is still recording music and working on finally delivering his long-awaited album, The Nacirema Dream, which he says will drop next year.

Here, XXL presents outtakes from the Brooklyn MC's interview which appears in the October issue of XXL, on newsstands now, in which he further talks about raising his children, making more music and love at first sight. —Mark Lelinwalla

What was your first initial impression of Remy?

Papoose: I was like, ‘Yo, this girl is crazy’ because she was outspoken. Her and Slay were going back and forth in the studio. They were arguing about whether blood is blue in your vein or red. They were having a heated argument about that shit. And to Slay, Rem is like a little sister, but I never saw nobody challenge Slay like that before. They were going at it, though. That’s what they call each other – Big brother, little sister. It was interesting for me to see her challenge him like that.

Not to be corny, but was it on some love at first sight joint?

[Laughing] You can say that. Once we met, we clicked. We always stayed in contact. She might tell you a different story, you know what I’m saying [Laughing].

What was your recollection of the wedding proposal?

We were going to get my truck, pick it up. We were in her BMW. We had been spending a lot of time together and I never met nobody like her before. She was real unique to me – her history, her story, how she grew up, how she overcame a lot of trials and tribulations in her life. She’s had a real good heart. Basically, I just popped the question. There come a time and point in your life where you get tired of some of the shit you been doing your whole life. I been through a lot in my life and been through a lot of experiences. There comes a point in time where you want to settle down and live your life differently. That’s the person I felt like I wanted to do that with. I felt like she had a real good heart and was real genuine, so I just popped the question, more or less.

Obviously, it's got to be hard with your wife in prison. Other than her coming back home, what do you want to have happen with this situation?

First and foremost, was for the truth to come out, the fact that she’s innocent of the situation. That's one, and two, me being the person that studies law, and if you follow my Law Library series you know that. I was observing the case from day one. And to see how the evidence was ridiculous, you know what I’m saying? The evidence they had against her was ridiculous, and I just knew she was gonna beat it. You know what I’m saying. You live your life, you tell yourself regardless of what, the truth is gonna come out eventually.

Remy has to be on your mind all the time, but music probably keeps you busy. What’s good on your end with the music?

I’m always recording, I’m always creating, I’m always performing, but what I’m working on right now is really getting my album out to the people because I know that’s what they want more than anything. Even the haters as they call them, when they explain it, they say, ‘Fuck Papoose, he didn’t drop his album yet.’ People want the album. People are practically begging me for the fucking album, so that’s what I’m working on. I’m going to do it this year. The album is coming this year. I’m doing it independent. Honor B4 Money Records.

You had recorded a lot of music in a short time, before getting the $1.5 million deal with Jive that never worked out. Talk about that whole situation.

I’m going to be honest with you. Even when I got my deal, before I got my deal, that shit didn’t come easy. Those people who really follow me will tell you that. I think people forgot about that, man – how hard I worked to get that fucking record deal. How much music I put out, how long they made me wait, but I never got nothing easy in life, so that shit was no shock to me. Some of these dudes were born into this game with a fucking silver spoon in their mouth. They honestly got no longevity. I worked real hard to get that deal. A couple of people were interested. Def Jam made an offer, Interscope made an offer. We decided to go with Jive, even though a lot of people told us we shouldn’t have. We didn’t want to sign to a West Coast label. We wanted to do something that was based here in New York City where we’re from. That’s kind of like what my movement was signifying. We decided to go with Jive and besides they offered us the most money. Def Jam offered $400,000, Interscope offered $700,000. I was putting in a lot of work and finally they started offering some decent deals. But to make a long story short, we took the deal with Jive. I got signed to Jive by the owners. Usually you get signed by some A&R and they’re able to do a lot of shit quick to get money out of your budget. So, a lot of people there were angry that I got signed by the owners of the label. When the guys signed me, one of the things he expressed to me was that his son was who made him aware of me. Long story short, people at the label couldn’t steal the money out of my budget and they were hating. They were going to the owners and making up stories – a lot of ridiculous shit, man. We just recently found out why the deal went sour just a couple of weeks ago. We were all curious about it for a few years and we recently found out that it was all over a fucking lie.

What was the lie?

(Whistles . . . whew!) They basically wanted me out of there because they couldn’t steal no money from my project and eat up the budget and I had a huge budget, which is $1.5 million. We negotiated our shit properly, where we had full control of our project because we worked hard for it. Myself and Kay Slay. We just found out the other day from a dude who works at the label that this dude went to the owners and lied and said that Kay Slay threatened him. After that, that’s why the project went sour. The people that signed me, that put a bad taste in their mouth. They finally turned them against me. This dude lied and said Slay threatened him. These dudes put a stunt to my career and a hold on my life over a fucking lie. I was touring overseas around that time. When I got signed to Jive, I went on tour overseas and I came back. When I came back, we released the record with Snoop. After a while, shit went sour. It’s a good thing that we had good lawyers and we negotiated my contract properly and we were able to leave with the music and the money.

Always wanted to ask you about that record with Snoop. You had such a hard New York sound and then went and did a West Coast-sounding record – with all due respect. Was that a conscious move on your part to go left field a bit?

Yeah, yeah. It happens a lot with artists, nah mean. If I could do it all over again, would I do that? No. As I said before, when you go to a label and have someone involved in your project who knows nothing about hip-hop, there comes these weird inputs of what they think should happen. Even though we had control of our situation, it’s still a marriage. These dudes had an ulterior motive from the start. They had no good intentions. I was a workaholic. Everybody knows that about me. It spoke about me through my music. I was always working. To me that was always the key to success – just keep working – so I didn’t mind putting out music. It’s a marriage, so you have to agree on the music. I thought it was a hot record. Snoop did his thing, I did my thing. It was a Scott Storch beat, but there was no push behind it because they didn’t want the push to be behind it. Once we seen that they were trying to shelf me and do how they do with other artists, we spoke to our lawyers and were able to get out of there with our money. That’s why I been financially comfortable.

Y’all walked out of that with all of that money?

Yeah, we got that bread (laughing). I did a lot of tours in my day and I’m not stupid. I was never a fool. I been owned a house before I got my deal. I never did nothing stupid. I was putting my money up. I was always prepared for the bullshit. I never really had to rely on the music to be financially stable. I had a house before I got my deal. I make a lot of money off my music. I feed my family with my music. That’s how I eat off my shows. I’m always out of the country, doing something or even in the States.

How often in a given year do you tour?

I was just in Russia not too long ago and I’m breaking out real soon. I’m going to Africa in another month.

How tough is it on the kids when you got to travel and then Remy’s situation, of course?

It’s real tough. I don’t like to be away from them at all. I definitely let them know that I got to break out. Daddy got to make money or how are we going to eat? I hate to be away from all of them. It sucks. They know, Remy knows. I can’t talk to her from overseas because she can’t call a cell phone, only a land line.

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What can people expect from the album?

It’s been a long time coming. A lot of people don’t want to see me shine, man and it’s obvious. A lot of mothafuckas because of what I stand for, what I represent and what I bring to the table. That’s why I always call myself the most feared MC. There’s a lot of stories I could tell where you’d be surprised with some of the people that hated on me. On the other hand, a lot of people support me. I get a lot of love at the same time. The love outweighs the hate, man. The hate is real thick, man. The album is coming. The title of the album is the Nacirema Dream. It’s going to shock a lot of people. I feel like my album is going to make history that’s untouched in hip-hop. I can’t wait to see…I just can’t wait.

Untouched in hip-hop?

Man, I don’t want to let everything out the bag (laughing). But I play some shit for you.

Ideally, when would that drop?

Next year. It's coming.

We’ve been hearing about Nacirema Dream for a long time now.

This album is my life right here. I’ve been working on this album my entire life, I can honestly say that. "Alphabetical Slaughter" … a lot of my fans enjoyed that record. I was spitting that shit A-Z years before they ever heard it. If I was in a battle and the battle got too thick and I didn’t get the cat out in the first round, I would pull that and the battle would be over. That was always my secret weapon. This album is my life. When I put this album out, people will hear my life on a CD. This shit is a long time coming, so there’s no way this album could fail.

Saigon recently talked about how the numbers didn’t matter as much as finally getting his album out there. Do you think you’ll feel the same?

I just want the album to come out, but my ultimate goal is to reach the population of the world with my thoughts and the knowledge that I got. How I look at the judicial system, how I look at growing up in the ghetto, how I look at society, period. If I could convince, if I could stimulate the minds of people across the world, my job is done because there’s a message in my music. It’s just not random shit I’m spitting out in my songs. If talk about the streets, you’re going to get a solution to that problem. You’re just not going to hear me bragging, glorifying and boasting. I walk you through those steps just to give you the actual experience and feeling, but at the end of the record you’ll hear that message. I teach people different ways of if you ever get incarcerated, how to go into the law library and study your case and perhaps get out of jail. Monopoly, I talk about the economy and that’s an ongoing saga. It’s a continuation with my music. Putting the album out, that’s my goal, but my ultimate goal is reaching the population of the world. I need people to hear my album around the world to be successful.

Do you think people forgot about Papoose and that buzz you had?

No, I don’t think so. I learned a lot about the music business and it’s disappointing because it’s really not what I thought it was. The reason for all my energy, period, is because I thought it was something that it wasn’t. A lot of the fans really move off of hype. They don’t have to necessarily have to like the artist…

Or the music.

Yo! I never knew that shit, man! When I grew up it wasn’t like that. We had the Big Daddy Kane’s, the Kool G. Rap’s. We liked them dudes because of their content and talent and what they brought to the table. I think people just follow hype. You don’t have the core fans that are really into your artistry and like you for you. Everybody else is just there for the hype. When that hype is gone, they gone. They might not even know your capabilities, they might not even know your music. They just riding the fucking wave. I didn’t grow up like that. I didn’t come up like that as far as music concerned; the message in the music is totally different. As far as the music is concerned, a lot of people just ride the hype, man. It’s cool because it pays the bills when they hype for you, but do I think they forgot about Papoose? Nah. Never. I think some of these other artists will be forgotten, but I think they’ll always remember me because I something different to the table. I think the bubblegum music will be forgotten. Them dudes are here today, they’ll be gone tomorrow. You see it all the time. But a lyricist, they still stick. Analyze the game. All the lyricists are the greats. Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Rakim, G. Rap. These dudes will always be remembered. They’re legends. But you don’t remember those bubblegum dudes. There’s no longevity in them.

When it comes to you, we know you’re from Brooklyn and then many details are hazy. Tell us about growing up.

My pops went to work every day. My mother was more or less of a housewife. My pops had one of those hard jobs. I think he worked sanitation. I don’t even want to say sanitation. It’s a job similar to that, but exactly what he did I don’t know. I know he put on a dirty suit every day and went to work, 6:00 in the morning with his eyes out of his head. We lived in a section of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and my moms was on welfare, but she took care of us and did everything she was supposed to do. I grew up in Bed Stuy on Bainbridge. Where I lived at was the borderline between Bed-Stuy and Brownsville. I guess right where those two parts of Brooklyn crossed at, but I live in Bed Stuy. It was hard, man. It was hard growing up. We lived on the first floor, so when there was a shoot out in the middle of the night we had to lay on the floor. Eventually I got into the street and did a lot of things I’m not too proud of, but I was blessed not to get murdered like so many people I grew up with. A lot of people I grew up with, they dead or they not here. I’m talking about my immediate family. My cousin that I grew up got 18 to life right now. He’s fighting his case and I feel in my heart, he’ll get that time back, but there’s a possibility he’ll never come home. Basically the name Papoose was given to me at birth by my grandmother before I could even speak for myself. My name is Papoose, his name is Pappy, so she gave us the same name. We grew up together and he got 18 to life right now.

What was the charge?

Robbery. He got 18 to life and I sat in the courtroom and watched him blow trial to that for that charge.

Was that before Remy?

Yeah, Remy knew him. We used to all be together. He went to jail right before Remy.

Wow, so you sat and watched your cousin go through that and then your wife? You went through it twice. When did that happen?

Yeah, right before Remy. Months apart. We grew up together. Remy was hurt by it. They were real close. We’re all family. They communicate through me. They pass messages to me and I communicate. Don’t spend as much time (on the phone) with him as Remy, but me and him write each other. I go to visit him. I just sent him pictures of my child’s graduation.

The next few summers should be interesting for you. This summer you have your album and if all goes well, you’re music is being heard by all and two summers later you have Remy back.

Yeah, she’s expected summer 2013 and yeah, that’s the way I’m looking at it.

Do you think your experience in the industry gave you a black eye?

Yeeeeah, man. They would shut down my shows. They would stop people while they were coming in. But now, I’m in a different space and I don’t want anything to do with that. I don’t want no problems with none of these rappers. They say one thing and they do another. I ain’t looking for no problems. I’m good. I’m just trying to make my music and feed my family, so the message I put out there is…I always put out a positive message and people know me for that and I’m going to continue. I’m leaning more toward that side. If I just gave you positive, it wouldn’t all be real. If I just gave you negative, it wouldn’t be all real. If I gave you both, that would be the truth and that’s what I try to do with my music. I show them both sides of life, just giving them the truth and how I see the world. Definitely, I want to put the message out there: I’m not beefing with nobody. I’m making good music and I’m trying to feed my family. If you hear me performing, come on down. If you see a Papoose CD, pick it up.

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