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With a titanic effort spanning three continents, and with participants from Stockholm to Cape Town, the Paper Cha$erz family is ready to release their first mixtape, created completely on Indaba Music. If descriptions were comprised of one word, the word for this mixtape would be diversity. Not only is the music encompassed in this album diverse, but, the collaborators and the subject matter is diverse. Spearheaded by the underground Philadelphia producer St. Paul and Canadian MC Kava-1, the mixtape has finally come to fruition after months of planning and recording. One of the standout, and rather surprising, qualities of the mixtape is the subject matter. Though the mixtape is titled Paper Cha$erz (Vol. 1), many of the songs focus on social issues, either personal or in story form, which circumvent the need to tout all the usual mainstream showings of bling, rims, iced grillz, and paper. Let’s face it, one of the things that made Illmatic such a dominant hip-hop force was, while Nas’ wordsmithing was impeccable, its continued, track after track, social commentary and imagery; and it is refreshing to see that this mixtape often follows in the Illmatic tradition. Of course, that’s not to say that the whole mixtape is socially conscious or personal. Tracks like “My Grind On”, “Paperchasin Anthem”, and “FreshChick” show the more commercial side of the tape. 

There are several standout tracks on the mixtape. The Paper Cha$erz family hits hard from the first track on the mixtape. “It Don’t Matter” featuring MCs Sunny Tuff and Gangalee, is a bold condemnation of the commercial music industry, and glorifies the underground scene. The beat is catchy and well produced, which adds to the overall vibe of the track. Its hook claims, “You could be the best lyricist and don’t prosper/ or you can be the worst MC and make it to the top/  It don’t matter, it don’t matter”, and later, Gangalee notes, “…just ‘cause you’re dope on the block/ don’t mean the A&R’s gonna feel the same.” With the emergence of “MCs” like Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane, it’s easy to see where this commentary is coming from. Anyone who has been true to the hip-hop tradition from the first cypher knows that unfortunately, sometimes second rate rapping is more marketable. 

Another standout track is “Just 17”. MC Kava-1, one of the mixtape’s organizers, paints a great picture of a down-on-his-luck 17 year old, which weaves together a story of loss, maturity, coming of age, and the trappings of poverty into some pretty clever rapping. It’s refreshing to hear more image and story driven rapping, especially a story that continues from the beginning of the song and follows through to the end. Kava-1’s flow is dead on, and it’s easy to hear some of his more old school and underground influences. There’s also a lot of texture to notice in the beat: subtle vinyl noise, effective chops, and some nicely chosen samples.  

In a total 360, the track “My Grind On”, is a banging, hard hitting, dirty south beat. MC ALLINGATOR focuses on more commercial ready material: the hustle and the need to be on your grind. This is more of a tribute to the Paper Cha$er name than the other tracks and is more club ready than the other tracks. In terms of subject matter, ALLINGATOR effectively provides one of the nicely placed and refreshing breaks from the heavier fare of the Paper Cha$erz mixtape.
One of those heavier tracks is “Gotta Be More” by MC Jah I Witness. Jah chooses to create three portraits with his words. The first is a boy looking for a way out of the ghetto, either through education or through something else. The second scene is a woman whose man is in prison, and is looking for something to fill the void. Lastly, and perhaps the hardest hitting, is the portrait of the crack fiend who has been shunned by the world, falling deeper and deeper into a hole; one with “quick highs and long lows”. All of these images are codified by a fitting chorus, a message that there’s “Gotta Be More” than their status quo. Jah’s more melodic, Drake like approach to his flow, is very appropriate and does the subject matter justice.   

St. Paul and Kava-1 have managed to pull together a good crew of artists, with a promise to release more in the future. “This is just the beginning!”, says St. Paul. There’s already another indaba session up for volume 2.