He’s almost a caricature of today’s social media phenoms. Zan pulled up with the hashtag-embroidered hat, ready for pictures of Paper Boi and when his overzealous presence was waved off, he took to social media by the next morning to humiliate the rapper.
“Yeah man,” Earn warns. “Don’t bait this dude. You gon’ make it worse.” But Paper was already furiously typing away. It all results in the Streisand Effect. See?
We especially like Atlanta because it targets every part of what it means to be an up-and-coming rapper today. These are the things you have to deal with — the increased visibility, the little kids imitating your actions (“good” or “bad”), and the nagging ass bloggers in it for the likes.
As irritating as Zan is though, there is one moment here where he makes a little sense and shows Paper that the two are more alike than he would like to believe. After tracking him down at his pizza delivery job, Paper hops in Zan’s modest whip with his “business partner” in the back (Atlanta’s smallest superstar Street Money PJ pops up here). He low-key threatens Zan with cliched phrases: “This ain’t no game aiight? I’m tired of people messing with me online. You messing with my life, this my job. I know it looks like all fun and games on The Shade Room but n*ggas die. People are forgotten. Sh*t is real.” Then “Rap is making the best out of a bad situation.”
Zan offers his own perspective. “It’s all a game. We’re all just hustling. You’re exploiting your situation to make rap. And I’m exploiting you exploiting that.” Point taken.
CONTINUED
