Biography
In 1993, Mitchell Johnson, performing as the Los Angeles rapper Paperboy, delivered one of that year's standout rap successes via "Ditty," a G-funk cut indebted to Zapp and issued through Next Plateau; the track climbed to number 10 on the Hot 100 in the year's opening months. The Nine Yards, the album containing the single, reached number 48 on the Billboard 200, and the song later earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance, an honor that went instead to fellow Los Angeles native Dr. Dre for "Let It Ride." City to City, Paperboy's next project on Next Plateau, did not appear until 1996, after which his recorded output grew increasingly infrequent. Subsequent releases encompassed The Love Never Dies on Thump in 2004, The New News via TTL in 2008, and the self-released Fresh Off the Press in 2015. Across his entire career, he remained committed to the G-funk sound.
Albums