The Untold Truth Of Atlanta's Paper Boi

At first glance, "Paper Boi" seems like a great name for a rapper. It's catchy and it fits into a song really well. But as tends to be the case, a fair amount of brainstorming had to go into the creation of such an iconic moniker. 

"Paper Boi" wasn't the first name the "Atlanta" creatives wanted to go with, which Stephen Glover revealed in an interview with The Fader. Early on, the "Atlanta" creators knew they'd need a central rap figure. Glover elaborated, "We were like, 'What should this rapper's name be?' The original idea was that we'd build this scary, Black, gangsta, trap rapper, but his rap name would be White Boi." The song would even have the same catchy hook, going, "White boi, white boi, all about that white boi."

At that point, they found out there might have been a real rapper named White Boi, so they had to pivot. Glover went on to describe the process: "So we're like, 'Okay, we're gonna call this guy Paper Boi.' It still works: Paper Boi, Paper Boi, all about that paper, boi, that double entendre, triple entendre-type thing. That's how it started." Granted, there's also another real rapper named Paperboy, but they didn't let that deter them this time.