Paper Boi’s evolution as a character is more subtle and (in my opinion) more realistic than your standard television series. Generally, as people, once we reach that 27-30 age range we are who we are when it comes to our basic personality traits. Our evolution comes in how we see the world, how we define ourselves, and what/whom we value.
In season 1 Alfred valued financial security. Both he and Earn were trying to get paid so thats what his main focus was
Season 2, as the fame and finances were coming Alfred had to decide what kind of “celebrity” he was going to be. He struggled with it up until episode 8 (Woods) where he decided to embrace celebrity and check his “Keep it real” mantra. Then the shift focused to securing longterm stability and whether or not Earn was the man to make that happen. Alfred directly issued a challenge of sort to Earn (which he hadn’t done up to that point) and Earn in his own way met that challenge. Alfred decided that, even though he was going to embrace being a star rapper, that he still needed both Earn and Darius to keep him grounded.
Season 3 is Alfred enjoying all the trimmings and triumphs that come with fame, but the evolution in his CHARACTER is coming to value the things outside of himself. Such as his own sense of decency and self worth (Sinterklaas is coming to town. Where he refuses to perform for the whites in blackface) his sense of self respect (The Old Man And The Tree, where he cuts down the tree of the white billionaire who refuses to pay him) his sense of artistry (Cancer Attack, where he desperately wants to find his phone in order to retrieve lyrics he had written) his sense of community (White Fashion, where he genuinely wants to help black communities with financial literacy and keeping black money WITHIN black neighborhoods)
In season 4, the evolution for Alfred seems to be pointing towards his nervousness in the “mortality” of his rap career. He’s financially stable, nationally known, but who is he going to be when it all inevitably comes to an end? Is he going to be an “artists artist” like Blueblood? Who only raps for a limited, but passionate audience who hang on his every word so much that they’ll decipher and decode an entire album? Is he going to transition into managing and exploiting other artists? Keeping a stable of younger, less talented, but ultimately more popular (and whiter) artists under his stable with whom he can cash out on? Is he going to become old and bitter, unfulfilled and left hollow by his inner demons and beefing with family like his aunts and uncles?
Or will he die before any of that happens? Gunned down by the Opps of yesteryear, becoming a martyr for an era and a memory of a time period?
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