Rapper MIMS has stolen the thunder from more than one New York MC. While Papoose and Saigon, two of the prematurely anointed saviors of East Coast hip-hop, await their major label release dates, MIMS’s massive radio hit “This Is Why I’m Hot” has made him a national star.

Ironically, that breakthrough track owes more to Dirty South, molasses-drip funk than any Rotten Apple-style sample-based beat. And MIMS dialectical boasts “I’m hot cause I’m fly/ you ain’t cause you not” recalls Yung Joc’s minimalism rather than Jay-Z’s poetry.

On his solid debut, “Music Is My Savior,” MIMS manages to find a happy medium between rap’s regional and stylistic extremes. His cocky, deliberate flow sounds at home over the rolling G-funk of “Big Black Train.” And on “They Don’t Wanna Play” featuring Bun B and Seed, MIMS is all gun-busting bravado amid the warped vocal snippets, glistening synths and Southern bounce.

But the unavoidable success of “This Is Why I’m Hot” looms large over the disc. “Superman” is a similarly hook-heavy shot of bombast with MIMS proclaiming: “I’m fly, I’m fly.” The ditty’s bare-bones beat is nearly as irresistible as his signature hit, and perhaps proof that if MIMS keeps echoing his worth, we soon might all be believers.