Eli "Paperboy" Reed (born Eli Husock) is an American singer and songwriter. After graduating from Brookline [Massachusetts] High School in 2002 he moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi and immersed himself in the juke joint culture of the Deep South. After spending a year in Clarksdale he enrolled at The University of Chicago to study sociology. While in Chicago he hosted a radio show called "We Got More Soul" on the college station WHPK and played organ and piano in the South Side Chicago church of the famed Soul/Gospel singer Mitty Collier. After one year of study in Chicago he returned home to Boston to focus on music, recording his first album Sings Walkin' & Talkin' & Other Smash Hits!

The local success of that album and his frenzied live show brought him to the attention of Somerville, Massachusetts based record label Q Division records. He recorded his first album of original material, "Roll With You" in late 2007 with Q Division producer Ed Valauskas at the helm. That album was released in 2008 and the next two years saw Reed garner a national and international following. His success overseas in particular sparked his signing to Virgin (later switching to parent label Capitol) Records in 2009.