Most are familiar with the humble beginnings of the mixtape, especially its origins within the hungry underground in an era in which tapes created by deejays were sold on the streets, jam-packed with creative freestyles, beat blends and a mix of Hip Hop and R&B. Many of the times deejays would record their own club or house party sets and bring it to the streets for anywhere from $10 to $130. Hip Hop fans ran home to play their favorite deejay's tape in as the house speakers equally blasted the latest compilation, attracting both the kids next door and the cops down the block. The origins of the mixtape are creative, innovative and overall, groundbreaking. The tape emerged as a way to allow the artist to not only recite to the streets, but also share his/her craft with anyone willing to listen. The tape unified people through a common thread – music – and set the bar in a competitive art of rhyme, produced by the streets, for the streets, to be judged, by the streets.

As the mixtape game continues to flourish throughout the late '80s and mid-'90s, in the last decade or so changes developed in the making, marketing and movement of the tape. Labels got involved – for better or for worse – as the circuit began to flood with new deejays, young rappers and sponsors and promoters. Its orientation changed, the focus shifting from the feature of tape’s content to its featured artist. And let’s not forget about the mixtape being used as a platform for beef, most notably between Jay-Z and Nas, and most recently, between Fat Joe and 50 Cent. So how much has the tape changed in the past decade, and how much has it stayed the same? In the following exclusive, HipHopDX breaks down the tape’s movement. Oh, and we got a nice blend of mixtape deejays to share their thoughts including DJ Kid Capri, DJ Doo Wop and DJ Lennox, as well as rappers who are well into the mixtape circuit, Tek from Smif N Wessun and Ali Vegas.

Change or Perish

The most notable change in the tape happens to be the most famous complaint among mixtape deejays: the change in quality. With the over-saturation of MySpace rappers (and producers), the quality of the content seems to be set aside on the shelf as the worry becomes putting out the tape before the next man does, rather than putting out the tape that’s better than the next mans’. “Today, all of the deejays have the same thing and the same music – which is not what makes a mixtape hot. Every week there is a new deejay and a new mixtape. They are playing the same songs and the same shit over and over again; it’s boring and repetitive”, states Kid Capri, enforcing the importance of making classic music. “Classics never die. There are no classics anymore; classics, you can always enjoy. I made several mixtapes back in the day that are timeless – you could pop one in now and still dig it,” declares the man behind the classic, 82 Break Beats. DJ Lennox, who’s worked on mixtapes with Kool G Rap, Jadakiss and MIMS, shares a similar view. “The number of deejays has increased. The quality of music has decreased,” adding that despite the decrease in the quality of music, the mixtape cover artwork has at least gotten better. “[Cover artwork] can make the most garbage ass mixtape look like the best thing ever. It’s kinda like a chick stuffing her bra.”

Aside from the shortage of music quality, the mixtape game also lost sight of its original purpose, which was to break new artists. Granted, Saigon, Papoose and 50 Cent all got their recognition through the mixtape gig, but in the overall scheme of things, the tape today is used more to showcase the already established artists, instead of break new talent, which according to DJ Doo Wop, was the initial goal. “The most important role that the mixtape used to play – keyword ‘used to’ – is the breaking of new artists. Once a deejay makes a significant impact in the game, and is viewed as credible, he automatically gains the advantage of being able to take a new artist and possibly make him/her a household name.”

As well, the private and corporate sponsorship has been affecting both the creativity of the deejay and influencing what artist will get played on the latest tape. Surely, placing Jadakiss on the tape will generate more profit than will placing some kid from Chicago whose got his feet wet regurgitating rhyme patterns from Reasonable Doubt. “With a sponsor or a label, you take the authenticity out because you are trying to please everyone around you. Deejays tend to forget what it’s about – it’s about him and making the crowd jump. […] A sponsorship and a label play a big role – it’s both a curse and a blessing”, admits Capri.

But it’s not all bra-stuffing folks. With the advancement of technology as well as Hip Hop’s climb to center-stage of the music industry (2nd runner-up to rock music), it is inevitable that the mixtape itself, rappers’ and deejays' street amplifiers, will change also. In the past decade or so, paddling has decreased as artists now rely on technology to push their mixtape while they sit comfortably, watching Oprah. MP3s, personal web-pages and online distribution companies are the new profit generators and time savers, which allow artists to focus on their music while money transactions take place online. Aside from the convenience aspect, selling mixtapes on the Internet attracts a greater audience since unlike your block, the Internet reaches users and Hip Hop fans world-wide. A kid in Warsaw can cop the newest tape on the day of its online release, as can a kid in Zambia or Venezuela. Continued on page 2 »