#da drought

Okay Gen Zers gather round as this old man tells you the wonderful story about a once prized treasure in the rap game – the mixtape. See back in my day, rappers couldn’t get social media famous like they can today. I mean they could, but not just for telling jokes or coming up with a dance. They had to RAP. Not only did they have to rap but they had to make a whole project. And during this time album sales were falling and download sites like Napster, LimeWire, FrostWire, PirateBay, and more where taking over the get-me-music-free game. The music industry was seeing a shift and people like myself were braving virus filed computers to have the latest releases. But the mixtape was a way for artist to meet fans and record labels in the middle. A free project that had their full creativity to keep fans happy, but also promoted and grew the artist buzz for their label release. 

Prime mixtape years were from 2003 - 2015. 2003 is when Lil Wayne dropped Da Drought and IDK what anyone says this is the start of the mixtape era. In 2015, and folks would agree, Apple Music killed the Mixtape Era cause – steaming. Now some old head rap purist might argue and give me different dates, but eff them. I’m not about to talk about cassettes and all that ish. That’s another post. Anyway, during this era some of the greatest FREE music came into the world. Did I mention it was for the F word, F-R-E-E. People like me did not have to fear prosecution for their desire to get music that was $0. 

Free music is what made the Mixtape era special. Websites like Datpiff and Livemixtape fed the streets with the hottest downloads. Those websites would even crash because people were too thirsty to get that new fire. Then, people would live tweet as they listened song by song and wanted to tell the Twitterverse about such and such mixtape being a classic. Rappers became cult figures for their mixtape personas. Lil Wayne being the main one, just listen to Jay-Z’s “Death of Autotune” where Hov literally says “I might send this to the mixtape Weezy,” Real talk though, countless other artist have been said to have a better mixtape career compared to their albums. Wiz Khalifa, Wale, Curren$y might be a few examples. People just love getting stuff for free, so much so that people kind of forget about the studio releases. 

Cultural moments were literally created around mixtapes and their releases. One of this biggest examples was Kanye West’s Good Friday. For longer than a month period Kanye dropped a new song every Friday, more or less. People would literally wait by their computer, constantly refresh their Twitter just to see a link to the new song. These Friday releases allowed Ye to tease his new albums and put fans in a frenzy for whatever he did next. Wayne made himself into a cultural moment because he could ruin whole songs if he rapped over your instrumental. It took me too long to figure out Sky’s The Limit was a Mike Jones song first smh. Other rappers like Wiz & Drake created entire brands from their mixtapes, so much so, that Taylor Gang & OVO are cemented into culture. And the importance of their mixtapes is why Kush & Orange Juice and So Far Gone are some of the only tapes available on streaming platforms. THAT’S HOW DOPE THOSE MIXTAPES ARE. 

Another great evolution of the Mixtape Era was when artist stop taking the Wayne approach, i.e make a tape using only other people’s beats, and began making album quality mixtapes. I’m not gonna say who was the first cause I dunno, but a lot of the credit would go to Drizzy with So Far Gone. Although he did borrow a few instrumentals the tape largely felt original. Even spawning a few charting songs. Other artist like ASAP Rocky with Live. Love. ASAP. and Chance the Rapper with Acid Rap released music that were almost, if not entirely, original. 

Yes children, the Mixtape Era was a glorious time. A time when clicking a download button could energize your whole day. Hip-Hop and many of it’s artist will be forever grateful of the Mixtape Era. Streaming services probably exist today because of music fans appetite for unlimited F-word music. Even if you’re too young to remember or participate in the Mixtape Era, just do yourself a favor and go to Datpiff’s Celebrated Mixtapes page. You’re welcome. 

May the Mixtape Era live on forever in the hearts and minds of rap fans everywhere. 

Lil’ Wayne- Fireman