Monday, December 3, 2007

Mixtapes Suck.

I hate “the mixtape” culture. I just don’t get it. I’ve been “down” as much as my melanin deficient dermis allows since the early 80’s and I get the point that cultures need to evolve. I’m not saying it was better back in the day. It was by the way. But the whole mixtape thing. It is you rhyming over someone else’s beats, typically. They are rushed and sloppy and lack direction and substance. I understand there are a few that are done well but I don’t need to be inundated with new material from MC Magoo or DJ Magee every few months. It doesn’t make you prolific, it makes you irritating. In my opinion, the only time one should rhyme over someone else’s beat is on the legendary and sadly extinct “posse cut” or at a battle. Otherwise it’s biting. You are straight jacking some shit. Rather than put the rhyme you wrote last night on 2” or into your computer. Take some time with it. When I started rhyming I didn’t really understand that other people made your beats. I just thought you wrote the rhyme, made the beat and, I guess, engineered the session yourself. Naïve? Maybe. But I had to learn how to do it all myself. It was a lot more work, but I got a lot better at making everything gel together.
End transmission
10001110101
p.s. I refer to the rapper "mixtapes" not a bunch of songs from a bunch of artists. That would just make me a hypocrite.

6 comments:

Sounds Recorded said...

I agree 100%. When I see the word "Mixtape" I go the other direction.

Anonymous said...

I hear you but if you want to hear some freestyle shit by a dope deejay you have to get mixtapes There are some dope deejays out there man. I like Rectangle, Do-wop and the mix tape gods but I agree muthafucker get blase bland and are rehashing the same ol shit Jamz

Dart Adams said...

I usually find that mixtapes are 10X better than studio albums in many cases. I can't tell you how many songs artists have on mixtapes that should've made the album instead of the crap that ends up getting picked. The problem with mixtapes to me is when some artists bust their asses to put out the illest mixtapes but their albums don't live up to their mixtapes and/or they never get to release major label LP's (I'm looking at you Joe Budden, Saigon and Papoose!)

If Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor didn't follow 3 classic mixtapes I'm sure it wouldn't have seemed like such a disappointment to some of his fans.

One.

What It Is said...

@ mook no doubt. You know we used to rock the hell outta S&S and Ron G. I 'm talking about nowadays.
@Dart really "10x?!" I think the sample clearance thing is a valid argument and there are always good songs that don't make the album cut. If that's the case, bring back the beauty of singles and put some b-sides on it. Budden can eat my fat log of dissapointment. not that my log is dissapointing. it's just that he was dissapointing and I would like him to eat my log. Not that I like guys eating my log. Not there's anything wrong with that...etc etc.

nes said...

what is your take on break/sample mixtapes? you gotta love them shits...

What It Is said...

Absolutely. Actually, I'm going to start posting a bunch of them staring next year.

eXTReMe Tracker