The Mixtape / Smack, beef, And1 / beef era was the last time hip hop felt like the streets

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

The Kayslay memorial thread made me think of this

The era were stores (clothing stores in metro Detroit, for example) would have G-Unit mixtapes, Diplomat mixtapes, Kayslay, clue?, Street Wars, big mike mixtapes, plus underground tapes for artists you hadn't heard of like Saigon or Papoose or JR Writer, they'd have the newest Smack, Cocaine City, BEEF DVDs, they'd have And1 mixtapes which was an extension of the culture. Locally you'd see a regional artist, like here you'd see a Street Lordz tape or Icewood CD, or tone tone or something that you heard in the club.

It is how some of these guys really went viral from the beginning. You'd hear a Lloyd Banks verse on a kayslay tape, then later you see No Mercy no fear, or see him on BEEF or Smack...like damn who is this Lloyd Banks guy

Or you'd hear a beat on And1 or Smack, and wonder "WTF is that?" then later hear COBRA by mobb deep and its an instant classic...

You'd see screw tapes and eventually see who Chamillionare is on a dvd, then cop a Michael Watts cd and then discover slim thug...

shyt was all underground and felt like the last time hip hop was the streets. I think a tipping point for DVDs was Worldstar (really the JR Writer chain video), and for mixtapes was streaming, but not sure.

3 questions: do you agree, when did this end, why did this end?

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Ironically this was the era that put into motion all the “NY fell off” talk that has persisted for 20 years as well

 

[Deltron]

i miss the mixtape era the most

 

[Peter Parker]

P Cutta Street Wars

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

P Cutta Street Wars

This series is how i KNOW that the Styles P / aaliyah line doesn't exist. P-Cutta would've DEFINITELY had that on a street wars tape

 

[Deltron]

Street wars were fire

even bytch ass vlad's tape with those two other djs for Pac/Big were dope

DJ LT. Dan had some decent blend tapes

then of course there's Clue, Kay Slay, Envy, Green Lantern, etc.

I think sickamore always did instrumental ones...most were loops though

 

[CrimsonTider]

i miss the mixtape era the most

I think everyone does


It’s long gone tho

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

Street wars were fire

even bytch ass vlad's tape with those two other djs for Pac/Big were dope

DJ LT. Dan had some decent blend tapes

then of course there's Clue, Kay Slay, Envy, Green Lantern, etc.

I think sickamore always did instrumental ones...most were loops though

I'd say my favorites in order...if they all had brand new tapes on the shelf

1. Clue? best quality audio, decent amount of exclusives, his drops were well timed
2. Kayslay - WOAT quality, MOST exclusives, funny drops and the GOAT mixtape host
3. Cannon / Drama Gangsta Grillz - annoying drops but their artist tapes were untouchable
4. Green Lantern - really unique exclusives, good quality, and underground stuff and mainstream stuff both
5. Whoo Kidd - G-unit, nuff said
6. Envy because of his rocafella ties and his shyt was pretty cdq
7. DJ Smallz / southern smoke - there werent a lot of multi-artist southern mixtapes, and this series was a good one with a lot of artists in the south i had no exposure to
8. P-cutta street wars

A lot of them were kind of 2nd tier versions of the above...like Big Mike and Cutmaster C were just not as good Kayslays, and Envy was a 2nd tier Clue?. Clinton sparks was pretty good too tho

 

[maxamusa]

I wish all that shyt was on major streaming platforms. Imagine if someone re-mastered all them

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

I wish all that shyt was on major streaming platforms. Imagine if someone re-mastered all them

I will say a HUGE advantage of YoutubeMusic is that it can stream music from regular youtube

Peep game


<= i still have cdq files of this version of youdont know with envys drops

 

[Cladyclad]

Mixtape era is how rappers like Cam, 50, & Wayne perfected their styles. Without mixtapes I don’t think they have their legendary status. Rhyming on so many different beats help them so much man. I miss that era a lot. When I heard a fire mainstream/underground beat. I could not wait to see who flipped it.

 

[maxamusa]

I will say a HUGE advantage of YoutubeMusic is that it can stream music from regular youtube

Peep game


<= i still have cdq files of this version of youdont know with envys drops

Appreciate you....now I'm paying for another damn subscription

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

Mixtape era is how rappers like Cam, 50, & Wayne perfected their styles. Without mixtapes I don’t think they have their legendary status. Rhyming on so many different beats help them so much man. I miss that era a lot. When I heard a fire mainstream/underground beat. I could not wait to see who flipped it.

Wayne's progress was live from SQ1-SQ6 The remix. He literally got better every tape. It was really something to see.

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

Appreciate you....now I'm paying for another damn subscription

Yeah it's fire...very underrated And it plays in the car natively with android auto

 

[Pedro Negro]

I'd say my favorites in order...if they all had brand new tapes on the shelf

1. Clue? best quality audio, decent amount of exclusives, his drops were well timed
2. Kayslay - WOAT quality, MOST exclusives, funny drops and the GOAT mixtape host
3. Cannon / Drama Gangsta Grillz - annoying drops but their artist tapes were untouchable
4. Green Lantern - really unique exclusives, good quality, and underground stuff and mainstream stuff both
5. Whoo Kidd - G-unit, nuff said
6. Envy because of his rocafella ties and his shyt was pretty cdq
7. DJ Smallz / southern smoke - there werent a lot of multi-artist southern mixtapes, and this series was a good one with a lot of artists in the south i had no exposure to
8. P-cutta street wars

A lot of them were kind of 2nd tier versions of the above...like Big Mike and Cutmaster C were just not as good Kayslays, and Envy was a 2nd tier Clue?. Clinton sparks was pretty good too tho

I used to be a Big Mike fan because he always had the latest D-Block and Dipset drops, minus all that screaming and yelling on Kay Slay tapes.

Those Green Lantern Alive on Arrival mixes were also