One of the greatest gifts hip-hop has given to the world is the popularization of free music, mostly in the form of the infamous mixtape. Honestly, it's one of my favorite things in this world and it lends itself perfectly to the hip-hop genre. Not only does it provide me with a guilt-less form of music to download but mixtapes are also often legit as artists are often set free from the shackles of the music industry and just put their lyrical virtuosity on display over some of their favorite beats. Forget the expensive production, forget getting a big name pop star for the hook, it's all about creating clever rhymes for a solid 10-20 tracks. Some artists are even better on their mixtape than album as Jay-Z hinted at when he referred to the 'Mixtape Weezy'. By the way, Wayne just justified this with his ballistic No Ceilings tape. LAWD have mercy!
Now a mixtape can provide two basic functions. It can provide a vessel for an established artist to show he's still got it on a nasty-'Eat rappers and go in my yard and bury the bones'-lyrical level like Wayne did with No Ceilings but the mixtape is mainly for the young artists and it can be a powerful tool, as 50 Cent proved. Young artists can use the mixtape as a vessel of introduction for the listening public so that by the time an actual album comes out the artists barely even qualifies as 'new'. The best example of this is Drake as his So Far Gone mixtape made him into an overnight star and was more popular than most artists albums. And did I mention it was all free!
But lately I've been listening to a couple tapes. As B.O.B. prepares to release his first album he also plans to release his mixtape titled May 25th which answers the question of when B.O.B.'s first album comes out.
Cam'ron also released a tape titled Boss of All Bosses 2 which is pretty mediocre, but hey no need to feel like anything was wasted after all it was free. And it did provide me with this awe-inspiring Introductory track with the gem of 'Your money short like the shorts on Stockton'.
Now what would a mixtape be without the obligatory DJ shouts/bombs/gunshots/screams and poorly photoshopped cover? I wouldn't want to know what that would be, but it wouldn't be a mixtape. Luckily Cam's tape has both as the cover features a neckless Cam'Ron with a white man hand and DJ Drama yelling 'Let's go Avatar on these ni**as!' one song in. Yes!
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