Mixtapes & Albums

With the almost complete eradication of compact disc’s, the music stores from which their sold, and the ultimate decline of its sales, many rappers have used other outlets in getting their music heard outside the traditional creation of an album.

Mixtapes have always been around in hip hop but like many things in the genre its definition’s undergone change. My first interaction with the mixtape game was in middle school, where I was introduced to 50 cent by a classmate of mine. It featured 50 rapping over beats to the current songs that were out at the time, giving off the impression that he was showcasing he could do a better job than the artist responsible for the original. I personally believe it was these mixtapes that sparked the interest in people to want to hear an album from him.

What’s bad is that the interest shown for 50 cent is non-existent for other artists coming up through the underground circuit. Reason for that I believe is due to the oversaturation of mixtapes these days. Its evident that artists find comfort with these mixtapes because of the lack of label heads overseeing the project, giving them free range to do as they please and give back to the fans. The effect to this is that in many cases the project they usually have the most creative control over, usually their mixtape ends up being a better project then their album.

It’s hard to even differentiate between a mix tapes an album. Signed artists are making mixtapes with original beats giving the attributes of an album to a free for download mixtape. For a mixtape an established artist should not use an original beat for the entirety of the cod but maybe for a few songs. Listeners just want to see if the artist can do a better job on the track than the original artist. Only up and comers like myself should use original beats but have a mixture of unoriginal beats to show listeners originality and creative with the making of your own song and showing that you can do a better job then the signed artists beat your rapping over.

The mixtape circuit have benefitted artists who maintain relevance in the industry such as Fabulous or Jadakiss who despite their veteran status and not having the highest album sales are still sought out from other artists for a feature, and whose mixtapes are sought out for by listeners like a new album release from Jay-Z.

As I plan to take on the mixtape journey for myself with my very own mixtape which will be entitled D.O.P.E (definition of pure expression) I plan to give it my all as if it were an album, and in the future if I am given the opportunity of creating an album my plan is to make sure its better than my mixtape and not the other way around

Alano