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A lot of times people on here ask "What is a mixtape exactly" and different people have different answers. To me, the definition of a mixtape should be:
"A bunch of free songs an artist puts out to keep his name fresh in the streets in between official releases."
I think mixtapes have mutated into:
"A bunch of free [low quality] songs [much of the time over commercial instrumentals] an [asshole no talent] artist puts out [floods the market] to keep his name fresh [overexposure] in the streets in between official releases [which sound just as low quality and shitty]."
I think it's a very poor situation to get into - although mixtapes can be used as a useful tool sometimes.
a) Most mixtapes suffer from a HORRIBLE ass mix job and aren't mastered at all. Even if the quality of the tracks are slammin, they don't play so well in the car.
b) A shit ton of songs on mixtapes are fuckin over commercial instrumentals. I've heard "In Da Club" over and over and over until I'm sick of it - I don't want to hear someone rap over it again. In the rare cases where I've asked myself "how would my fav artists sound over so and so's beat" - I listen one time and then I don't ever play that track again.
c) Mixtapes are fucking up the market because now people are expecting you to give them 8 full length albums on the street before they ever consider buying your album. You try to slang an album out of the back of your trunk and they'll look at you funny if you try to charge them anything. Whatever happened to taking your time with each track until you have perfection? You now have to have a perfect double album of material and give at least one of the discs away free.
d) Unless you're 50 Cent and people will cop whatever mixtape you put out no matter how shitty it is, most mixtapes are B-side material that's not good enough to make the album. You're trying to expose yourself to the public with less than your best effort? Your B-grade material? That's what you're expected to do.
e) It over exposes you. The reason DMX has played himself out is because you never could go 5 minutes without looking at his fucking Grace Jones lookin ass from 1998-2001. An album every 8 months, a single every 2 months, and a guest appearance to fill up whatever time in between. People need a break from you, to have them beggin for more. Now look - in addition to normal promotion, you're expected to put out mixtapes every so often to further over expose yourself. The mixtapes don't keep you fresh in the streets, they buzz the streets until they're sick of you. Watch how quickly Shady/Aftermath gets played out if they keep churnin out shit at this rate.
f) It's another form of industry exploitation. The record companies love you comin up in the studio and recordin shit that will never get put out - because it saves them promotional money and they still chargin you the studio time.
I think the mixtape scene is seriously burning out artists on the east coast scene...kids no longer having dreams of recording an album, investing they money and flipping it into albums and selling the albums flipping it into their own businesses. Now their dream is to have the streets buzzin with a mixtape which they ain't make one goddamn cent off of.
Bottom line, I think it's bad news.
"A bunch of free songs an artist puts out to keep his name fresh in the streets in between official releases."
I think mixtapes have mutated into:
"A bunch of free [low quality] songs [much of the time over commercial instrumentals] an [asshole no talent] artist puts out [floods the market] to keep his name fresh [overexposure] in the streets in between official releases [which sound just as low quality and shitty]."
I think it's a very poor situation to get into - although mixtapes can be used as a useful tool sometimes.
a) Most mixtapes suffer from a HORRIBLE ass mix job and aren't mastered at all. Even if the quality of the tracks are slammin, they don't play so well in the car.
b) A shit ton of songs on mixtapes are fuckin over commercial instrumentals. I've heard "In Da Club" over and over and over until I'm sick of it - I don't want to hear someone rap over it again. In the rare cases where I've asked myself "how would my fav artists sound over so and so's beat" - I listen one time and then I don't ever play that track again.
c) Mixtapes are fucking up the market because now people are expecting you to give them 8 full length albums on the street before they ever consider buying your album. You try to slang an album out of the back of your trunk and they'll look at you funny if you try to charge them anything. Whatever happened to taking your time with each track until you have perfection? You now have to have a perfect double album of material and give at least one of the discs away free.
d) Unless you're 50 Cent and people will cop whatever mixtape you put out no matter how shitty it is, most mixtapes are B-side material that's not good enough to make the album. You're trying to expose yourself to the public with less than your best effort? Your B-grade material? That's what you're expected to do.
e) It over exposes you. The reason DMX has played himself out is because you never could go 5 minutes without looking at his fucking Grace Jones lookin ass from 1998-2001. An album every 8 months, a single every 2 months, and a guest appearance to fill up whatever time in between. People need a break from you, to have them beggin for more. Now look - in addition to normal promotion, you're expected to put out mixtapes every so often to further over expose yourself. The mixtapes don't keep you fresh in the streets, they buzz the streets until they're sick of you. Watch how quickly Shady/Aftermath gets played out if they keep churnin out shit at this rate.
f) It's another form of industry exploitation. The record companies love you comin up in the studio and recordin shit that will never get put out - because it saves them promotional money and they still chargin you the studio time.
I think the mixtape scene is seriously burning out artists on the east coast scene...kids no longer having dreams of recording an album, investing they money and flipping it into albums and selling the albums flipping it into their own businesses. Now their dream is to have the streets buzzin with a mixtape which they ain't make one goddamn cent off of.
Bottom line, I think it's bad news.
