Mixtapes to me are hip-hop artifacts of how hip-hop used to b like. Its like time capsules! For each tape it tells a different story in time. And i love it. But i got on the train a little late. I didnt copp my first tape until 2000!! Thats right 2000!! I first srted reading about mixtapes in the Source Magazine as early as '95! But i never had access to one back in TX around that time. DJ Screw took over Houston and mostly other cities in Texas. So there was no way i was gonna hear a actual mixtape right??
In '96 when i moved to El Paso (out of all places) was the first time i actually heard a mixtape by a known DJ!! My father was in the military so the school i went to u socialize with other kids that wasnt from the area. They were from all over. And i had a friend who was from New York, and he had a DJ Goldfinger tape. I asked if i could borrow it and check it out, he let me and my world wasnt the same after that. That tape was the first time i heard Lil Cease "Crush on You"!! I must have rewinded it like 20x time when i heard it!! I had no clue that track was on Lil Kim 's Hardcore album!! After that, another friend of mine from the east coast had Bad Boy Mixtape Vol.3 hosted by Stretch Armstrong (i think it was vol. 3??). Once again my mind was blown cause on there was tracks on there that wasnt on albums and no videos for, so that opened my mind up to a whole nother world!!
So In '96 i heard only 2 tapes that just had me open for mixtapes!! But i didnt hear another one until 2000 when i was in the service . And a friend let me hear Dj Clue's The Rulers Back & The Best Of Beanie Sigel (i forgot who the DJ was on this). I knew then that i had to hope on this train before it passes me by.
I say all of that to say this. Its all about each one teach one! Many friends of mine just didnt keep them tapes to themselves and never told me about them. They let me hear them, copy them and rock them. And little did they know those tapes schooled me even more on hip-hop. They helped me out tremendously! back in '08 i started this blog to help out others that was looking for tapes nobody wanted to give up. 2 years before starting my blog i had only very little tapes from the 90s. All the tapes i had was from '01 til about '06 (present date at that time). The blogs that was puttin up tapes was Dirty Waters & S.O.U.L & Tapemasta! Those blogs was the only ones doing it. So i decided if i do this im help out others trying to get these tapes just like my friends did for me. I like to share and help out others. Now i know there are leechers out there that like to get what u put up and sell them, but hey thats gonna happen anyway. But neither than that it all about each one teach one. And as i see on my IG account there are people out there that love vintage mixtapes and take it seriously!! And i love that cause they care about the culture of this thing. We have to preserve these tapes and share them cause these are artifacts of hip-hop that are very sacred and rare. And i will not sit on what i have, i like to share with others.
So please people in this mixtape game, lets each one teach one. And I promise u i will do my part!!
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