With rapper's taking to the internet to gain exposure and fans, mixtapes are coming out daily with new or remastered material. While rappers like Drake (Room For Improvement, Comeback Season, and So Far Gone), Wiz Khalifa (Burn After Rolling and Kush & OJ) and Fabolous (back in the day) are making their name with the mixtape, rappers like Lil Wayne are solidifying their name in the game with releases like No Ceilings, and the Dedication trilogy. Chamillionaire is the self proclaimed "Mixtape Messiah" and DJ Drama has built an entire career (and was locked up) for being the King of the mixtape, but is it all worth it? Is the mixtape ruining hip-hop?
Mixtapes were the canvas that fueled rap feuds, especially right after The Game left G-Unit and released Ghost Unit and You Know What It Is, Vol. 3, it has become a new outlet for pirating music, pushing back release dates, and leaking album singles. I enjoyed No Ceilings and the Dedications, but I am getting tired of Lil Wayne material flooding the airways on DatPiff.com with useless, redundant, and pre-released material. Just recently, Wayne released Blue Martian, which was full of horrible Young Money tracks that couldn't make it on any other Young Money releases and were hoping to ride on Wayne's success to gain more exposure for the crew.
On the other hand, I get to find new artists that are hot and follow them as they grow in the industry. I mean, Drake is one of my favorite rappers out right now just because of So Far Gone and Comeback Season, which in my mind could have easily been albums/main releases in themselves. Plus, you get to listen to underground stuff that record labels wouldn't ordinarily release, especially collaborations. Just release is Fan of a Fan, a collabo mixtape by Tyga and Chris Brown. Chris Brown is a great young talent even though his career is catching a lot of flaq and has hit a major roadblock with the whole Rihanna issue and Tyga is one of the more promising members of Young Money (other than Wayne, Drake and Jae Millz) and he always comes with straight fire. Tracks like "Ain't Thinkin About You" (a possible hit at Rihanna), "I'm So Raw", "Holla @ Me", and "G Shit" make the mixtape worthy of a good listen will definitely get your car bumpin. Truthfully, this mixtape was more well-put together than Bow Wow and Omarion's collabo album, Face Off. Mixtapes turned me onto new acts as well, especially Trey Songz with Anticipation. Tracks like "Famous", "Scratchin Me Up", "Does She Know", "Infidelity", "You Belong to Me", "More Than That", and "It Would Be You" got me into Trey and really feelin his collabos with Drake.
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