Mixtapes are like opinions. Everyone has one, but not all of them matter.
Your mixtape should be a totally uninhibited creative space. A platform where you can impulsively exhibit your talent for a more focused and passionate audience. The mixtape is a very reliable vehicle for hip-hop, especially in the digital era where free information spreads feverishly. In some cases, artists give away music that is significantly more awesome than their commercial releases. It just depends.
Time and place matter. They matter for the artist. They matter for the listener. Every once in a while, these intersecting variables between artist and listener produce extremely valuable products and experiences, all starting with a great mixtape.
With that, here are ten artists that capitalized off their mixtapes. Please note this is not a "complete" list of every artist that's ever blown up off a mixtape, but rather ten extremely notable ones.
50 Cent, Power of the Dollar, 2000.
Before he was famous for rapping about robbing and humiliating rappers, 50 Cent was rapping about robbing and humiliating rappers.
He's never been known to play well with others, in fact, 50 was blacklisted from the music industry in the early 2000s, and was forced to record his music in Canada.
The following are songs from Power of the Dollar, his "unreleased but heavily bootlegged" first album, which for all intents and purposes, we are calling a mixtape.
A Kid Named Cudi, 2008.
As great as this project was, everyone has that ONE friend who played it, and played it, and played it, and is likely playing it right now.
A$AP Rocky, Live. Love. A$AP., 2011.
It was Harlem and Houston and chopped and screwed and purple and swag, and this guy Rocky became an instant rock star.
Gucci Mane, Chicken Talk, 2006.
Hood like a hot wing. Hood like a box spring. Hood like a Charger on fo’s painted lime green.
We loved it.
Drake
Drake, So Far Gone, 2009.
How are we doing so far? Should we stir the pot a little bit? Is this mixtape a classic? Did you love it?
The answer is yes! This is a great fucking mixtape. You’re an emotional creature, and that’s okay.
Chance The Rapper, Acid Rap, 2013.
Can this kid run for mayor already?
Lil Wayne, Da Drought Series, No Ceilings, etc.
It wouldn't be right to discuss mixtapes without at least mentioning this guy.
Obviously there was a Lil Wayne before there was a Mixtape Weezy. But would there still be a Lil Wayne if there had never been a Mixtape Weezy?
Probably. Thanks for all the songs, though.
Wiz Khalifa, Kush & Orange Juice, 2010.
We had heard a little bit of Wiz before Spring 2010. Burn After Rolling is a must for any diehard Wiz fan.
However, on one fine morning, April fourteenth, year two thousand ten, Khalifa exhaled perhaps his finest work ever: Kush & Orange Juice.
It was rolled tight with Converse, Bombay Sapphire, cheap hotels, sorority girls, Polo socks, and we’ll be damned if we didn’t smoke every last roach of it.
The Weeknd, House of Balloons, 2011.
You'll wanna be high for this.
Careful with this.
Young Jeezy, Trap Or Die, 2005.
As we reminisce about this Boyz N Tha Hood era of Jeezy, there's a $5 bill waiting for anyone that can share Jody Breeze's whereabouts.
Jeezy rounds things up with Trap Or Die. Whatever trap you clock into this Monday, even if your mixtape is a figurative one, remember that you are always one step away from success, or at least beef with Gucci Mane.
