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Mix Tape [ History ] Mix Tape(s)




L.A.'s Greatest Mix tape Dj's:

(In no order... yeah right!)

Dj Killu
Dj Adam 12
Dj Higher (Positive Rythem Crew)
Dj Shite
Dj Mo Dave
Dj Rectangle
R A W (B Boy 3000)
Dj Dusk (Rootdown)

and their are others... keep it bangin.


One thousand two hundred tech's - UA - Dj Instantaneous
ALL SOUND. ALL TRUE!




Mix-Tape

About 4”x 2¼” x ¼ ” plastic case containing two spools with teeth on their inside surfaces. Their outer surface being grooved to hold and to move a long thin strip of magnetic tape along themselves and past an opening in the bottom of the cassette.


Antecedents

Reel to reel, basically a giant version of a cassette, with the two spools being modular.

8-track, a separate cassette and tape system that followed a different path through the cassette and slightly different tape.

Wire spool player/recorder, a recorder/player that was made of a coil of wire rather than tape.


A split occurs within the mixtape world with the onset of the mixtape for sale by the DJ, creating the public mixtape. Often a snapshot of a DJ’s “set” or depicting a moment and perspective in a music scene, mostly hip-hop, drum and bass, techno, dancehall reggae and house music. In some ways the mixtape circuit makes up for a general lack of touring in some of these music scenes. They keep a performers name up, allow a performer to build skills, test hooks and make connections.

The mixtape as a medium has a conflicted relation to time/history. In some ways the mixtape is temporary, it documents a moment in music and is meant to be enjoyed in the same space. Mixtapes, when sold at a shop, are usually only the most up to date ones, much like magazines. At the same time, the way mixtapes document a moment in music they can act as time capsules. Both uses/roles for mixtapes are historical, the first by building off the past and moving forwards, the second by documenting the present in preparation for it becoming the treasured past.

The key split between the public Mixtape and personal Mixtape are the intent to profit financially or professionally by the tape and the ratio of dubber to listener. Personal mixtapes usually follow a 1 to 1 ratio (sometimes both “1’s” being the same person) where as the commercial Mixtape follows a ratio of 1 DJ to multiple listners.

This opens up the question of legality under copyright law.

Commercial mixtapes occupy a grey area in the music industry. A mixtape, unlike a compilation, which is officially put out by a record company, respects no intellectual property laws.

However, with artists often giving material to DJ’s expressly to use on a mixtape there is not a lot a record label could do, or would want to. The mixtape can act as a flyer for the record company‘s artist, getting a sample of the work to a desirable audience that can make or break underground performers.


Perhaps more common or well known than the public mixtape is the personal mixtape. Personal in that it usually has a ratio of 1 to 1 between producer/dubber to consumer/listener.

This category includes: the (love) letter, lesson, convenience, and experiment/concept tape.

Letter: a friendly gift often (though not always) at the beginning of a relationship (romantic or not), used to inform the listener of the user’s taste in music (or desired taste in music), or to share information of music (see lesson below) or to evoke a mood or theme (love songs etc.)

Lesson: demonstrates a musical style or genre(s) for the listener. This includes some amount of showing off of the dubber’s taste, size of collection etc. In some ways is similar to a “conveniance mixtape,” made by raiding someone else’s (superior) collection. In many ways all mixtapes that act as letters (see above) could be considered lessons-both in a style of music and in what the person making the tape wants the listener to think about him or her, his or her tastes, knowledge etc.

Convenience: usually made by the listener, this is a tape the copies music for use somewhere or somehow else. Like taping records or CDs for use in a walkman, a car. Sometimes these tapes aren’t even a mix, just a straight copy of one source, from beginning to end. More often they form a personal greatest hits tape, compiling favorite songs in one cassette.

Examples include: workout tape, driving tape, vacation/traveling tape or specific moments tapes, November ‘91 tape, summertime tape. This blends into mood/theme tapes, one of the most common. These can also act as letter or lesson tapes.

For example: the party mix, romantic mix, sex mix, mixes that explore covers and original songs, connections between genres, topics, etc.


Mixtapes have been around just about as long as hip-hop has, only they weren't called "mixtapes" back in the 1970s, they were known as "party tapes." They were born for the same reason mixtapes thrive today: the need to feed the streets.

In the mid '70s, people loved partying in the clubs so much they had to take the jam with them to their homes or cars. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Kool Herc and the Herculoids, DJ Breakout, the Funky Four and DJ Hollywood were among the most popular crews of that era that prospered not only from their DJing gigs, but from the recordings they made of the gigs.

"It was a combination of doing customized tapes and then there were the tapes I used to do of my performances with my group at regular parties," explained Grandmaster Flash, who started making his tapes in 1973 and credits himself, Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa as the originators of mixtapes.

Consumers had to be ready to empty their pockets if they wanted a Grandmaster Flash tape — the DJ would charge a dollar a minute for cassettes that ran anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes. He would compile the hottest music at the time, and then continuously shout out the tape purchaser's name using an echo sound effect.

"The people that was buying my customized tapes were the scramblers, the dealers, people that had money," Flash explained. "I was making a couple thousand dollars a month, easy, just doing this."

In addition to these made-to-order tapes for specific clients he would run across in the streets, Grandmaster Flash also established a steady business with livery cab drivers.

"The cab drivers had these fancy cars, and there was this thing called the 'Hold Call,' " he said. "A Hold Call is where a person who had some money would want to get into this particular vehicle and do just basically nothing, sort of just ride around for hours and hours. If [the driver] had the hottest tape he would get all the Hold Calls across the [taxi dispatcher's] radio."

Like Flash, Brucie B, who carried on the mixtape tradition into the mid-to-late '80s, made his tapes by recording his DJ sets. He was the main attraction at the legendary hip-hop club Harlem's Rooftop.

"I used to play everything, hip-hop, Mardi Gras, reggae, slow jams, jazz," B said, "anything that had a nice little groove to it."

Harlem native Damon Dash frequented the Rooftop as a teen. "Every Friday you went to the Rooftop and roller-skated. Dudes was dancing, they was roller-skating with their minks on. But the thing with Brucie B is back then, a lot of the highlights [on the tapes] were the shout-outs. I gave him $20 to give me a shout-out once. He said my name and I was happy. I'd rewind it to that part every time I picked a chick up."

While young Dame was spending $20 to hear his name shouted out, others were spending dough for a personalized tape B would make at his home.

"I would just buy 90-minute Sonys, or TDKs, any type of normal tape," Brucie remembered of an era when very few DJs used a studio to make their tapes, or sent any copies to a plant to be mass copied. "I used to copy them one by one all day. I would just sit there and dub, actually coming up with 50 or 60 tapes and sell them for $20. I'd go on this block and make $100, go on that block and make $100."

Like Brucie B, DJ Kid Capri, who came on the scene as the '80s were closing out, initially got his name from spinning in such clubs as Studio 54 and making tapes of his nights at the booth. However, as all the old hip-hop havens like the Rooftop, the Red Parrot and T Connection started to close down, DJs were forced to focus on the tapes they made at their cribs. As the early '90s came around, this opened the door for lesser known DJs who were innovative on the 1s and 2s.

"Back in the days when I was coming up, the mixtape scene in Queens was hip-hop and R&B blends," DJ Clue reminisced about what prompted him to get in the game. "It was hip-hop beats with R&B a cappellas and mixing them together. That's how I started making mixtapes. Out in Queens, people who were hot on that blending stuff were Grandmaster Vick, Doggtime and of course Ike Love."

No one was hotter at concocting the new hybrid tracks than uptown New York's own DJ Ron G, who's recently produced such hits as Fat Joe's "We Thuggin' " and Jennifer Lopez's "All I Have." His formula of lush R&B vocals over harder hip-hop beats can still be found in much of today's popular music.

Meanwhile, DJ Clue was having a hard time distinguishing himself until he figured out his own formula that would revolutionize the mixtape game forever: scoring exclusive joints and freestyles for his tapes. Clue's mixtapes became less about displaying turntable skills and more a reflection of his ability to find new talent and new music.

Besides shedding the first light on some of rap's biggest hits, like the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy," the original version of Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamins" and Jay-Z's "Ain't No N---a," Clue also gave the first dose of major exposure to some of today's biggest stars like Noreaga, Cam'ron, DMX, Fabolous, Mase, Ja Rule and the LOX via freestyles.

"We used to sit around the house and listen to Clue tapes and be like, 'He'll call us one day,' " laughed the LOX's Jadakiss, who's been on too many Clue tapes to name. "So we sat and sat and sat and waited. Eventually he called."

"At the time Clue was very influential — he still is — and a lot of people got signed off of his tapes," affirmed Dame Dash, who signed Clue to Roc-A-Fella in 1997 because of the DJ's gigantic buzz.

Clue paid off for the Roc. His two albums, The Professional and The Professional 2, both went platinum, and that was without any videos.



MIX TAPES!

If you look inside a compact cassette, you will find that it is a fairly simple device. There are two spools and the long piece of tape, two rollers and two halves of a plastic outer shell with various holes and cutouts to hook the cassette into the drive. There is also a small felt pad that acts as a backstop for the record/playback head in the tape player. In a 90-minute cassette, the tape is 443 feet (135 meters) long.

Most higher-quality tapes tell you their formulation by stating a type. There are four types of tape in common use today:

Type 0 - This is the original ferric-oxide tape. It is very rarely seen these days.

Type 1 - This is standard ferric-oxide tape, also referred to as "normal bias."

Type 2 - This is "chrome" or CrO2 tape. The ferric-oxide particles are mixed with chromium dioxide.

Type 4 - This is "metal" tape. Metallic particles rather than metal-oxide particles are used in the tape.

Sound quality improves as you go from one type to the next, with metal tapes having the best sound quality. A normal tape deck cannot record onto a metal tape -- the deck must have a setting for metal tapes in order to record onto them. Any tape player can play a metal tape, however.

The controls on the tape deck let you match the recording bias and signal strength to the type of tape you are using so that you get the best sound possible.

Bias is a special signal that is applied during recording. The first tape recorders simply applied the raw audio signal to the electromagnet in the head. This works, but produces a lot of distortion on low-frequency sounds. A bias signal is a 100-kilohertz signal that is added to the audio signal. The bias moves the signal being recorded up into the "linear portion" of the tape's magnetization curve. This movement means that the tape reproduces the sound recorded on it more faithfully. Several of the links on the next page go into this topic in detail, and also cover Dolby noise-reduction systems.


[ EACH ONE. TEACH ONE. ]



Dj Instantaneous AKA "Studio Stan"

Andre S. Belcher - Old School like Cooley High!

Re: Mix Tape [ History ] Mix Tape(s)

you forgot the best in my opinion...

DJ DREZ aka dr. ez

he's the man...if you've never heard his ish...you definitely should...

Re: Mix Tape [ History ] Mix Tape(s)

Yeah, He Dj's for Medusa...

Drez is nice.

Dj Kilu, is hands down the #1 L.A. mix tape dj... I got two words...

Freestyle Fellowship!


One love.

Re: Mix Tape [ History ] Mix Tape(s)

What yal know about this... Yal ain't up on this...lol!


Artist: The Nonce
Album: World Ultimate
Song: Mix Tapes

Where is that s**t?
*tapes rattle*
I know it's on one of these tapes

Verse One: Nouka

On the bus, rollin to the crib
I would get dibs on the seat with my man OJ
and rock beats from Le Meirte Park to 81st
When I, got home, this was first
I plugged the headphones in, then catch the break
Fourteen with the system, I was like great
on the, turntables, I turned labels
Back and forth then pushed stop on the tape
Then down the street, to 81st, place the kid
with the fat face with the fat case for sale
Ten dollars, if you was known
I put the turntable down for the microphone

Chorus: repeat 2X

I used to sell, mix tapes, but now I'm an MC
I got the rhymes and beats, I used to rock them tapes

Verse Two: Nouka

Back up at World O' Wheels with the rap contest
I used to try and get mine cuz I thought I was fresh
I liked LL and Shan with my Roxanne rhyme
It might sound wack but it was dope at the time
Then it progressed with styles of the I-Fresh
MC's like Ganjah K and the rest
Post Meter, with the pause mix cut
Rockin Southwest College tearin it up
Money, really wasn't part of the rap
Paid, was havin people start to clap
Gettin ready for the break, your heart starts to race
You was hyped, cuz I could see it on your face
Yes yes, the beat is like fresh
Plus we had the moves, that make the party move
And those were the dues, without makin papes
Damn I should go back, to sellin mix tapes

Chorus

Verse Three: Yusef Afloat

One to the two, four and eight
Hit the rewind and move and turn the black plate
Get you a tape, watch the crew wreck and
spin the vinyl til it melt and get a phat new casette
across the West y'all
Spin around with the sound and get choice
while the clear voice rock from the ground
Stereo, it's all in the jam
Plus tricks that fixes styles through mixes
If you're soft, beginning to end, you can't win
Let the DJ freak pause then run it again
While you're listening to the hit, it's nice can't you tell
That the two are steady bringin till we swell

Chorus

"Pull the new school tape from out my rag"
"Man I, man I, quit sellin (tapes)

Yo what's up? I just wanted to give a shout out
to all of those who was down back there when I started
Back in eighty-four and eighty-five
Yo I wanna give a shout out to my man Yusef Afloat
To my man Ganjah K, Aceyalone, J-Sumbi, we out

Re: Mix Tape [ History ] Mix Tape(s)

Rob One CBS/FLY ID
rip.

Re: Mix Tape [ History ] Mix Tape(s)

R.I.P. Yousef Afloat
R.I.P. Rob ONE!!