When I started slipping posts about mixtapes into my blog repertoire last year I felt it necessary to point out that I had been turned off by the whole mixtape subculture for a number of years. Regardless of my reasons (and if you really want to know what they were, you can go back and read them), my feeling about the direction the “mixtape game” had taken meant that whenever I stumbled across one that I could actually tolerate it was a big deal to me. Hence the whole “Mixtapes I Don’t Hate” category of posts.
As the old cliché goes, that was then and this is now. And as surprising as it is to admit, my Summer listening this year has been dominated by mixtapes! Granted, that doesn’t mean I’m running over to the mixtape spot up the block every day looking for new exclusive-laden, artist-themed discs with badly Photoshopped, cheaply photocopied covers featuring ugly rappers, bikini clad girls and sparkling automobiles. And I’m not throwing out the J. Rocc & Rhettmatic, Lazy K and Chill Will cassettes that ruled my mid-’90s tape-deck or anything. But there’s been an unprecedented number of mixtapes this year that’ve been so originally conceived and expertly executed that I don’t just “not hate” them, I actually like them.
During the past few weeks the second volume of the Bmore of a Hipster mixtape series from Baltimore-based DJ/producer DLake has received an unholy amount of play in my headphones and in the automobiles of my friends and colleagues. It’s a raucously fun, tongue-in-cheek party mix built around an eclectic selection of clubby sleaze (Dirt Nasty’s “1980″ and the “Pussylips” into “Transtitute” mix stand out for their filth), underground dance jams (M.I.A., Santogold, The Count & Sinden with Kid Sister, Spank Rock, Yelle, Diplo & Rye Rye), Pop hits (Lil Wayne, Madonna, Young Dro, Nelly Furtado, Soulja Boy) and familiar oldies (The Mamas & The Papas, The Village People) infused with the flavor of Baltimore Club and Electro-House. The Fred Wesley-sampling tune from Dilpo and Rye Rye, as well as a segue between N*E*R*D’s “You Know What” and a Benny Blanco remix of Kylie Minogue featuring Spank Rock are a couple of my favorite things about the mix. But best of all, it introduced me to “White Pants,” an “Apache”-chopping DLake original featuring vocalists JC and Demetrius which quickly became one of my favorite tracks of the Summer.
They both showed up on DLake’s tape, but Philly-by-way-of-Florida-based DJ, remixer & producer Diplo and Brooklyn-based songwriter & vocalist Santogold teamed up for their own Summertime mixtape project as well. Titled Top Ranking it’s a massive 35-track collection of remixes, re-rubs, dubplate-style remakes, random joint and exclusive original tracks that embraces Hip-Hop, Electro, Punk, New Wave, Soul, BMore Club, Dancehall, Dub Reggae, UK Grime/Dubstep and a lot more. Inevitably it’s been compared to the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix Diplo did with M.I.A. a few years ago. Ms. Arulpragasam pops up herself on Top Ranking for the Radioclit-produced “Get It Up.” “I’m a Lady” from Santogold’s recent LP gets reworked with an assist from Amanda Blank covering LL Cool J’s classic “I Need Love.” KiD CuDi guests on an alternate take of the “Find a Way” remix. “Unstoppable” gets mashed with Benga’s “Night.” Diplo mates “Lights Out” with Panda Bear’s “Comfy In Nautica.” Santi drops a grimy Dub cover of The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton” re-titled “Guns of Brooklyn.” And that’s all in addition to the in-the-mix selections from Devo, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Aretha Franklin, Desmond Dekker, The Clash, the Dixie Cups, Sister Nancy and the B-52’s among others.
Following the logic of featuring a mixtape from an artist who appeared on a forgoing mixtape, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Cleveland, Ohio-bred, currently Brooklyn-based emcee KiD CuDi’s just-released debut mixtape Plain Pat & Emile Presents a KiD Named CuDi. His “Day N Nite” (which is featured here) has been an easy contender for “single of the year” since it dropped this Winter and (thanks in part to the Crookers remix) I haven’t taken it out of rotation yet. I was psyched to hear dude on the hilarious “Wasting My Minutes” from producer 88 Keys‘ Adam’s Case Files mixtape earlier this Summer. But I’ve been waiting for something more substantial from the kid himself. A KiD Named CuDi, from Kanye’s boy (and the dude behind his Can’t Tell Me Nothing mixtape) Plain Pat and the 10.Deep clothing company (who also sponsored Wale’s outstanding The Mixtape About Nothing is just that. Wale appears here too, on the staggered “Is There Any Love?” And CuDi spits and sings over an array of familiar beats, with Dilla’s “Wild,” N*E*R*D’s “Spazz,” Andre3000’s “Pink & Blue” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul.” But what I was really looking for was a successor to “Day N Nite,” which CuDi delivers in the form of the the Ratatat-jacking “Heaven at Nite,” a melancholic Psychedelic Electro-Soul hymn that fits the spaced-out “Tacobel Canon” track perfectly.
KiD CuDi Plain Pat & Emile Presents a KiD Named CuDi
I’m sure part of the reason I’m digging all these mixtapes so much is that they aren’t tapes (or CD’s for that matter) at all, and so many of them are available 100% free of charge as downloads over the internets. I mean, who doesn’t love free music, and lots of it? If you want that Top Ranking mixtape though you’re gonna have to pay for it. It’s only available via Turntablelab and the Mad Decent store, and the last time I checked they weren’t in business to be giving shit away for free.
21 Comments
Tarik Moody
Permalink
Don’t forget about Game Rebellion’s Searching for Rick Rubin Mixtape.
JoeMo
Permalink
Second that on Searching for Rick Rubin, best thing I’ve heard all year.
emeyesi
Permalink
2008 = Year of the Dope Free Mixtape
That Cudi is ridiculously good. Like “I can’t stop bumping it” ridiculously good.
HipHopChica
Permalink
Aaron Mingo’s “Motion Picture Ming” mixtape is an instant classic. Philly is loving this dude!
Katie Firestone
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that DLake mix is awesome!!
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