Off to the West Coast for Tape Kingz #9, with super talented DJ Thee Mike B. Mike has done too much in his career to cover in the short space I have here but check his recent appearance on the ROAD podcast for his full story. It's a good listen. In terms of why he's a good person to speak to about 90s hip hop mixtapes, amongst other things he was an intern for Jon Shecter and Stretch Armstrong back in the day during the Game Recordings era. Check his stellar Top 3 and some equally dope honourable mentions...
DJ Spinbad & JS One - Cold Cutz Remixes (1997)
The most intricate, interesting and simply the DOPEST of all blend tapes.
Tony Touch -Tape 50: Power Cypha (1996)
This is one that changed the game. 50 freestyles from 50 MC's over all the dopest beats. Infinite respect to Tony Toca! This shit is so crazy I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it.
DJ Rob One - Can't Be Stopped (1994)
This changed the game for me. I might not be a DJ today had I not copped this at 555-Soul on Martel in '94. Shout out Julie Z.
Honourable mentions:
DJ S&S and Craig G - N!ggaz Don't Give A Fuck (1996). So many exclusives when it came out. The first place I heard Akinyele "Put It In Your Mouth", CNN's "LA,LA" and many, many more classics. S&S is still one of my favorites and has so much swag it’s crazy.
DJ Ev and Stretch Armstrong - Back 2 Back (1996).This is a perfect rap mixtape. I bought it at Fat Beats on a trip to NY in Fall of 1996. I was obsessed with it. Years later, Stretch would become my employer and ultimately, one of my best friends.
Mixtapes are as big a part of some people's musical history as albums, in some cases more so. They provided the soundtrack for memorable times of years gone by. That one tape that was stuck in your walkman for a whole summer, or played endlessly in your mates car when you were at college. The one you played so much that the songs on it don't sound the same when they're played in any other context.
Depending on where you where from or what age you are you were probably all bumping different mixes. They might've been by local DJs, purchased on trips out of town or abroad, or recorded off the radio. They might've put you onto songs you didn't know about and never heard elsewhere and if you're a DJ there's almost certainly some in particular that inspired you or made you want to step your game up.
The thing is, there's a lot of tapes out there and although most of the notable ones have appeared online by now, it's easy to be a bit overwhelmed and not know where to start if you're looking for some good ones to check out. With that in mind (and with no tapes to rip at the moment) I hit up some DJs of note to find out what their favourite tapes of all time are.
Because OB4ZL is taking no shorts in the Deuce-1 (remember when years had rap names?), we're starting the series off properly. Boston's DJ 7L of Czarface, Bladerunners and 7L & Esoteric fame. He's a dope DJ and he knows his shit. Here's his Top 3:
7L: I am sure if I sit and think there would be much deeper ones, but these are the tapes I played to death...
DJ S&S - Old School Volume 3 (1994)
I bought this on a school trip to New York. I just really liked the energy of this mix, and I remember playing it around the clock in my car for a good 2 years. It has the classic New York slam style of mixing and great mic work.
Doo Wop - Cool Out '93
This one I got when we went to New York for Rock Steady Anniversary for the first time. I got this near Rock&Soul. This was another tape that I remember playing for many years, had all the R&B I liked, and again the mic work and mixing was great. Mixtapes back then were like albums to me, even if I knew the music on it, if it was done in a cool way it was all I needed. I saw Doo Wop a few times back then when he would come to Boston, and live he was incredible. One time he was at North Eastern (College) and only had one working turntable, and still killed it for 20 minutes by using the mic and just grabbing records and dropping them. A fight ended the party early. Another mix that ties in with this is Biz's Classic Cuts - Theory of Old School
DJ Shame & Kool DJ EQ - Wreckord Fiendz (1994)
Man..Shame's side of this mix is still one of my favorites of all time, it's just wild. It had the DJ mix intro, then his own remixes, with his own cut up hooks, plus an amazing selection all in a seamless megamix. Shame was very mythological to me back then, I hadn't met him yet, but you heard a lot about him from other DJ's, or from his name on the radio or his remixes. A year earlier he did Travelling Through Sampleland which is probably a tie with this mix as being outstandingly influential on me.
Thanks to 7L for stepping up with the first contribution to the series. I interviewed him for this very blog 10 years ago now. You can check that out here.
Another tape I posted way back in the early days that I've now re-ripped at 320 kbps. Great selection on this one (if you ignore the Lords of the Underground and Lil Vicious tracks) including 2 Sadat X and Grand Puba collaborations that went a bit under the radar: Kick Styles (aka Flip Styles) with Diamond D, which appeared on a couple of different 12"s a few years later, and Ya Don't Stop which is tucked away on this compilation.
Having missed most of them when they aired, I'm really enjoying these New York Live shows with Westwood and Marley Marl. The guests and tunes tend to be a bit more varied than what you'd hear Flex playing on the Hot 97 Rap Exchanges. Lots going on in this one with Starang of OGC and Cormega guesting in part one, and then Deadly Venoms (an all female group that included N Tyce and who were briefly affiliated with the Wu), Screwball and DJ S&S appear in part two. All of them get together for a freestyle sesh at the beginning of part two...
Even though I didn't catch many of them at the time, I'm starting to think that Westwood's New York Live shows with Marley are better than his Rap Exchange shows with Flex. DJ S&S is on the 1210s for a bit and all the guests drop freestyles on this one, with Craig G stepping up to rhyme alongside Truck Turner and Jeru. Pete Rock and TJ Swann are also in the studio. I imagine the #bantz was in full flow.
Part 1 with Truck Turner and DJ S&S
Part 2 with Black Moon and Jeru
and here's the the Buckshot and Jeru freestyles if you want them
S&S is still doing his thing. Here's a mix of 80s and early 90s joints he dropped on his Soundcloud page last year. Nothing you won't be familiar with but its always good to have something like this to throw on now and again...
Been going back through some of the earliest posts on this blog and think I might re-rip a few of those tapes I was dropping back then as I didn't really get the whole fidelity/MP3 thing and most of them are at 128. Keep checking the Mixcloud page.
I played this one to death back in the day. Alot of the tracks on here were exclusive to this tape and I ended up buying most of them when they dropped.
S&S speaks on how he got his exclusives back in the day and how he put his tapes together.
Spotted at www.westcheddar.com. Theres a few classic mixtapes to download over there aswell.
