And finally, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka and Southside contributing. All of this under the sponsorship of Jesus Malverde, the patron saint of Mexican criminals. On a few mixtapes, the pompous music of the duo fitted well with the mocking voice of the rapper.īombastic and banging synthesizers, stories about drug dealing and addictions, others about mules and war gangs. And on the other, Blue Sky Black Death, two beatmakers who had collaborated with pretty much everyone, from obscure indie rappers to Wu-Tang affiliates. On one side Nacho Picasso, and his druggy flow. This was a strange mixture, only to be found in Seattle. BLUE SKY BLACK DEATH & NACHO PICASSO - Exalted (2012) On The Real Is Back 2, he still had the same old fire, the same hunger. It was still the case in the early 10's, when he recorded some new ones, with the support from DJ Drama and some help from Freddie Gibbs, his new protégé. And later on, many of his best projects would be released under that same format. It is through a mixtape, Trap or Die, that Young Jeezy made a name for himself. Released with the help of DJ Esco, just after his stay in a Dubai prison, and produced in a minimalistic way by Southside from the 808 Mafia, it was the darkest of all, and prefigured the renewed success the Atlanta rapper would meet with his next album, DS2.
FUTURE & DJ ESCO - 56 Nights (2015)Īt the end of his crazy ride in 20, Future closed with 56 Nights the mixtapes trilogy that had made him relevant again. Just when his art was declining, just when he engaged into a rap decade that would be more influenced than marked by him, he released one of his very best projects. Trap Back, such was the name of this mixtape released between two jail sentences, as to signify that Gucci Mane would go back to the very basics of his excessive kind of trap music. Afterwards, for a few years, he and the guys from his Duct Tape collective, would carry a torch that would keep Atlanta's trap music on fire. In a way not dissimilar to Gucci Mane, but more violent and more visceral, he offered furious bangers, counterbalanced at times by more melodic moments.
Hosted by DJ Holiday and The Empire, that mixtape was Alley Boy's real manifesto. ALLEY BOY - Definition of Fuck Shit (2010) And though, with hindsight, this project, released with assistance from the best Southern rappers of his time, might be his strongest. It was just an appetizer, the Alabama rapper had released to herald his next opus, Break the Pot. The noticeable fact about Bigger Than the Mayor, at a time when the difference between an album and a mixtape was well established, was that it had almost no filler. Back then, Louie was really the true king of Chiraq. He proved it once more, with his swampy and dark Tony project, and its central piece, the anthological "Live & Die in Chicago". And King Louie, a pioneer in that musical style associated with the most dangerous districts of Chicago, properly excels at it. This influence was particularly visible on this mixtape from Sosamann, one of their best.ĭrill music never really delivered any great album. However, they sounded closer to Atlanta's trap music, and more particularly to bands like Migos. The city traditions impregnated their sound, especially the impact of syrup. The members of The Sauce Factory were, by the middle of the 2010's, the new leaders in a rap stronghold: Houston. Actually it was, quite probably, the last of his great releases. Sorry 4 The Wait, though, was a solid project, on par with 2009's No Ceilings. The New Orleans rapper was engaged on a downward slope. So to apologize for the delay, he delivered this mixtape.
It took time for Lil Wayne to release the fourth installement of his Tha Carter series. This selection is currently focusing on the years 2008 through 2015. Therefore, some of them, released exactly like mixtapes, but officially heralded as albums, for example Danny Brown's XXX, will not be part of the list. We relied on the way their authors have labeled these projects.
Not much, after 2010, differentiates a mixtape from a regular album. Quality prevailed here, over representativeness. These 100 records are not the same as those listed in the book. Focusing exclusively on US and Canadian hip-hop, and on projects released from 2000 through 2015 - an era when we moved from DJs' to rappers' mixtapes. To complement its new book published in 2017, Mixtapes, Fake For Real talks about its favorite mixtapes.