Ah yes. *sips* The hip-hop mix tape. A timeless tradition raised and honed in the early days by B-boys on the streets of NY that survives today on drill artists' Soundcloud, from the trunk of a car or via Patreon. While the mix tape was usually a way of spreading your music and beginning your career, Jay-Z, Drake, Nicki have put out mix tapes at their peak. It's a tradition, like Christmas, or in music terms it's like when a rock group would put out a double album.
For me, hip-hop was about the only music I listened to from 1998 to the early 2000s, so my favorites will all be from that period. I had friends obsessed with hip-hop to the point they carried around notebooks that they would write down the lyrics in - they wanted to be rappers themselves but they were beaten down by lack of skill and living in a rural town in the middle of no where.
But I loved the mix tapes, with DJs/MCs like Prince Paul and the Beat Junkies putting out genius as fuck mixes that complimented and mixed into each other like a 3 star restaurant.
Rawkus Presents: Soundbombing II
You may have heard a song from this one - the first track on the album was an up and coming rapper from Detroit; some lower class white kid that had just signed with Dre recently. Something, something/something, "I get weeded"/My daughter scribbled over that rhyme/I couldn't read it. Eminem was all over this underground shit, and not just with Skam - in 1999 he was all over everyone's mix tapes. Warning: his song is from the time when his lyrics were incredibly homophobic as well as the "c-word" and not said in the British way.
But this is seriously banger after banger after banger. Eminem's "Any Man" segueways into High and Mighty (with Mos Def and Mad Skills) and then into my favorite track: Pharaoh Monch and Shabaam Sahdeeq's WWIII.
youtu.be
Superrappin - The Album
This is another 1999 album - it could be argued that 1998-2001 was a mini golden age of underground hip-hop, which I think is why I listened to so many. There just WERE so many good ones at the time. This was a sort of good bye in a way to traditional hip-hop. It thrived as a #2 to gangster rap in the late 80s to the mid 90s and guys like Puffy, Jay Z, Missy, etc changed it as it became more commercial in the late 90s. There was always some crossover: Mos Def, High and Mighty, Eminem were all over these albums from different DJs and different labels.
Superrappin is also my favorite (check out vol 2 as well) - it's a much more chill album. I had a girlfriend ask me once for a really chill album, "something to smoke weed to". I passed her a copy of this and apparently she loved it so much that she recently passed the album to her two teenage kids and now THEY'RE listening to it.
It features one of my favorite hip-hop songs of all fucking time: Frontline by El Da Sensei ft. Organized Konfusion, Mike Zoot & F.T. of Street Smartz. Try and listen to this and NOT bob your head.
youtu.be
Wu-Tang Killa Bees - The Swarm
Let's do something a bit more commercial from that same time period. This is one of my favorite Wu-Tang albums, period. This is when Wu-Tang was approaching it's peak, like impossible for me to change the album until it's all done. We used to make mix tapes of this all the damn time, we kind of had to, you'd be listening to this while cleaning the fast food joint you worked at or cooking food at as a line cook and people would always be like "wtf is this? I'll bring a tape if you can tape this for me".
It also features one of the greatest and emotional 2-hit song combos of all time: Remedy's furious Holocaust song "Never Again" and then Wu Syndicate's grieving, but optimistic autobiographical "Where Was Heaven".
youtu.be
youtu.be
For me, hip-hop was about the only music I listened to from 1998 to the early 2000s, so my favorites will all be from that period. I had friends obsessed with hip-hop to the point they carried around notebooks that they would write down the lyrics in - they wanted to be rappers themselves but they were beaten down by lack of skill and living in a rural town in the middle of no where.
But I loved the mix tapes, with DJs/MCs like Prince Paul and the Beat Junkies putting out genius as fuck mixes that complimented and mixed into each other like a 3 star restaurant.
Rawkus Presents: Soundbombing II
You may have heard a song from this one - the first track on the album was an up and coming rapper from Detroit; some lower class white kid that had just signed with Dre recently. Something, something/something, "I get weeded"/My daughter scribbled over that rhyme/I couldn't read it. Eminem was all over this underground shit, and not just with Skam - in 1999 he was all over everyone's mix tapes. Warning: his song is from the time when his lyrics were incredibly homophobic as well as the "c-word" and not said in the British way.
But this is seriously banger after banger after banger. Eminem's "Any Man" segueways into High and Mighty (with Mos Def and Mad Skills) and then into my favorite track: Pharaoh Monch and Shabaam Sahdeeq's WWIII.
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be
Superrappin - The Album
This is another 1999 album - it could be argued that 1998-2001 was a mini golden age of underground hip-hop, which I think is why I listened to so many. There just WERE so many good ones at the time. This was a sort of good bye in a way to traditional hip-hop. It thrived as a #2 to gangster rap in the late 80s to the mid 90s and guys like Puffy, Jay Z, Missy, etc changed it as it became more commercial in the late 90s. There was always some crossover: Mos Def, High and Mighty, Eminem were all over these albums from different DJs and different labels.
Superrappin is also my favorite (check out vol 2 as well) - it's a much more chill album. I had a girlfriend ask me once for a really chill album, "something to smoke weed to". I passed her a copy of this and apparently she loved it so much that she recently passed the album to her two teenage kids and now THEY'RE listening to it.
It features one of my favorite hip-hop songs of all fucking time: Frontline by El Da Sensei ft. Organized Konfusion, Mike Zoot & F.T. of Street Smartz. Try and listen to this and NOT bob your head.
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be
Wu-Tang Killa Bees - The Swarm
Let's do something a bit more commercial from that same time period. This is one of my favorite Wu-Tang albums, period. This is when Wu-Tang was approaching it's peak, like impossible for me to change the album until it's all done. We used to make mix tapes of this all the damn time, we kind of had to, you'd be listening to this while cleaning the fast food joint you worked at or cooking food at as a line cook and people would always be like "wtf is this? I'll bring a tape if you can tape this for me".
It also features one of the greatest and emotional 2-hit song combos of all time: Remedy's furious Holocaust song "Never Again" and then Wu Syndicate's grieving, but optimistic autobiographical "Where Was Heaven".
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be
