There's A Documentary Coming Out On Paramount+ All About The Crazy Mixtape Era Of The Late 90s and 2000s Featuring Lil Wayne, Jadakiss, KRS-One and More.
MIXTAPE is the highly anticipated upcoming documentary about the story of mixtape culture and its role in spreading hip-hop around the world.
This is a film about the outlaw DJs who, for the love of the music, turned a criminal enterprise into a creative and commercial backbone of the music business.
Before radio play, the internet and social media, there were mixtapes, and they were key in transforming hip hop from subculture to mainstream. Lil Wayne, Jadakiss, KRS-One, DJ Khaled, 2 Chainz, DJ Clue, N.O.R.E. and more tell the story of hip hop's underground origin in the new documentary Mixtape.
I am all in on this documentary and I can't fucking wait for it.
Just seeing Wayne and Fat Joe in that trailer, and knowing Jadakiss is involved in this gets my juices flowing.
“The mixtape was everything,” said Lil Wayne, who dominated the medium during the latter half of the aughts, in the trailer. Bronx native and mixtape enthusiast Fat Joe also chimed in during a clip, adding, “Whatever the relevance of social media is, that’s what a mixtape was.”
Originally announced in 2019, Paul Rosenberg, former head of Def Jam Records, spoke on the inspiration behind the doc and the need to unpack the history of the mixtape. “[Mixtapes are] a vital part of the history of the culture and the genre we don’t feel has been really examined thoroughly and properly enough or given its day,” Rosenberg told Variety in reference to the doc. An accompanying mixtape is slated to be released by Def Jam in conjunction with the film, but further details regarding the project have yet to be announced.
I was just having dinner with a pretty big NYC DJ on Friday night, DJ Chachi, who was apart of the infamous "Tapemasters Inc." mixtape crew back in the day. I told him about this movie coming out and we got to discussing and reminiscing just how MASSIVE the mixtape era was for hip-hop and how many artists owe their careers to it.
You can see just from the trailer that Lil Wayne, Fat Joe, and Jadakiss attribute much of their success to mixtapes, but the list of rappers who would have never gotten a shot if it weren't for them exploding on the mixtape circuit is long, and surprising. Guys like 50 Cent and Fabolous were established in the streets via mixtapes well before landing record deals.
For anybody in middle school, high school, or college during the late 90s and early 2000s, there is a strong strong probability you knew the names DJ Clue, DJ Kay Slay, Green Lantern, DJ Whoo Kid, Funkmaster Flex, DJ Screw, DJ Envy, and Sickamore, to just name a few.
Before there were curated playlists and instrumental tapes, the tastemakers were mixtape DJs. No bullshit.
At their height, mixtapes were hip-hop’s heartbeat: created and sold on the black market, bankrolled by radio and the music industry at-large. When we were kids this was how we got our hands on all the latest music and freestyles. You'd go to a local barbershop who was plugged in and sold bootlegged movies and CDs, a flea market, or you'd find a friend with rich parents who had "satellite internet" that was barely faster than 56k dial, and a CD burner and you'd download shit like crazy off Datpiff, and burn it overnight. It'd take roughly 4 hours back then to burn an hour long cd, so you'd wake up in the morning and pray it completed correctly without any time-out errors costing you the price of the cd and making you start all over again. For wanna-be up-and-coming DJs like myself, you know the pain all too well. You'd then roll into school with the new hot shit and be everybody's best friend.
Everybody back then was riding around with either "official" mixtapes they bought from one of the places mentioned above, or ones they burned off the internet 1.0 or Limewire, blasting "Wanksta" with DJ Kay Slay screaming "DRAMA KING!" over it every 30 seconds. Or Funkmaster Flex stopping the song a minute into it and yelling, "run that shit back, run that shit back, and rewinding it to start it over from the beginning."
The entire G-Unit, Eminem, Dre vs. Murda Inc. and Ja Rule beef was initiated and unfolded on mixtapes. Back and forth, back and forth, for months.
There was a mini doc all about G-Unit radio that came out that shines light on just how big these special series mixtapes were and how brilliant the minds behind labels like Aftermath and G-Unit were for capitalizing on them
This doc is going to be a real blast from the past and I can't wait for it to drop.
Produced by Mercury Studios and Saboteur in association with Def Jam Recordings, Mixtape tells the story of mixtape culture and its role in spreading hip-hop around the world. This is a film about the outlaw DJs who, for the love of the music, turned a criminal enterprise into a creative and commercial backbone of the music business. Directed and produced by Omar Acosta (Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives), the film features music icons A$AP Rocky, Brucie B, Bun B, CeeLo, DJ Clue, DJ Drama, DJ Whoo Kid, Doo Wop, Fat Joe, Funkmaster Flex, Jadakiss, Jeezy, Kid Capri, KRS-One, Lil Wayne, Angie Martinez, Mister Cee, Tony Touch, 2 Chainz and more. Nick Quested, David Kennedy, “Mix Tape King” Tony Touch and Daniel Seliger produce, alongside executive producers Paul Rosenberg and Barak Moffit. (source)
Def Jam also released a new soundtrack/mixtape, and the movie will feature a vérité of the soundtrack recording sessions.
p.s. - the best mixtape series of all time in no particular order were -
Lil Wayne's "Dedication" mixtapes
Lil Wayne's "No Ceilings" mixtapes
Meek Mill's "Dreamchasers" mixes
Wale's (Seinfeld inspired) "Mixtapes About Nothing" series
Fabolous' "The S.O.U.L. Tape" series
Young Jeezy's "Trap Or Die" mixtape series
Joe Budden's "Mood Muzik" mixtapes
J Cole's "Friday Night Lights" mixtapes
Chance The Rapper' "Acid Rap"
G Unit Radio Mixtape series
Kanye West - I'm Good
The Clipse's "We Got It For Cheap" series