Mixtape Madness

Mixtapes have been a big part of hip-hop for a long time. But the impact mixtapes have on hip-hop music in this new digital era is bigger than ever. Artists release mixtapes all year long, mostly for free, on any given day for their fans to download.

The idea of waiting for new releases to come out every Tuesday has taken a backseat to the wave of mixtapes. Some of the biggest artists to release albums in 2010 had a mixtape release to serve as an appetizer for their album release. T.I., Rick Ross, and B.O.B. all used this this method to garner a buzz for their actual releases. Hell, Ross dropped two mixtapes and one album in 2010 alone.

Then there was Kanye with his G.O.O.D. Friday releases. Although not a mixtape, Yeezy gave us an album’s worth of songs for free, some of which were better than the material found on his fantastic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Others such as J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T. and Wale used mixtapes to keep their names afloat as some of the freshest “newcomers” in the game. Then there were old reliable like Game and Royce 5’9 who have given their fans plenty of free music by way of mixtapes and didn’t disappoint with Brake Lights and Bar Exam 3 respectively.

With Patron & Purp, which dropped at the beginning of 2011, Game gave us a double-disc worth of brand new tracks, not to mention The Hangover which followed in a week’s time. That’s three albums worth of new material in seven days all of which cost fans $0.

So obviously we as hip-hop fans have a lot to be happy about.

But is it overkill? Or at least oversaturation?

Unfortunately, yes.

The free material available to fans in 2010 alone was both phenomenal and overwhelming.

The following artists dropped new albums last year: Bun B, Kanye West, Rick Ross, The Roots, Eminem, Celph Titled, Big Boi, Drake, B.O.B., Kid Cudi, 1982, Black Milk, Apollo Brown, Lloyd Banks, Fat Joe, Joe Budden, T.I., Ghostface Killah, Skyzoo & Illmind, Nottz, Capone-N-Noreaga, Rhymefest, Rakaa, Murs, and Atmosphere. And that’s just naming albums I own.

Now look at the list of some of the artists to release mixtapes: Rick Ross (2), Game (2), B.O.B., Joe Budden, T.I., Reks (2), Slaine, Freddie Gibbs, Wale, Evidence, Joell Ortiz, Royce 5’9, J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Pac Div, Das Racist, Jadakiss and Skillz. And that’s just from looking at my iTunes.

Now how can anyone really ingest all that music? You’re looking at an album a week. And that’s without going back to your favorite and listening again. Not to mention all the individual songs that came out like Apathy’s “We’re Gonna Kill You,” Reek Da Villian’s “Mechanics (Remix)” with an all-star cast (which ended up on his mixtape), Crooked I’s “Hip-Hop Weekly Reloaded” series and all the other weekly (at least in theory) series that dropped in 2010.

It’s too much.

Getting a gem like Jay Electronica’s “Shiny Suit Theory” out of nowhere is a certainly a welcome treat. As is finding Jay-Z’s “Most Kings” on DJ Green Lantern’s Invasion 2K10 mixtape. And I shouldn’t have a gripe about any of it.

It just seems like we have too much and not enough time to savor it all. And yes, some of the aforementioned mixtapes aren’t worth more than one or two listens, but still, there aren’t enough hours in the day to take it all in. Yet here we are downloading every new mixtape that comes out and even writing reviews of mixtapes, which just doesn’t seem right either.

Call me old fashioned, but I still look forward to new releases dropping every Tuesday and going out and buying the physical CD. It’s the reason I was super late to the ipod game (and if anyone ever needed an ipod it was me) and probably the same reason I’m hesistant to jump into the Nook or Kindle game. There’s just something about getting the booklet, reading the production credits and popping the disc into your deck that far outweighs listening to new music through crappy computer speakers.

Will I still want every release, mixtape or not, that I can get my hands on? Of course. But I’ll be more excited about days like March 8th when Lupe Fiasco’s Lasersand Raekwon’s Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang drop and I can debate which CD to pop into my car stereo first. And I doubt that will ever change.