The End of Mixtapes?

"I mean, mix tapes is hot. Period. It’s easier to get on a mixtape than it is to get on your own album."

By King Anyi Howell
March 8, 2007

Listen to this Commentary!

Now that Atlanta's DJ Drama has been arrested for selling mixtapes containing unlicensed music, other mixtape DJs have been feeling vulnerable to potential legal action. While some DJs are trying to act in accordance to copyright law, others don't care about the crackdown, and say illegal mixtapes are here to stay. Youth Radio's King Anyi Howell mixes it up in this report. (March 8 on NPR's All Things Considered)

It used to be if you were a DJ, mixtapes were an automatic. But with the DJ Drama scandal, everything is all dramatic. But if I asked you what a mixtape is, you still wouldn’t know. So to explain, I hollered at DJ J Pro, a mixtape extraordinaire.

DJ J PRO (on tape)
A mixtape is a bunch of tracks put together by a DJ. Not just a bunch of songs put together, that’s called a compilation.

ANYI
Unlike compilations, DJ’s pick the cuts, blending and mixing them to make you shake your butts. Mixtapes have been around since DJing begun, but rapper Fifty Cent left the mix tape shook and spun.

JOHN (on tape)
Fifty Cent, he basically just went out and did it himself...

ANYI
He stole beats from other artists and made his own song. John from M 1 Promo says that’s not really wrong.

JOHN (on tape)
And he was like, “If we put out this mix tape, we don’t have to clear no samples...we don’t have to do nothing, and we get him hot in the streets.” So then, when he come with his real single, then, his name is already ringin’ in the program directors ears, and the DJs' – the club DJs and the radio DJs.

ANYI
The folks DJ Slow Poke heard through the grapevine that the recording industry tried to put Drama in line.

DJ SLOW POKE (on tape)
IRAA had sent them a letter to cease and desist on certain types of mixtapes. They came and raided and took his stuff, they seized everything. They even took his CDJs. It’s a cold game.

ANYI
The mixtape game is definitely a beast, but with everything going on, will the mixtape cease?

DJ SLOW POKE (on tape)
You know a lot of mixtape websites just shut down, they just said, “We stop selling mixtapes.” But on the street side, cats is still going to figure that they need to put their mix tape out. I’m not going to stop, I’m still going to put my mix tape out. Scrapperville coming soon, Fresh Impressions Two.

ANYI
You remember DJ J Pro, he go!

DJ J PRO (on tape)
I mean, mix tapes is hot. Period. It’s easier to get on a mixtape than it is to get on your own album. That’s why a lot of artists are hopping on mixtapes, because it’s the easiest way to get out there. They’re needed.

ANYI
John says mixtapes aren’t a scared person’s sport, but if you do enter the arena, you have his support.

JOHN (on tape)
If you don’t mind going through what you have to go through, I’ll send you an mp3.

- Music produced by Youth Radio's Brandon McFarland.