Is the "Mixtape" Scene/game DEAD?

B

bayboy1988

New member
I was just thinking back to the early 2000's when the

mixtape game was really poping. Like during the "DJ DRAMA,

Gangsta Grillz" Era.


Are mixtapes dead? Do people even still buy mixtapes?

How about from an artist stand point, are Artist still

going to DJ's to have their tapes hosted/mixed?



Any comments about the whole DJ/MIXTAPE scene are welcome. Let me know your thoughts.
 
bayboy1988 said:
buy mixtapes?
Click to expand...

tumblr_inline_mw2yyzJ6KW1qlnivc.gif
 
mj-laughing.gif




seriously though, I'v bought dozens of albums over the years, but never ever paid for a mixtape..
 
Last edited:
Pumpthrust said:
tumblr_inline_mw2yyzJ6KW1qlnivc.gif
Click to expand...

lol. Beyonce's fine even laughing. I bet she's one of those few females whose feminity and beauty have an instant effect on you when you meet her. The Mixtape game worked well for50 Cent and everyone's been following that outdated formula ever since.
 
Last edited:
I honestly have never bought a mixtape...but I download them all the time! Thats usually how the game is now, it's all about views, plays, and downloads
 
EastwickBeatz said:
I honestly have never bought a mixtape...but I download them all the time! Thats usually how the game is now, it's all about views, plays, and downloads
Click to expand...

and no income as a result

game changer needed and it is not about making sure that you are set to receive royalties by registering with BMI/ASCAP/SECAM/APRA/etc.... (ain't gonna get no royalties unless there be sales)
 
Last edited:
being in the suburbs too long, i thought buying mixtapes was dead too, but after moving out my dad house and back in the hood, i see niggas in the hood still still buying mixtapes, as well as bootleg movies and pornos.
i thought that stopped in like 2005, but in my hood, its still going on, just not as frequently, nonetheless, they still buying.
either guys be selling them on the bus out of their bags, downtown, or they be at corner stores and hood clothing shops and shit.
 
Not much money to be made in the mixtape game but not too much money to be made selling albums either. With that said the mixtape game is very much alive, IMO a lot better music is coming out via mixtapes than albums, even from the same artist. Too much of a marketing formula gets put into play by labels putting pressure to release albums that follow a certain trend. Because of this you're seeing a lot more creative stuff coming out of mixtapes. Money wise rappers are relying on doing shows for their income so while a free mixtape might not net them any direct money it's keeping their popularity up allowing them to sell out shows.
 
Justin Bieber gets money. Rappers get paper. Big difference. Rappers do whatever it takes to get the "paper". Rap is the new heavy metal. Jay Z don't do mixtapes and bust some ass on the charts. Average popular rapper does 10 mixtapes..........barely sell 100k. J.Cole doesn't count.....he pop....like Gaga. Drake don't count. He pop like.

IT'S TIME TO SELL OUT MY BROTHAS AND SISTAS!! We missing all of this money dealling with a saturated mixtape game full of lies, beats, and broke rappers. Spending all that time thinking of the deepest and dopest and smoothest and cleverest shit to say so we can give it out for free in hopes we be the next big thing....trying to buy the hardest and who the next to blow beat makers so our mixtapes will sound like it's on the next level.......yet the #1 song on billboard is a 17 year old white girl singing over the simplest rap beat of since the whisper song. We keep it real.......or do we...........just say we keep it real because we don't have the skills it take to make anything happen with "anything'? Let's be realistic.....who wants to buy a rapper's album? A whole lot less people. Because their is no real hype behind it if there is no pop in it. So what you do is get your harmony skills up with the use of these vocal and instrument editing add ons on your DAW.....find you a teenage white boy or girl...and get busy. Because while you've been thinking on silly shit like dubstep, trapstep, Mike Will, 808's, Nexus, Sylenth, what the new FL Studio can do to better your "beats" and all of that pretty shit............it has actually gone outdated some time ago in the real world. Unless you want that Young Chop money. Should've picked up a GOT DAMN guitar like I told yall ass last year.....didn't listen. They make a game on PS3 that help you learn guitar. Yet all the beat games on video game consoles failed miseribly....because beats ain't shit like they were in 2000 - Reason 1.0 era. You feel a victim to the left over hype from when the word producer was ALL OVER THE PLACE. Didn't do nothing but make FL Studio richer.....Props richer......Avid......Sony...........they catered to your "professionalism" by making things "easier"...........yet people that use the programs without the catering are the ones taking over. Making things do what they weren't ment to do......and then the companies cater to you to make it easy for you to do it. But one thing WILL NEVER CHANGE....and that's the pop chart market. Hip hop and the pop charts are two seperate things now. Welcome to the Nickalodeon era. Because I'm close to being great grandpa......you got kids.........and your kid close to having a baby. And NOBODY WANTS TO GROW THE FUUCK UP...including me. It's just that I GREW UP on hard ass music, lyrical ass music..............see what great grand pa is saying? Our music was grown..and we were listening to it...A LOT OF US. Can't whoop an ass in public today....you are reprogrammed......you are made cautious and sinsitive. SO anything that's unacceptable in an Americanize social gathering of BILLIONS....is more likely to push those billions of potential buyers away and catch ONLY THE OUTLAWS of it all......and your stuck on a 1,000:1 purchase hoping to catch a few billion in that ratio....GOOD LUCK HIP HOP WORLD. The days of the outlaws of your great grand pa's is over. Kanye knows this......and that's why he acts like a lunatic. Baby knows this.....and that's why he wins. Puff Daddy is still stuck in the mind of his 90's take over...that's why he lose as far as music. But he doesn't give a shit......he gets you drunk and hydrated...AT THE SAME...DAMN...TIME!!! Your only hope IS FUTURE for hip hop in 2014. I mean.......what you wanting on that is of great magnitude? NOT A DAMN THING!!! Because 2013 gave you all you will tolerate. YOU ARE OFFICIALLY back in the "worst than expected" zone if those artist release an album next year. Even the one hit wonders of early in a new year is becoming a tradition now. So those type of artist will not be discovered any more....they will be created in a few years. You know your Pys and your Harlem Shakes and whatever.

OH...and about mixtapes.........the game been dead.....like in a way they say hip hop is dead. A mixtape was the way we could make "money" back in the days. Nobody had "computers" or file sharing or none of that. So it provided a lane for music to get created and be SOLD without a distribution deal. Hell.....take some 60's, 70's, or 80's slow jams and mix it with techno or some shit. Back in the days you got a single just to get the instrumental....the two came with eachother majority of the time. All you needed was some blanks and the time to label all of that shit. A "DJ" could make you a bad ass mixtapes in your neighborhood....become a local celebrity........then that DJ Clue era fuucked it all up and changed it forever. Foos had to be the MFer who ain't doing shit but yelling "EXCLUSIVE.......EXCLUsive......exclusive.....excl.....SUCKAS.........YEAH.......HOLIDAY SEASON".......and all that bullshit.

Something to think about. Rap is the new Rock and Roll. If you ain't doing that Flo Rida/ PitBull shit......be thankful for that small change you get for braggin about the money you have been gettin. Oh yeah it's still "paper" in the rap game.....BUT AIN'T NO MONEY!!! big difference.
 
Last edited:
Lets talk about how 'mixtapes' aren't mixtapes anymore lol. More like QUALITY free projects. If you're going off of what the classic definition for what a mixtape was then yeah.... They been dead for a good long while. Quality free projects on the other hand..... lol. But a smart artist knows how to tour and sell merch and monetize youtube videos and such to make these free/promo HIGH QUALITY projects into paying products. It's the cats stuck in 2005 dropping 'mixtapes' filled with features from Pookie from down the block and free beats from soundclick and Lil Wayne instrumentals that WE AS PRODUCERS should worry bout lol
 
Purusing a career in music has always been a challenge monetarily for artists. A few lucky souls will be able to generate a respectable income. One difference these days is the savy business minded artist can now eliminate the middle man.(record labels)
 
I personally think mixtapes are still a viral part of the game that is needed, especially these "MIXTAPE DJ'S" who are behind them that are
putting them together. In a way, they still are a great promotional tool for the artist to get some type of exposure.

For example: Lets say im a unknown artist and I pay a "mixtape dj" for a slot on his mixtape series and he throws my single on there. I can get heard like that.

Or lets say, Im a fan and I see a mixtape being hosted by "DJ Whatever" which who I am familiar with from seeing his tapes everywhere. As a consumer, I am more likley to check out that artists
tape because he is being cosigned/hosted by a DJ that im familiar with.

The internet has really affected the mixtape game, both good & bad.
But I think people should be hustling like its still 2005. When I say that, if not trying to get $5 for a hard copy of your tape, give it out for free but still press up hard copies!

One thing that ive learned is that even though the internet does exist,
not everyone knows about free mixtapes or downloading, or simply dont come across music like that. So you still have to press up hard copies for the old heads.
 
the mixtape game is alive and well IMO, i download them all the time (for free) and my two favorite convenient/package stores still sell them up front.
 
I think mixtapes are a good form of promotion. When I come across a dope artist, I download their music and listen. That would probably lead me to the artists website to buy stuff more than anything else.
 
Last edited:
Any thing that can be translated into 0 and 1's ... is dead.

If you aren't shipping anything to a location... it's free.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top