All language subtitles for Mixtape.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

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[tape rewinding]

[percussive hip-hop beat]

[smooth hip-hop beat]

[bassy hip-hop beat]

[heavy hip-hop beat]

- Of course it begins shaky.

Here you have a DJ basically
selling your record.

[laughs]

There's clearly an FBI warning
on every label.

[laughs]
It is what it is.

[chill music]

- A mixtape was everything.

- It was like sneakers.
You went on the hunt for 'em.

- Whatever the relevance of
social media is,

that's what a mixtape was
at that time.

- You could never
disrespect a mixtape.

- We were the tastemakers, man.

- I freestyled on
one of his tapes.

When I was walking out,

Tupac was walking out,
Biggie was coming in.

- Biggie was excited about
the Best of Biggie Mixtape.

He's like, "yo, I'm hearing
the mixtape

more than my album."

- That was our whole outlet.

We was platinum on mixtapes.

- So I would take
people's commercial hits,

keep some of the melodies,

but aim it straight at
the neighborhoods.

- Instead of playing albums,
they were blasting mixtapes.

- When "Tha Carter III" sold
a million the first week,

we weren't surprised
necessarily

because of the mixtapes.

- A mixtape is a personal
playlist from a DJ

who feels this is the way
the sequence should be.

This is the story
I'm trying to tell.

These are the artists that
I feel are the ones

that are creating the vibe.

And here it is from
my perspective.

That's a mixtape.

- Well, the beginning
starts off, in my memory,

with a gold Maxell cassette.

- Brothers and sisters,

I don't know what
this world is coming to!

[Public Enemy's
"Rebel Without a Pause"]

- ♪ Yes, the rhythm,
the rebel ♪

♪ Without a pause,
I'm lowering my level ♪

♪ The hard rhymer,
where you never been, I'm in ♪

♪ You want stylin'?
You know it's time again ♪

♪ D, the enemy,
tellin' you to hear it ♪

♪ They praised the music ♪

♪ This time
they play the lyrics ♪

♪ Some say no to the album,
The Show ♪

♪ Bum Rush, the sound,
I made a year ago ♪

♪ I guess you know,
you guess I'm just a radical ♪

♪ Not on sabbatical,
yes, to make it critical ♪

♪ The only party your body
should be partyin' to ♪

♪ Panther power on the hour
from the rebel to you ♪

- Ay, yo, Chuck, man.
I don't understand this, man!

Yo, you got to slow down, man,
you losin' them!

- ♪ Radio,
suckers never play me ♪

♪ On the mix,
they just okay me ♪

♪ Now, known and grown ♪

♪ When they're clocking
my zone, it's known ♪

♪ Snaking and taking ♪

♪ Everything that
a brother owns ♪

- ♪ Hard ♪
- ♪ My calling card ♪

♪ Recorded and ordered,
supporter of Chesimard ♪

♪ Loud and proud, kicking
live next, poet supreme ♪

♪ Loop a troop,
bazooka, the scheme ♪

- ♪ Flavor ♪

- ♪ A rebel in his own mind,
supporter of my rhyme ♪

♪ Designed to scatter
a line of suckers ♪

♪ Who claim I do crime ♪

♪ They on my time ticket ♪

[bell tolls]

- Uh.
Uh, uh, uh.

- [rapping indistinctly]

- Uh, yeah.

We're lowey and
we're good to go-ey.

- Tony Touch.

- We couldn't upload hip-hop.

We couldn't download hip-hop.

We couldn't burn hip-hop
to a CD.

We physically had to be there.

You had to be there.

And the only other way

that you could walk away
from hip-hop

and still hear it
is if you had a tape.

- Is New York in the house?

Say it now.
- Yes.

[hip-hop music]

- Think of New York as just--

- If you're talking
about the '80s--

- I'ma be very honest
with you, man.

- Yeah, New York was funky
back then.

[laughs] I know.
I can say it firsthand.

- It was the--
it was a lot of hustling,

you know, the drug era.

- I got mugged almost
double digits as a kid.

- I would go into the bus,
or the train station,

I would snatch the jewelry,
run off the bus.

I'm just that kind of
grimy nigga.

I'm in New York, Brooklyn,
grimy Brownsville nigga.

- People wanting to hustle
and get money,

and trying to live fast
and survive.

- Regular project shit.

[hip-hop music]

- So, you know, I saw
a lot of the hustlers

making their money.
- It was mostly drug money.

- For me, growing up not
knowing what you wanna do,

you see influences, right?

- I was offered to be
in the street

and do certain things

that could have probably got me
very rich very quick,

or very dead very quick.

- Well, you get a little money

and now you on the block
or you on the corner.

- I chose that while they gon'
sell $20 cracks,

I'ma sell $20 tapes.

I'ma get what they got,
just a little slower.

- We were hustling for
two different causes.

Some would be for the origin
of what hip-hop is,

and you being a DJ,

and then the origin of
being a hustler.

So we combined the two.

- This is a reel of
recording tape.

For years, people have been
threading it,

spilling it, tangling with it,
and sometimes breaking it.

- Cassettes were a result of

kind of this constant
technological quest

to make things smaller
and more powerful.

- The cassette made it
so that you could record it

and then you could
move around with it.

- When I was a kid, I thought
they looked like LEGOs.

[laughter]

- You could take it
into your car.

You could listen to it
on your Walkman.

- Not just share music,
but decide what music

they wanna be shared
and in what way.

- That was our Spotify.

That was our place
that we'd go.

- Like, look. You're not in
the streets hanging out,

but this is what
we was doing last night.

- That was their
Instagram page.

That was their Twitter.

- That was the Hot 97 of
the streets, man, the tapes.

- The first time
I heard a mixtape

it wasn't called a mixtape.
It was--

- Loads of live recording.

- They were tapes of
jams in the park.

They were tapes of
club performances.

- You got all these groups
that aren't really recording,

they're just performing.

Their live shows are being
documented on cassette.

And those cassettes
are circulating.

- Some of the first
hip-hop I experienced

was listening to
these party tapes.

[smooth music]

- Who's that girl?

- We knew the exact feet to
stand away

from that blasting speaker

to catch the DJ and the emcee
that was rocking

where it wouldn't be staticky.

- If I had the newest
Cold Crush Brothers tape,

I could be 15 and sit
with a conversation

with people 20 years old.

Because you had
to dub it from me.

You had to ask me
where I got it.

And that warranted us
to have conversation.

- ♪ We battle fantastic ♪

♪ And here's a little gift ♪

♪ To let you know,
before you go ♪

♪ Just who
you're fucking with ♪

- The recording was so low-fi
you felt like you were there.

You could hear
needle scratches.

You could hear people
in the background.

- You have to imagine what
this was in your own mind.

Imagine the environment.

- "Yo, yo, Murph,
go get me a drink."

This is on the tape.
- You imagine yourself there.

- The cassette is actually
making you more intelligent

about what you're doing,
'cause you can't see it.

- And you wanna go there.

- So you have to create in
your own mind the scenario,

the situation,
just like reading a book.

- "Back up off the ropes.
Back up off the ropes."

And they'd be like--
♪ Mary, Mary ♪

♪ Where are you going to ♪

On.

- ♪ Party people,
gon' get funky ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[hip-hop music]

- Then I'd be like--I just be
feeling like I'm in there, man.

♪ ♪

- Cold Crush,
Fantastic 5, Force MDs...

- Grandmaster Vic,
block parties...

- Zulu Nation, Afrika Islam,
Afrika Bambaataa,

Red Alert, Jazzy J...

- Bizzy Bee,
Kool Moe Dee battle.

- Mr. T-Bone, Teddy Ted,
Lil Black,

Cisco Kid, and Eazy AD.
- Mm.

- So that was before--

before Grandmaster Caz, JDL...
- Wow.

- And KG got into
Cold Crush Brothers.

- What year is this?
- That was '77.

- And what mixtape,
like a party tape?

- No.
I was just a party tape.

You know, the crazy thing
is that DJs didn't even

make their own mixtapes.

It was somebody just literally
bootlegging the event.

[hip-hop music]

- The music was--
was bursting at the seams,

couldn't be contained.

There had to be people
who were selectors.

You had club DJs.

You waited all week
for that Thursday night,

Friday night, Saturday night,
whatever it was,

to hear the best music,

and to be exposed to music
you did not know of.

- Just hearing it live--

just hearing the emcee on
the mic live,

and the DJ bringing the record
back and forth--

and you could hear the crowd
in the background.

Oh, man, I was mesmerized.

I wanna be a part of this.

[record scratching]

- What we'd do hours in a--
at a time,

in our living room or
in a bedroom.

12 hours, doing the same thing.

That's how we got to
where we are today.

Here we go, baby. Here we go.

Showtime, damn it.

[LL Cool J's "Rock The Bells"]

Showtime.

- ♪ LL Cool J is
hard as hell ♪

♪ I'll battle anybody,
I don't care who you tell ♪

[record scratching]

- Like, I always used to want--
like, make whatever artist

have a stuttering problem.
- [chuckles]

♪ ♪

- Woo!

Woo!

Yes.

Oh, Where's that at?

- After the live party scene,

everyone is making
their own cassettes.

My grandmother used to have
Maxell cassette tapes.

She used to go and
she used to have a--

a tape recorder, like,
a flat, square joint

that she'd go to church with.

She would record the services.

And I would take
the toilet paper

and put it inside
the little hole, tape over it.

- Now everyone
taping the radio.

- We are out of time.

That's it for
our show this week.

Our associate producer
is Bob Pickett.

I'm Bob Slade.
Keep a good thought.

- There used to be this guy
named Bob Slade

who used to do, like, this just
public service announcement

before the rap show.

It was just a cappella
with a whole lot of reverb.

You could hear each of the cars
putting it on before 9:00,

because they--they didn't--

you didn't wanna miss
the first shit.

- 'Cause hip-hop was playing on
the radio for, like, one hour.

- So you would hear his voice.

- Like, you had to
have that hour.

- And it became synonymous
with hip-hop.

- It's time for
♪ DJ Red Alert ♪

- Radio used to be very uncool.

Grandmaster Flash was offered
a radio show

when it was called XLO,
before it was Kiss FM,

and he turned it down.

Bambaataa quit.

He was there for
a couple weeks.

Jazzy J quit.

He was there for
a couple weeks.

But Red Alert stayed.

- You may hear me play,
like, you know, some R&B,

like a Kashif or Lillo Thomas,
just to name a few.

And then I put in,
along with it,

some "Rock It"
by Herbie Hancock,

and some Run DMC, some Whodini.

- He was the beginning,
the first uptown on the radio.

Radio only was on in New York
from 9:00 PM to 12:00 midnight.

But don't get it fucked up.

I can't explain to you
what it was like

to hear, like, Chuck D or
Flavor Flav on a drop saying--

- Yeah, boy!

- See ya!
- See ya!

- Rock the jam, y'all!

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- There was a club called
Harlem World.

Brucie and Starchild
used to DJ up there.

The hustlers, the drug dealers,

that was coming there was
hearing these tapes.

"Now, how much for that tape?

I'll pay you $100 right now,
because that's the only tape."

- "I got a personalized
so-and-so mixtape."

- You got to remember, we would
have killers, and drug dealers,

all kind of
crazy motherfuckers in there.

Like, Alpo used to buy
tape from me for $500.

"Yo, give me that tape."
Nah, I can't do it, Po.

"I'll give you 100."
Nah.

"Give you $300." Nah.
"I'll give you $500."

Here, take the fucking tape,
Po.

[laughs]
Take that, right?

- Or they'll go ahead and say,
"yo, can you make a tape for me

shouting my name out?"

- We would make the tape
right there,

and they would come in,
we'd shout them on the tape

right there when they came in.

- March 17th, Rooftop.

- Yo, shout out this Alpo and
Rich Porter at The Rooftop.

- And I used to have, like,
cheese lines.

Like, 'cause everybody knew
I had an operation.

I would do Friday,

but I wouldn't sell you
Friday's tape

because, you know,
Friday was for next week.

I'm selling you
last week's tape.

- The exciting tape
emerged from Brucie B.

He became the standard.

- They'll tell you beachside,
the little line.

They thought I was selling coke
and cracks in my booth,

but it was just tapes,
you know?

- [laughs]
- Yeah.

- He'll have five tape decks,
and he'll copy the tapes.

Then he'll take the four tapes
that he made,

sell those tapes,

take the fifth tape
and copy that one,

and start the next one
and sell it for $20.

He said, "Okay, we'll get
together.

I take ten, you take ten."

We were cleaning they ass up.

Yo, we were cleaning
they ass up.

- If you really wanna
be honest--

- That's what it really was.

It was the soundtrack
to the drug dealers.

- To record an instrumental
track for dudes to rap over,

you needed a band and a studio.

And, you know, all that was,
you know, really expensive.

Taking any turntable
and recording

a break into a tape--

you know,
you pressed record and paused.

The tape was paused.

The break is coming.

- [vocalizing]

- Go to the break part.

- You release the pause
right on the one.

- Play your song again.
[vocalizing]

- Stop it right on beat,
roll back, do it again.

- And you had to go play
whatever your source was

ten times onto the cassette,

use the pause button as
the joint between each loop.

So now you get 16 bars out.

Young kids were doing this
in the hood

to get a bed of music that they
liked from a certain record.

[knock on door]
- Yo, yo.

- What up, Tone?
Come down, man.

- Oh, yo.
- Hang out, man.

- What's happening?

Yo, man.
- Little messy in here.

- Oh, man. This is fly, B.

- The biggest impact
of all time

for this whole
mixtape phenomenon,

it goes straight to Kid Capri.

- Kid Capri lit up the room
the moment he walked in it.

- This Kid Capri's
a living legend.

- There was great DJs,

Jam Master Jay,
all these dudes,

and they were superstars.

But they were superstars
behind a group.

I wanted to be the dude.
I wanted to be the mic.

I wanted to be everything.

- What Brucie B created,

he put it on steroids.

- I used to just make
these little tapes for myself.

When you heard 'em, you know,
you felt like you was there.

- He was able to sort of
capture an experience.

- It could be in my hallway

and sound like
it was a live show.

- It wasn't, like,
just someone kind of at home.

Like, he brought
the energy that

he would give you in a club.

- His voice felt like it was
cutting the paint off the wall.

- Check one, two!

Now I got police cars
driving by playing my shit.

I got Mister Softee pulling up
playing my shit

when he's supposed to be
playing--

[vocalizes ice cream jingle]

Once I seen what it did and
what the possibilities was,

then the business head came.

- For some reason,

in front of the Apollo Theater
was this dude...

[laughs]
selling the crazy shit.

- He don't remember this.
I tell him this all the time.

He chased my truck
three blocks down 3rd Avenue

trying to give me
a free mixtape before he blew.

"Play this. Play this."

And we put it in.

♪ Something tell you that
I wouldn't do ♪

♪ 'Cause you love me, baby ♪

"It's the world famous
Kid Capri!"

And we--
[screaming]

Like, you know what I'm saying?
So--

- 145th Street in Harlem was
the main spot

where all the ballers,
all the players would go,

all the chicks would go.

After the clubs let out,

everybody would go there to
Willie's Burgers.

I would sit there in awe
just watching the cars go by--

the BMWs and the Mercedes,
and the Jettas kitted up

with Kid Capri, those voices,
coming out of those cars.

- My purpose was to get known

and also make a little bit of
money while I was doing it.

[hip-hop music]

- Kid Capri, 52 Beats,

that's the all-time greatest
mixtape, to me, to this day.

- ♪ Something in the way
you make me feel ♪

- It's the Kid Capri.
By all means, jump inside.

Go down.

- He had a mix of
"Impeach the President"

and this song called

"Something in the Way
You Make me Feel."

You could stop at a stoplight
in Harlem, one block,

you could stop the next block,

and you could stop
five blocks up.

There'd be a car at
every light playing that mix

in a different spot.

That's like a radio station.

- Like, I'm nowhere.
I have no group.

I'm not on the radio, nothing.

But I could go get a cassette,
play some hot shit.

If my mix is something you
bump in your ride,

I'm somebody.

- Me doing
the Stephanie Mills mix

with the break beat
to "Impeach the President,"

I didn't know that
I was changing

the whole '90s hip-hop
era of music.

You now had to sing on
the break beat.

- After we get
the initial shock of Capri,

the mixtape market,
with Doo Wop, S&S...

[bell tolls]

We explode.

[explosion]

- Kid Capri.
- Brucie B.

- Kid Capri.
- Triple C.

- Hard Candy.
- Ron G.

- Mr. C.
- Doo Wop.

- S&S.
- Ron G.

Remember DJ Ron G was off
the fucking hook, right?

- Don't even start
calling names.

- DJ Screw.
- Recipes. DJ Screw.

- DJ Jazzy Jeff.

- Tony Touch.
- G-Bo the Pro, Double R.

- Tony Touch.
- Clark Kent.

- Jazzy Joyce.
- Craig G.

- Funk Master Flex.

- Tony Touch. Doo Wop.

- Wherever you got it from--
the barber shop,

the corner store,
the blanket on the street--

you was gonna get your fix.

- I'm getting the idea that,
like, if I don't buy this tape,

I cannot hear this
anywhere else.

- It was an invisible market.

That market was not measured
by any analytics companies.

You have to have your ear
to the street.

- We was the product.
- We're the product.

- They was the dealers.
- Yeah.

[tape rewinding]

- Get the--

[tape rewinding]

- Yo, yo, Redman.

- Yo, yo, Toneman.
What the fuck, toca?

Get the fuck off that
punk smooth shit.

Get with that rough shit.
You know how we do.

- ♪ Yeah, it's the love
and hate theory ♪

♪ Tax free, can't Google
what I make yearly ♪

♪ When you mix pain with rage,
you get fairy ♪

♪ I don't hear the talent,
I just see the fake jury ♪

♪ Please don't compare me ♪

♪ Whoever you thinking
about going to get ♪

♪ They can't fuck with me,
clearly ♪

♪ The minute that I lace up
my boots, it's kind of scary ♪

♪ These bars came from
the Roots, Alex Haley ♪

♪ You got hate in your blood,
and you kept hating ♪

♪ Me? I just caked up
and I kept taking ♪

♪ Easy money sniper,
call 'em the next Kevin ♪

♪ Headshots, don't even
bother with Excedrin ♪

♪ Knowing the dudes that
call him the next Devin ♪

♪ And I'm thinking
Lambo truck or the X7 ♪

♪ Ha, I inspired
to keep earning ♪

♪ Party and bullshit,
it's time you just burn it ♪

♪ Success when you have
the desire to keep learning ♪

♪ Till the wheels fall off ♪

♪ Then the tires will
keep turning ♪

♪ Uh. D-block, so raspy ♪

♪ You already know what it is,
so don't ask me ♪

♪ ♪

Ha-ha!

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ ♪

- Some of the older guys, like,
would have a radio outside.

And this radio would play
Doo Wop or Ron G mixtapes

or S&S or whoever was
the mixtape DJs at the time.

You would hear those tapes,
how they were made,

put together,
the blueprint for a mixtape.

- You know,
you find your own lane.

- ♪ On top with
the underground ♪

- I would rhyme on my tapes.
Ron G would blend.

- Ron, come on, Ron G!

[stammering]
Ah!

- Yo, you had Ron G tape,
you were smashing.

I'm telling you right now.

You was with a chick,
you smashing.

- My mother, being that
she didn't like

the hip-hop at the time,

and she used to be playing
all these old school records--

Lou Rawls, Michael Jackson,
Diana Ross--

I was able to take
a lot of those songs.

I'd start playing the songs
off from the cassette.

And then I can hear
the beat behind it,

but then I would record it
on another tape deck.

- ♪ It's nothing that
I'd rather do ♪

- Doo Wop had a tape
that was legendary,

which was 95 Live.

- Nobody had known rappers
rhyming on they tape

at the time, nobody.

♪ Who is this, doing this
synthetic type of ♪

♪ Alpha-beta psychedelic
fucking ♪

♪ Emphasis from
the funk abyss ♪

♪ Blowing up the spot ♪

I was just trying to separate
myself from everybody else.

- Doo Wop was the first DJ
to feature

all these freestyles
on a mixtape.

- I loved Doo Wop tapes.

A lot of mixtapes was, like,
forcing it.

And he was just always cool.

And I felt like if he said

he fuck with it,
he really fucked with it.

- It had everybody
who was everybody

with a freestyle.

- ♪ Scout sewing up the
Brooklyn ballers is who I be ♪

♪ When I was young, I used to
hang a nigga from a tree ♪

- In a studio that could only
fit about three people,

I had MOP, Q-Tip,
Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe,

the engineer, and like,
five of my people.

- ♪ I'm down with the Busta,
straight from the under ♪

♪ Just like Stevie Wonder ♪

♪ You about to feel
the thunder ♪

- They was there 'cause
they wanted to be

on a mixtape, period,

because they could say things
on the mixtape

that they can't say
on a record label.

- The top story, evening news,
I'm the shit.

They been deceiving you.

- They'd be censored or they
might wanna air out a beef

or something that they can't do
on the record label.

So they did it on the mixtapes.

- My favorite, G-Bo
the Pro and Double R.

- You know, because we were
doing it on a four-track,

it wasn't traditional DJing.

It was lay down one record...

- ♪ Bring it back, come back ♪

- Stop the tape, rewind it.

- ♪ Heal up, wheel up,
bring it back, come rewind ♪

- Lay another one on top of it.

- ♪ Powerful impact, powerful
impact, powerful impact ♪

♪ Boom, come back ♪

- Whoa, this is--
this is no longer a mixtape.

This is--this is a production.

- The production was
incredible.

The vibe was incredible.

And it really showed us
the power of the music

and what we could do.

- ♪ You know Monica? She got
a sister named Veronica ♪

♪ There is no girl
nowhere around like her ♪

♪ You wanna talk to her?
Don't be hasty ♪

♪ Her attitude is bitter
but she looks real tasty ♪

♪ The type of girl you dream
about marrying ♪

♪ Her nationality is
Trinidadian ♪

♪ She used to catch
the Number Four out of Utica ♪

♪ I used to fantasize about
what I'ma do to her ♪

♪ But she would speak on
my dress code ♪

♪ Better leave now
that my suits ♪

- And then you had the guys
down south making mixtapes.

- You get to DJ Screw.

- Houston shit was all about
that slowed down aesthetic,

that ambient cloud shit.

- That was
a whole different animal,

but super groovy.

Like, I loved those mixtapes.

- DJ Screw's earliest mixtapes
were just like

every other DJ's earliest
mixtapes, you know?

All the new records happening.

And then there's a shift,
right, where Screw,

for some reason decides to
start pitching down.

[deep reverb]

♪ ♪

- So it gave it a very slow,
laid back kind of feel,

which kind of fit with
the lifestyle of Houston.

♪ ♪

- When I was a kid,
I stayed on Candler Road

and I stayed in
these apartments

called Misty Waters.

Up the street there was
a plaza,

and there was a DJ there
named DJ Edward J.

- The Edward J mixtape was
an Atlanta based thing.

So it was more about
the blends and the mixes.

- "King Edward J, I say."
You know what I mean?

Like, you know, that was
his voice, right?

And--so he made a lot of DJs
famous, like, years later.

Like, um--
[singing]

- They would just take
a lot of slow songs

and they would add
808 bass on top of 'em

and just talk over 'em.

So it was a plaza I would go to

to just kind of, like,
hear these tunes.

- And it was called
the Bedroom Boom.

And those are some of
the most prestigious tapes

that you can ever get.

- Everybody had
their own style,

you know what I'm saying?

Like, Tony, I ain't gon' lie.

Tony Touch used to
come with rings.

And, you know,
the way he would DJ,

it would just be, like, a swag.

Like, he'd be like--
[air whooshing]

I used to watch all that.

We about to intro to the stage,

my nigga, DJ Tony Touch.

- The 50 MCs Collection.

- So this a box set
of all of them.

Features over 150 of
the biggest names in hip-hop,

freestyling, straight spitting.

- He introduced himself as
Tony Touch.

I thought he was
a Black cat, you know?

I had no idea he was
a Puerto Rican guy, you know?

- Basically we working on
tape 50, son.

I had my DJ equipment at home.
I would take my time.

♪ Check, check, check, check ♪

♪ Check, check, check,
check, check ♪

♪ Check it over here,
baby pop ♪

- There was no template
for the process.

So everything that you did,

you was doing it
for the first time.

- ♪ Out to get the bootlegger ♪

- Sometimes you'll be
halfway through a mixtape

and you'll, like,
mess up a scratch.

And I'd watch you.
And you'd be like, "ugh!"

- Yeah.
- And I remember, yo,

nobody could talk to
this dude.

'Cause I would just sit and
I'd just look at a record.

[laughter]

He'd be like--
[roaring]

- This is tape 46.

- ♪ Kick it over here,
baby pop ♪

♪ Out to get the bootlegger ♪

♪ Make mad noise,
it's the new fucking terror ♪

♪ 1994,
flipping off a new era ♪

♪ The mighty D-Stroy with
the Rican Renegade ♪

♪ Bring your brigade
and pack a Medicaid ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm wicked with
the lyrics ♪

♪ And he's nice with
the fader ♪

♪ We get around the world
just like the equator ♪

♪ Serving competition like
a restaurant cater ♪

♪ Touch and D-Stroy, kid,
nigga, check your data ♪

♪ 'Cause I kick like soccer,
blast like Binaca ♪

♪ Shine like the sun,
so get your Blue Blocker ♪

- It was that serious to be on
a mixtape

and motherfuckers was just
going to niggas houses to rap.

- All the artists knew
this is what keeps me alive.

This is what keeps
the vibrancy going,

the cassette in the hood.

- Ones, baby.
- Break it.

- Flip Mode is
the fucking squad.

- Ham and eggs.
- Likely not.

- Oh, no ham.
- Breakfast time, dude.

We still breaking
the fucking day with hip-hop

banging in your brains, dude.
Don't matter!

We coming,
fucking natural disasters.

Whirlwinds, tornadoes,

fucking volcanoes and shit
and earthquakes,

shifting the earth's crust.

Blowing up your mom's with
those stomps in the back.

Family,
your father's asleep too.

Breakfast time, dude.
We still wilding, fuck.

Tony Touch, what the fuck
is the deal, dude?

- One of the most
amazing things to me about

the mixtapes, in my experience,
is the way they would travel.

- The way it rippled out
through the culture at large,

I think is something that
you really can't even define,

but I think is
pretty significant.

- It hit everywhere.

It's not as if mixtapes were
solely a street thing.

They started out
as a street thing.

But like everything else
with hip-hop,

once the suburb kids
heard about this,

well, we had to have it.

- People would come from
out of town

to come buy these tapes.

- And these kids used to come
all the way to Bushwick

just to buy their gear,

just to buy their weed,

and to buy that mixtape.

And then they back on
their way to Long Island.

- Those who knew, knew,

and they were part of
this special network.

- Oh, I know someone.

His friend lives in New York.

He's gonna bring me
the new Ron G tape.

- And it would be like
this fucking thing

you'd pass around.

"Yo, let me dub that.
Let me hold that."

You know, maybe your friend,
yo, he dubs 'em.

Yo, you could dub 'em?

Like, I didn't know
how to fucking dub 'em.

- I had it. You was my man.
Go ahead, dub it.

- Fuck, yeah, I want that shit.

- And cats were trying to
rob me for it.

Like, they would come up to me
and be like,

"yo, let me hold that."
- Nah, you ain't holding this.

- God forbid you let
someone hold it

and then they broke
your fucking tape.

- There's actually been fights,
shoot-outs, stabbings,

over fucking tapes.

- It made it all the way from
125th Street to the point where

nerdy Jewish kids
who my brother's meeting

at Brandeis University
are bringing

the tapes back from New York.

- So a kid like me, I would
bring my collection down.

And then they would span and
fan out through the college.

And that's how they moved.

- Those things got in
the hands of

people you wouldn't even
expect.

- All my fights,
I listened to mixtapes.

And now I'm training
to the music.

- My team got all
the music through me.

- So these are 90-minute tapes.

- I got it from Khalid.
I got it from DJ Tony Touch.

- And then stops.
All right. Take it out.

Put it back on. Click. Bang.

We got another 90 minutes.
Let's do exercise.

- They ship it to me,
I get it out to Orlando.

- We can't stop.
We're invincible.

We're almost like immortal.

It's listening to the music

and that's all
we're talking about. Boom.

- I didn't know that shit
could go that far.

Like, I didn't--I had no idea.

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- I remember selling
my mixtapes

at the Carroll City flea market
in Miami.

- Somebody had a cousin
from Brooklyn.

And they would
shoot music down.

All of the people
that you now recognize

as part of the Houston movement

all started from
the mixtape areas.

- We'd get the imports,
'cause, you know,

somebody knew somebody from
out there who brought one back.

And then they would go copy it

and make it for their boys
out here.

- There was a time when
I first met AM

and he was playing at, like,
these little clubs

in LA like the Dragonfly.

And he was bored.
He was bored where it was.

He was bored with LA clubs
and this thing.

- You'd hear it maybe once.
And you're like,

"yo, what was that?" and you
would never hear it again.

And then you'd be chasing it,
chasing it, chasing it.

- And we get in his car.

He had this Jeep Cherokee with,
like, the CDs in the thing--

in, you know, the overhead.
- And then you're like,

Okay, I think I found it
at a flea market.

- It was like having gold.

- Man, I just heard this thing,

and it's the best fucking thing
I've ever heard.

It's like, it's this guy
called the Z Trip.

Listen to this.

[record scratching]
- ♪ Tall and tan ♪

- And it was "The Girl from
Ipanema" over "Planet Rock."

- ♪ The girl from Ipanema
goes walking ♪

- And they had these records
that was mixed and blended.

But a lot of times
they didn't have

California music on there.

And we figured that's
a good way to make a record.

How do we do this?

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- We're here!

- [speaking Spanish]

- The first time that
I listened to rap music,

it was because of a mixtape.

- It was Carolina, Bayamón.
It was all around the island.

- If it wasn't for the mixtape,

a lot of y'all
probably wouldn't know

who a lot of these
reggaetonerosare.

- And everything was
because of mixtapes.

- [speaking Japanese]

- [speaking Japanese]

- Any time I would go to
New York

and come back to Paris,
I'd bring back tapes.

- [speaking French]

- [speaking French]

- If someone had gone across to
the States from England,

you would want their mixtapes.

And as soon as that person
came back,

they would start taping them
and re-recording them,

sending them out
to people here.

- There was some, you know what
I mean, gifting going on

and lending
and stuff like that.

And a lot of
our cultural influences

came from that music.

- [moans]

♪ ♪

- ♪ I can feel it ♪

♪ ♪

- ♪ Yo ♪

♪ I know what the people want ♪

♪ But I'm dealing with
something deep ♪

♪ I respect the mind
of the writer ♪

♪ I respect the mind
of the reader ♪

♪ I respect the mind of
the lover ♪

♪ I respect the mind of
the leader ♪

♪ I only respect the emotions
of bro when he hold the heat ♪

♪ Runners are running around,
doubling up on the pound ♪

♪ Police are
shutting 'em down ♪

♪ Now hugging the curb,
they end up in a trial ♪

♪ With debt and
it's bugging me out ♪

♪ Stereotypes
come with the hype ♪

♪ Media pumping the lies,
feeding the flame ♪

♪ That's burning in front of
your eyes ♪

♪ You rub 'em,
covered and blind ♪

♪ How we really meant to talk ♪

♪ When they won't let us
have a voice? ♪

♪ But every time
you get defensive ♪

♪ It's seen as aggressive,
never had the choice ♪

♪ Dripping
but I'm never moist ♪

♪ Trying to get it
with the boys ♪

♪ Mario, I want the coins ♪
[indistinct]

♪ Anyway, rappers are running
with one, I put ten away ♪

♪ Praying and hoping that
I put my pen away ♪

♪ How much you got on your
back? I could never say ♪

♪ Couldn't replicate the vibe
that I generate ♪

♪ Thick energy
when I penetrate ♪

♪ Planning to come out the job
in the get-away ♪

♪ Somewhere closer to the sun
I can medicate ♪

♪ When I come up off the ground
I might levitate ♪

- ♪ Let me show you about
the sound of winning ♪

♪ I was on tour with legends
scopin' lessons ♪

♪ To make pounds and kill it,
found the skillet ♪

♪ And the barrel's kicking
a thousand in it ♪

♪ No money's 'round
so pull your face back ♪

♪ Like the head of an owl,
let's spin it ♪

- ♪ I'm a family guy,
Peter Griffin ♪

♪ And I ain't fucking with
you kids, that's Gary Glitter ♪

♪ They gave me
reasonable doubt ♪

♪ I guess you know the jig up ♪

♪ My team's winning,
Jehovah be the witness ♪

♪ And Usher ain't the only one
with a confession ♪

♪ It's hard to be ordinary,
ask John Legend ♪

♪ Car just about fit in
this economy ♪

♪ Living by the 48 laws ♪
[indistinct]

- So two British guys
that lived in Brooklyn

that had actually come from
the UK

with the intent to duplicating
mixed tapes.

- The idea of the Tape Kingz
was to take those tapes

out of the neighborhood and get
DJs to put their tapes out

with the Tape Kingz logo.

- Tape Kingz was like a label
that was putting out mixtapes.

- Doo Wop, 95 Live.

Ron G, It's On, Part Two.

Tony Touch, 50 MCs.

The Best of Biggie, Mister Cee.

- I saw their setup
and I saw hundreds of

master tapes on the corner,

duplicates everywhere,
blank tapes everywhere.

It was like a whole factory.

- Them tapes went
all over the world.

- This isn't just
a mom and pop thing.

These guys literally have
their own record label,

which, again, is crazy.

These guys are paying
no royalties, right?

No publishing.

It's a complete
pirate organization, right?

I mean, you could flip
a mixtape over

and it'd be like, "Tape Kingz."

- Yeah, shady business.
[chuckles]

Um, I think, you know,
as far as the economics

of the mixtape game,

you were selling them to the
vendors on Canal Street for 5,

and they were flipping them
and selling them for 10.

In other cases, a distributor
would buy in bulk.

If you're moving 50 to
100,000 or more mixtapes

at anywhere between
$2 and, you know, $5 a pop,

you can do the math.

If you're moving several
hundred thousand mixtapes

all over the world,
you know, at those margins,

you can do the math.

- I used to sell mixtapes
to this guy over here.

I used to drop a box
of 200 off to him.

I used to sell him
a master tape.

- That's what I remember
growing up,

you know, people out of
they trunk.

- 20,000 in one day.

- I'd have, like,
all my mixtapes

in the front of
the fucking Lambo.

Pop it up. Africans come to me

and I distribute
on Canal Street.

I was notorious.
I ain't give a fuck.

- He was the first person
I ever saw with a Lexus

that went from hard top to
drop top in a button.

Takes tapes out of the car.
I was like, boom!

I was like, holy shit.
Like, that was crazy.

- The streets helped
the mixtape

and the mixtape helps
the streets.

- [speaking French]

- [speaking French]

- When I was out in
the streets,

I sold those mixtapes
like they were dope.

- Swap meets were
the equivalent of

a Delancey Street.

You walked down and
everything's right there.

- If know somebody
in Mississippi,

they know somebody
in Kentucky.

They know somebody in Kentucky,
they know somebody in Alabama.

They know somebody in Alabama,
know somebody in Tennessee.

Whether it's from
the prison system,

you know, local hustlers,
or strippers, or whatever,

it was all on one accord.

So word of mouth was
better than, you know,

any promotion you could've had.

- This is actually a tape from
when I was locked up.

My mom sent me this shit.

Forced MDs tape with
the shrink wrap.

When I open it, it's a mixtape.

There's my Walkman from jail.

[hip-hop music]

There you go.

I'm selling these
for $40 a pop.

$10 for the weekend.

I was giving mixed tapes
to COs.

Had COs bringing me food
on the weekend,

Alizé, all type of shit, son.

There was plenty of beats.

Niggas was getting robbed
for mixed tapes in jail.

Yeah, niggas would rather
get their head cracked

for a mixtape.

[sot static crackling]

- ♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Life's crazy ♪

♪ And I always told 'em
life be crazy ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Life's a struggle ♪

♪ Life passion, life pain ♪

♪ It's all one in the same ♪

♪ Make it all make sense ♪

♪ They all slip, fall,
they can't get right ♪

♪ They all slip,
fall, can't get right ♪

♪ They all slip, fall,
gots to get right ♪

♪ Get me back on my feet,
stop playing with life ♪

♪ They all slip, fall,
can't get right ♪

♪ They all slip,
fall, can't get right ♪

♪ They all slip, fall,
gots to get right ♪

♪ Get me back on my feet,
stop playing with life ♪

♪ I been through hella
different phases like mazes ♪

♪ Trying to get on,
brother was never there ♪

♪ I start banging,
the Bloods gave me a home ♪

♪ Wasn't strong enough to face
my problems that I had ♪

♪ A kid with anger issues ♪

♪ From all the shit
I seen my father did ♪

♪ Chain gang, I been there,
I was sitting there ♪

♪ Thinking about if
I let my mama down ♪

[indistinct]

♪ First came the bullshit,
the drama with my pops ♪

♪ I wasn't seeing him
so I jumped into the street ♪

♪ Went got a Glock,
like, this me ♪

♪ And I'ma be the seed
who gon' feed Mama ♪

♪ So my little brother and
sister won't ever need ♪

♪ I'm ready for the world at 16
a robber what I was ♪

♪ I'm doing this shit to
feed myself and fam ♪

♪ Not for a street thug ♪

♪ Going too fast,
I make you crash ♪

♪ But I couldn't see that far ♪

♪ Stuck in detention centers,
fighting my evils off ♪

♪ They put me in a situation
as a child to be a man ♪

♪ Ain't had no god, it's all
helping hand, alone I stand ♪

♪ Damn, is it my fault? ♪

- Technology shifts culture.

Going back to the turntable,
that changed everything.

You started recording
live parties.

That was the first mixtape.

The live mix in your crib
that you would do.

Then that turned into the CD.

♪ ♪

- Considering its quality and
size,

the compact disk
most certainly will become

a part of our everyday lives
in the future.

- Epidemic just hit crazy
when it switched to CDs.

- And I was like, yo, man,
if I was the first one to put

a mixtape on CD,
it'd be groundbreaking.

- Oh, man. The hustle came
when you get to burn CDs.

And, you know, people came in
and fucked that game up.

- The tapes went away and
the CDs started

so that I was way ahead
of the game.

- Now you could
buy the machine.

Dudes had the machine.

They had multiple machines
in their studios and shops

and they doing
their own covers.

And, you know what I mean,
the turnaround was way quicker.

- Then the flooding
started to happen.

Then all the DJs started
to flood the market.

- When it started getting
flooded

and everybody and their mother
was doing mixtapes,

then that immediately
starts to kind of, like,

water down
the specialness of it.

- The integrity of
the music changed.

The integrity of
the mixtape changed.

It became, who could sell more?
How fast? How quick?

- Blast off.

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- [coughing]

- I heard what DJs played
exclusives on the radio,

but this was different.

- Radio was aggressive

but the tapes were
super aggressive.

- You always wanna put
something on your mix

that is not supposed to
be there.

- All of a sudden,
I started hearing

these records that weren't
out for months.

- We was playing things
we wasn't supposed to play.

- Is anyone here from Queens?

'Cause I don't wanna
offend niggas.

Queens niggas love to steal,
okay? [chuckles]

- And then you got Clue
coming in.

- ♪ Hey, yo, Queens
get the money.

♪ Long time, no cash ♪

♪ I'm caught up in the hustle
where the guns go black ♪

- Clue ushered in exclusives.

Before that, Braun or Capri,
they'd have one or two.

Clue ushered in the whole tape
being exclusives.

Clue had it the hardest.

Niggas fronted on him
because he was from Queens.

The Harlem stores
wouldn't carry his stuff.

It was strictly because
of where he was from.

- You know, Clue's brand
was built off of him

getting something first.

- Clue was the person
who brung it to a level

where radio stations
had to start

paying attention to it.

- They used to talk
about Clue like a drug lord.

You know, the cars he would
have, the money he would make.

- Clue would put this echo
on his shit.

- [echoing] ♪ DJ Clue ♪

♪ Back again ♪

♪ Represent Queens
to the fullest ♪

- You listen to a Clue tape,
he puts the echo on the snare.

If the beat's going... [scats]

Clue, Clue, Clue!

And the shit echoes
the fuck out

as the cars are riding away,

the shit sounds nuts.

Clue's personality wasn't
as strong

as a Capri or a Doo Wop.

But his presentation,
and the echo.

Because for me, being from
the Bronx, the echo was like,

"Fuck what you talking about,
'this Queens nigga.'

This Queens nigga
using the echo."

And that was tough to me.

- Everyone else prior to that
was underground.

And everyone had the mixtapes
on Jamaica Ave.

Clue was, like, the first
person like, we went uptown.

We went to Harlem.
Like, it was like going

to the West Coast
at that time.

- His mixtapes, you know,
kind of set a bar,

and showed that if you could be
on this mixtape,

you one of the elite.

- To be on a Clue tape--

that was like winning
a Grammy almost,

like, especially if you got
that first top ten slots.

Like, when you listen
to a Clue tape,

the beginning of the Clue tape
was Nas.

He was damn near
the biggest artist in America

at the time.

So you went to Harlem

and you see DJ Clue mixtapes

up there, you like, "Oh!"

Like, "Whoa!

Like, y'all know about Queens?"

- ♪ Yeah ♪

- People used to always look
for that.

So I would put a--you know,
a mixture of, like,

some of the hottest songs
that was out,

and then put
some exclusives on there,

as well as some new artists
that had some dope music.

You know what I mean?

So back then, there
was no Internet,

so you had to, you know,
go to the mixtapes

to find the exclusive songs
and the hot music.

- That was early Internet,
was that Clue tape.

- DJ Clue was known
for stealing DATs.

- The digital audio tape,
or DAT,

has been called
the wonder tape recorder.

- That was something
that was different.

I don't know if you remember.

- Its ability
to reproduce sound

is so good, it's got
the music industry worried.

They're afraid it'll lead
to worldwide pirating

and undermine the increasingly
popular compact disc.

- As far as, like,
a Queens mixtape DJ,

all we needed was
one verse and a hook,

and you might as well say
the song is gone.

- My introduction
to DJ Clue was,

he leaked a Grand Puba song.

And I was pissed, 'cause
my album had just started.

I was one, two songs in
on a 2000 album.

And I called him up.
He worked for Steve Style.

And I was like,
"Yo, the fuck are you doing, G?

I don't even know how
you fucking got that."

- Man, I would tell you where
I got the freestyles from,

but I'd have to kill you, man.
You know what I mean?

So I'm taking that
to the grave with me.

- Like, him being
down with Puffy,

and that's sweet peaches now.

They wanted to kill him.

- And Clue hates me to this
day deep down inside me.

He hates me
'cause I told the story

about Biggie looking
for the nigga.

- I had the original
"One More Chance."

- ♪ Oh, Biggie, give
me one more chance ♪

- I had, uh--I ain't
gonna say a demo copy,

but I had, like,
an early copy of it.

And I put it on a mixtape.

And Biggie got
kind of upset on the radio.

He was like--

- Clue, I'm looking for you.

If you listening,
watch you back.

It's all good.

Here we go.

- It just came to Biggie
like, like...

- I forgot.

When you said tape recorder,
I thought bootleg,

and I thought Clue.
It's on.

- Oh, my God.

- So Biggie walks up to me

with the fucking army
fatigue jacket,

pulls out, like, a .22.

He's like, "Yo, you seen
that nigga DJ Clue?

I'm gonna clap that nigga
when I see him."

I was like, "Nah.
I ain't seen him."

You know what I'm saying?
- Who was that?

- Notorious B.I.G., nigga.

Biggie.
- Oh, he had a .22.

- Smalls was looking for Clue

'cause Clue put out
one of his records

without permission

on the mixtape.

He was looking
for him with a gun,

talking about he was
gonna give it to him.

- That's what hip-hop is.

Catch me.

And if you catch me,
you know,

we'll do it accordingly.

But until then,
you gotta catch me.

You know what I'm saying?
So..

[laughing with echo]

- That's where
the outlaw shit comes from.

- That became
a staple brand of not just him,

but the mixtape culture.

People were hungry
to hear the next mixtape

because they never knew
what they were gonna hear.

- At certain points,
mixtapes became headaches.

♪ Rappers, I monkey
flip 'em with the funky ♪

♪ Rhythm I be kicking ♪

♪ Musician inflicting ♪

♪ Composition of pain ♪

♪ I'm like Scarface
sniffing cocaine ♪

- They're getting
the Nas record

before it even hits the stores
or before the records

even get on the radio
or anything.

- I got in trouble
for a lot of records.

Faith Newman,
you know, she really

wanted to kill me for the Nas.

- Oh, yeah.

When I found out
that S&S leaked Illmatic,

I wanted to kill him.

- Because I played
seven songs, eight, really,

including the remix
for "It Ain't Hard to Tell."

- The whole album
had 10 songs on it.

- I didn't know
he was gonna put this on.

- Somebody got their hands

on the majority of the album

and made its way to S&S.

And he put it out
on the street.

- I got it.

I played it.

- It hurt the album,

you know,
because he bootlegged it,

and then
other people bootlegged it,

and then, all of a sudden,
you could find it in England.

I mean, it was that bad.

- I had 21 records
on my album.

I remember a DJ put 16 or 17
of them on his mixtape.

Why would you buy my album
if you get 16 of them for free?

- Music shouldn't come out
from an artist

until they're ready
to release it.

- I would just be clueless.
Like, yo, where are these cats

getting these records?

- So everybody
had their methods.

- It was a hustle.

- You know a fucked-up word?

It's called "intern."

And you know
what interns do, right?

They work for free.

What I did was sought out
interns in every major spot.

And I would give them
$100 or $200

to, when the CEO or the A&R
or whatever left their office,

go get whatever they had
laying around,

record it, put it back.

That's how I was getting
a lot of my--

and niggas was confused.

Like, how the fuck he get--

I'm getting it from y'all.

They could never
figure it out.

I'm going to the person
y'all not paying

and I'm paying 'em,
you dumbass.

- It's no secret we really had
some issues with Whoo Kid.

- It's not like
I wanted trouble.

It just happened
with the tapes.

And I never paid attention.

And then here I am,
getting caught.

- Any time you're in,
like, an illicit trade

and there's money involved,
there's gonna be

some kind of danger.
I mean, like--

- You hear about
mixtape dealers getting robbed,

kidnapped,
thrown in trunks of cars.

- The more I was
robbing motherfuckers,

the more rappers
tried to catch me.

I got caught by Big Pun.

- Whoo Kid put out a song
of Pun's without permission.

So Pun called them and made
it look like, you know,

he was booking 'em for a show.

And Whoo Kid came, and...

- All I heard was
Spanish lingo,

callate la boca,
all this screaming.

- They kidnapped him.

They threw him in the van,
pulled out machine guns

and shit like that,
smacked him around.

- Yo, every gun
you could think of.

Like, .38s, Glock 9s.

One had, like, a--
it looked like a Uzi.

He says, "Yo, I know you're--

"you're just trying
to get put on.

"You're leaking shit.

"But I'm gonna explain to you.
This is some street shit.

"This is Latin Kings, gangs.
There's some shit going on here

"that you don't know nothing
about.

"So if you do it again,
then you're actually like--

you're doing it against me."

So in the intro
to the next tape

he wants me to,
like, say, "Fuck Jay-Z,

Fuck Rockefeller."

I was like, "I'll say
whatever you want.

"Just get me the hell
out of this car, yo!

I'm not dying
for this shit, yo!"

- But at the end of the day,
it was part of the game.

- You see it.

Mixtapes, motherfuckers.

- That's it.

[Vivaldi's
"The Four Seasons" playing]

- I always thought
that if I could connect

my brand to music
and the music world,

it would make the brand cool.

Mixtapes unlocked the door.

Peter Paul Scott
and Andy Hilfiger

brought me this idea
to do a mixtape.

And I said, you know,
"What the fuck is a mixtape?"

I didn't know what
a mixtape was.

And they said,
"No, you don't understand.

"We're gonna get all
these musicians to do music,

"put it on one tape,
and then we're gonna hand

"the tape out,
let it really permeate

into the culture."
And it worked.

The hip-hop kids were
connected to my brand,

and I was connecting
to the culture.

- The culture wants
to get heard.

The culture needs money.

The culture wants to--

wants to survive.

So the culture
engages the corporate.

The corporate has nothing.

So it engages the culture.

Here's the marriage.

- You have sponsorships now.

The mixtapes
were sponsored by Sprite.

- And then, of course,
it turned into,

"Who's gonna get
that corporate money?"

- The platforms were
getting larger and bigger.

- That's how big
this mixtape movement was.

We even took that whole vibe
and kept it relevant

with the launch
of 50 Cent's first album.

We had a man standing with
a 9-millimeter pistol,

a do-rag, and a Gucci gun belt
around his chest,

pointed at you, with all of his
songs from all of his mixtapes

as a promotional tool
for a company called RBK.

Reebok.

[hip-hop music]

- ♪ Yeah ♪

- 50 was basically born
out of the mixtape.

- He did an idea that
no one else had been doing.

- He made it sound
like an album.

- The buzz, what the fuck
he was saying,

rhyming over other beats.

- Because prior to that, DJs
were making compilations.

And 50 was saying,
"Yeah, cool.

"I'm gonna give you
a mixtape,

but it's gonna be
all my music."

- And he had to do it,
because nobody was really

rocking with him at the time.

He was on Columbia.

Then he got shot.
[gunshot, sirens wailing]

And they dropped him
because they didn't want

no problems with it.

- Look, after I got hit,
I went through this thing

where there's a fear

that you have
because it hurts so bad.

And it's a different thing
when you hit to the point

you can't walk, hand shot,
your face is shot.

You banged up so bad
you don't--

I wouldn't let Yayo
and them see me.

I wouldn't let them come in
the hospital when I was there.

'cause it would have
changed their heart.

That was so uncomfortable,
the fear,

that the only way I was
able to make it go away

was to go towards the problem.

[hip-hop music]

♪ Many men
wish death upon me ♪

I was like, "I'ma just make
albums now."

- And he put out this mixtape
called "50 Cent is the Future."

Game-changer.

- 50 was stealing
the instrumentals

and redoing them.

- I'll take the records that
I felt like were really good,

and then write my version
off of a different spin

that I thought would have been
cool if you did it like this.

When I got
to "50 Cent is the Future,"

it was one photo shoot.

We did one photo shoot
in the garage.

When it was done, we put,
like, the fake barcode,

the--like, the track list.

We had to make it cool
enough for the bootleggers

to feel like they
just stole something.

- I think there's
a lot of people on Canal Street

that got really rich
off of 50 Cent mixtapes.

- I had turned the bootleggers

into my personal
marketing team.

- They were so hot
with mixtapes

that when Whoo Kid would walk
into the office,

50 would literally pick him up
upside down, shake him,

and whatever money
fell out of his pocket,

50 would just pick
it up and walk.

- Stealing music also put
us ahead of the game

to see what would be
the next single.

So if I'm constantly
at the labels, lurking,

trying to figure
out what's next,

I also get, like,
the schedules.

- Go get me the tape.
It don't matter.

Just--I need that first.

Whatever it is you can get
your hands on.

- If Dr. Dre's gonna drop
a single October 21st,

I would tell the A&R,
"Yo, give me the DAT,

give me the instrumental."

So then I would be
ahead of the game

and tell 50, "Yo, I think this
is gonna be the next hit."

- Whoo Kid was instrumental
with those 50 Cent tapes.

[banging noise]
- Whoo Kid.

That was hard!

Boy, I cannot forget
DJ Whoo Kid.

Man, he fucked them folks up.

Man, I loved how they
had their own thing.

50 have some real shit
going on.

Them mixtapes,
they really showed people

how to do business.

- It was to the point where,
like, a new song would come out

and if 50 did it,
the DJs wouldn't even

play the original no more.

- People were playing
their versions

more than their single.

- Every car driving down
the street was 50 Cent music.

It was everywhere.

- G-G-G-G Unit.

It was the hardest shit
I ever heard in my life.

- The established artists--

they would be pissed
when they see the Africans

with the CD on the shit.

And I'm the happiest person
to be there.

- At the same time,
we kind of, like, switched

the way they thought.

I had to teach Snoop Dogg.

He was like, "What the
fuck is a freestyle, cuz?

"What the fuck?
I'm freestyling for free.

"I just sold 30 million albums.

Like, fuck is this, cuz?"

I had him do "P-I-M-P"
and I let 50 hear it.

And 50 was like, "Fuck that.

"I'm not even changing this.

"This is a freestyle?

This sound like a record."

So then 50 just kept
the original verse

and made it the remixes.

And then that woke up
Snoop Dogg to understand,

you got to hurry up
and put your album out

or you're just gonna be,
like, old.

You don't wanna be
that late nigga.

Like, you think
you have a classic,

and then Soldier Boy comes out.

You!
Now you're like, yo.

That's why 50
always had tapes out

because it helped him be
connected with the streets

and understand the art
of being current.

- Before I released my record,
Master P came.

And he was like, "I wanna go
on tour with this new album."

You know what I'm saying?
And he was like, "Nah.

"They ready now.
They better give $8,000 a show.

You can run around."

I'm like, "$8,000?
Hold up.

This could get good."

The first show, Club Speed.

- You went to Speed, it was,
razors came out the mouth.

Speed was serious.

- Like, back then,
it was a little--

it was a little wild.

- I go first.

There goes the lamb
to the slaughter.

I walk down the stairs.

I make the left
to where the stage is at,

and all of a sudden,
I see Red Cafe

wearing a do rag
and a bulletproof vest.

I said, "Are you
fucking kidding me?

50's gonna flip."

Then there's a fight.

All of a sudden,
I see a Bic pen.

He start stabbing this dude
in the neck

with a Bic pen
right on the dance floor.

- Somebody got
poked in the neck.

James Cruz come
running upstairs.

He scared to death.
He's like, "Yo, yo."

- We're not doing the show!
We're not doing the show!

And 50 was like, "What
the fuck you talking about,

we ain't doing the show?"

- He got stabbed
because we standing here

instead of on the stage.

- He pushed me out of the way,
goes down to the stage,

and rocks it.

- I never forget that.

♪ I get money, I get money ♪

- But for whatever reason,
at that moment, 50's story,

his style, his aura, his voice,
his cadence, whatever it was,

he could do no wrong.
It was everywhere.

- Everyone wanted to make
their own mixtape like 50.

They didn't even care
about original beats no more.

They gonna make whole songs
over other people's beats.

- That's when it became
artist-driven.

Other artists
started looking like, "Hey,

"I don't even need
a mixtape DJ anymore.

I can just do this shit
on my own."

- Wayne was called
Mixtape Weezy.

He had his own alter ego.

And they'd just get on mixtapes
and body that shit.

- What was fun for me was
rapping on songs

that I'm not on,
that I wasn't a part of.

He would cut on a bunch
of instrumentals.

I would rap over
those instrumentals.

You gotta remember,
you're taking a song

that's a hit.

We have already learned
this song,

and we learned to love it
the way it is.

So you about to come touch it,

you better be about to do
something

that's gonna make us
really fuck with you.

At that time,
there was no Internet.

There was none of that.

So what we actually did
was burn a bunch of CDs,

go to a bunch of events,
and pass 'em out.

- Lil Wayne was the one
who really got us

into that free mixtape era.

- I never had no idea
of having success.

This is just me having fun.

- He's like, "I didn't get
that shit cleared.

But I'm not making
money off of it."

- I actually don't even expect
that somebody else

to even hear it.

We in New Orleans with this.

Just that I was killing it
so much

that it got straight
to your damn front door.

[doorbell rings]
[laughing]

Other than that, nope.

My thought process
behind my mixtapes were,

go crazy on all
these people's songs.

I didn't have no structures
as in, you know,

this one should be first.
This one should be--

DJs got on top of that
and said,

"Oh, okay. That's popping?
The next time you do that,

"why don't you give me
all those songs

"before you just start putting
'em out?

"And instead of you just
putting 'em 1 through 12,

let me make 'em
a good 1 through 12.

- So putting these mixtapes out
like albums,

people were literally waiting
for mixtapes to drop.

Right?

- ♪ G5 sitting on the runway ♪

- A mixtape is when you get
that DJ,

he jacked 12 beats, you know.

He give you a Beyoncé beat

where the song is about love
and hula hoops,

and you turn that bitch
into a fucking song

about dragons and Draculas.

And the world remember
that song

as dragons and Draculas.

That's--that's a mixtape.

That's what I do.
Call me.

- Live shows in hip-hop were
subsidized by free mixtapes.

That's exactly--what we
just figured out right now.

What was happening was,
the mixtapes

were getting them so popular

that they could actually sell
shows.

And there was a time
in hip-hop

people weren't doing
live shows like that.

Lil Wayne was
the master of that.

- I remember going on tour.

It was the name of one
of my mixtapes or something.

Are we doing that?
That's the name of this tour.

It came that far.

And, I mean, so that's--

I remember that feeling.

Like, "Damn, this shit worked."

So...
- Yeah.

[speaking Spanish]

You know what I'm saying?

With Tony Touch up in here.

♪ Because I'm public enemy
number one ♪

- Hell.
- Tone.

[greeting indistinctly]

- What's up?
- You good?

- We the house, dude.
What's going on?

- Mixtape time?
Mixtape time?

- Mixtape time, man.
- Let's do it.

- Let's do this shit.

- ♪ You got no rap,
but you want to rap ♪

♪ It's like a having a boat
but you got no-- ♪

- ♪ Ha ♪

- [laughs]
Spin that shit back.

- ♪ It's like a having a boat
but you got no-- ♪

[record scratching
over interrupted lyrics]

- ♪ You got no rap,
but you want to rap ♪

♪ It's like a having a boat
but you got no-- ♪

- [rapping indistinctly]

[record scratching]

- People used
to sweat Kid Capri.

People used to sweat DJ Clue.

You know.

People use to sweat Kay Slay.

Like, it was a big deal
for artists to get their song

on one of their cassettes.

Because they knew, A,

they might sell records
off of that.

But B, street credibility.

- The mixtape DJ rises
to a level of prominence,

and rightfully so.

Because the work
was put in, really.

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

Just to let you know that
the white man makes the rules,

whenever it's to his benefit,

them rules could change,
like that.

Suddenly the FBI
federal copyright law

gets pushed to the side.

Because in order for your label
to sell a record,

it has to now be on a mixtape.

For your artists to now appear
believable to its community,

you must appear on the mixtape.

- That's marketing that you
can never, ever have the budget

to meet the power of
what a mixtape DJ could provide

by putting your song on a tape.

- The labels got them vibes
because they was getting

some of the music to me.
You know what I'm saying?

So they knew what was up.

- I'm thinking the higher-ups,
the labels,

got a little irritated.

But one hand washed the other.

- We wanna get this
to the hottest DJ.

But, here.

- And the mixtape DJs--
really, ultimately,

at the end of the day,
they demonstrated to the labels

how the label should be moving.

- I think labels
and their legal teams

were always thinking

the mixtapes could be
a problem,

for the obvious reasons,
because they

were not properly licensed.

- Before I put out
my first album, like, Dr. Dre,

Jimmy Iovine, they were, like,
totally against,

like, mixtapes.

They did not want you
to put out mixtapes.

They felt like it
was free music,

you were giving stuff away.

Me and 50, we did it
anyway with Whoo Kid

and all those G-Unit mixtapes.

And that's really what--
that was like promotion.

- Here you have
a vibrant music scene

that's not based on music.

It's based on reputation,
who you know,

gang affiliation,
what you did, didn't do.

You're dealing with a culture.

And out of this comes music.

Now you just wanna sell
the music.

Uh-uh.

Where did that music come from?
Whose--what?

How?
Okay.

- When it came to labels
like Def Jam,

who had a full marketing team
around them

and understood what a useful
marketing tool this could be,

then it kind of tempered
a little bit.

And then--

[modem sound]

- At the time, record companies
were getting destroyed

by file sharing,
and from people downloading

music and burning CDs.

- It's stolen music.

You know?

And that's what it is.

- This is what they
now got to deal with.

[hip-hop music]

- Yo, they used to say
the Paul Revere beat was,

it's yours.
- For real?

Backwards?
- Backwards.

♪ ♪

- It could be.
Maybe they found it--

- Maybe they chopped it up.

- It's Def Jam alumni, nigga.

Whoo.

I've been on this business
like I'm Kobe, nigga.

10 years straight, nigga, 15.

You know what it is.

I came in this bitch
with a rope chain

and a pot, nigga.

♪ Yeah, I came in the game,
hardest motherfucker lit ♪

♪ Before the Mad Libs, yeah,
your boys balling chits ♪

♪ I'm obsessed with
cutting records ♪

♪ I was cutting bigger stuff ♪

♪ Quarter ounce
for the buck-25 ♪

♪ Taking those ♪

♪ Wasn't all that
they was dripping ♪

♪ Was the water in the pot ♪

♪ Bought a quarter
million dollar ♪

♪ Then I drove it off the lot ♪

♪ First I made a
million dollars ♪

♪ Then I sold
a million records ♪

♪ Then I find the IT and got
them bitches out of Texas ♪

♪ Boy, you trying
to make it stretch ♪

♪ Hit it with some warm water ♪

♪ You hit it with that cold,
make that hard get harder ♪

♪ Hop up out that phantom
with a cannon, make a move ♪

♪ Pull up on your front
in broad day ♪

♪ And make a smoothie ♪

♪ Who's that looking in
my window like I'm CeeLo ♪

♪ Nas need one mic,
I only need a kilo ♪

[echoing] ♪ Snuff ♪

♪ ♪

- If I had to refer
to the hustler mentality

of the mixtapes,
the most memorable one

would probably be Young Jeezy.

- Mixtapes saved
my whole entire life.

- As far as Jeezy,
now their mixtapes?

- Like, that just
gave me a way out.

- Their mixtapes are stories.

- It was the soundtrack of what
was going on in the streets.

And I was knee deep in it.

- If you take these people
who are, like,

once in a generation
drug dealers,

people who are going
and spending

hundreds of thousands
of dollars in a night--

- People knew what I was into.

But the music was real.

- No one's ever seen anything
like it, before or since.

- When Snowman
started popping,

he had a lot
of street support.

- Jeezy was the soundtrack
to it.

- It made us actually go out
and celebrate that,

and actually show it
and learn how to get out

of that actual word "trap."

- I just wanted to give
my music to people,

straight up.

If I get a deal, cool.

If I don't, you know,
it is what it is.

- When I think about Drama,

I always thought of stuff
like Jeezy.

- I used to call Dram, like,
"I want you to do my mixtape."

This nigga would be like,
"Yo, I never heard of you.

You ain't hot."

Like, what the fuck you mean?

Like, I'm the hottest
nigga in the streets.

You know I'm saying?

I came up with this plan.

I was like,
"I know what I'ma do."

I used to go to his crib
and pay him $500

every other week
to do my show tapes.

Trap or Die was a real thing.

I worked on it like
it was an album.

I was under a lot of pressure.

So my first frame of mind was,

put my blood, sweat, and tears
in this

in case I do go to prison
or do get killed.

Like, they can hear
what I was working on.

And I remember when I went
and played it for Drama,

I played him the intro.

♪ There's so much white
it'll hurt ya eyes ♪

- I just remember his face,
and he just, like,

had this look on his face

like, "Oh, yeah,
you have arrived."

- To me, at that point,
Atlanta had something to say.

You know, the South
had something to say.

- It swept through Atlanta.

- Like wildfire.

- ♪ Here I stand,
a grown-ass man ♪

♪ All by myself,
a grown-ass man ♪

♪ A young nigga
with some grown-ass players ♪

♪ Who don't want fingers
so know that man ♪

- Thank god for the mixtape.

You know what I'm saying?
If you're gonna drop one...

♪ Most of these rappers
are compulsive liars ♪

It better be hard.

You feel me?

Straight up.

- Trap or Die
definitely changed

the world, the music world.

- I felt like I was on
the highway listening to--

you know, you felt
like you going through

Jeezy's struggle with him.

- I mean, this is no deal.
Right?

- And so next time,
when he put out an album,

you're an extra fan now.

You felt like, man,
I listened to your mixtape.

And if you was telling
the truth

on that mixtape, nigga,
you went through some shit,

so I'm happy to see
you put out this album.

- ♪ Realest nigga that ever
done it, breathing or dead ♪

♪ Let's get it ♪

♪ Two record deals, radio-- ♪

[music playing sporadically]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Flaming hot lead burst
out the clear blue ♪

♪ We 730, Bellevue,
son, we dare you ♪

- At that time, if you had
a hit record on a mixtape,

that was as powerful
as a number one

on the Hot 100 on "Billboard."

- If you stopped 10 cars
on the streets

that were playing music loud

and asked them
what they were playing,

I would say 50% of those cars
were playing a mixtape,

not a traditional label album.

- So when you start to see
those ice style watches

starting to pop and those big
old chains with the logos,

the fly rides,

DJ Clue in a Rolls Royce,
like, hold up.

What's happening here?

- And that's how
I actually kind of

scaled back a little bit.

Because it was getting
a little bit too hot.

The RIAA was on people's heels.

So it was kind of
like, you know.

- They got involved because
when people are, quote,

unquote, stealing
master recordings,

it's up to them to step in,

on behalf of all
of the record labels,

et cetera, try to stop 'em.

- The mixtape DJ was an outlaw.

Okay?

The mixtape DJ--
the radio station

didn't really want him.

The record companies
really hated him.

- You couldn't go too far
over the radar.

You know what I mean?

Once you start going
overboard and you have, like,

catalogs with, like,
a lot of the major artists'

music on it--

- You're talking about
hundreds of thousands

to millions of dollars lost
in profits

due to lack of sales.

- The record companies
got spooked.

- Whoever's in the line of fire
is gonna get taken down.

- They were like,
"Oh, we're losing sales.

We gotta do
something about this."

- The record companies,
they looking

at you funny at any moment.

The feds could be like,
"What do you got in your bag?"

Any moment!
At any moment.

And some DJs did get hemmed up.

- Obviously you gotta talk
about Drama and Don Cannon.

Drama and Don Cannon--
they're the--

they're my last era
of mixtapes, for me.

- I was giving my tapes away
because I wanted to get on.

They had enough sense
to make it a business.

- He took it to, like,
fucking Scarface-type shit.

- It was amazing to watch
how big Drama got.

- I felt like the golden child
at the time.

- Drama was one of those guys
that was able to get

maximum fame
out of having mixtapes.

- And I felt like
the industry was like,

"Okay, you have
to go see Drama.

"You have to be
on the Gangsta Grillz

before you put an album out."

- The Gangster Grillz
franchise probably

became the biggest franchise
in the history of mixtapes.

- He built up
a huge nationwide following.

- So Drama curated it.
He would distribute it.

He would host it.

- He had a room that had
about thousands of mixtapes.

All his Gangster Grillz,
volume, brrr,

you know, we had 'em all.

- When I looked at it, it was
like, if you look at anyone

that was successful,
they all had

some relationships
with mixtapes.

- They were moving
tapes crazily.

Like, they had--it wasn't
just Atlanta locked down.

They had
the entire mixtape world.

When I say world,
they were selling tapes

from here to Japan.

- I didn't realize that there
was another side

of where we come from
that didn't totally get it

and wasn't as happy
as we thought everyone was.

- You know, it's
obvious in terms

of a record label
wanting to make a sale,

and a mixtape DJ coming along.

- I remember Drama used to be
in like a Nissan or something.

All of a sudden, Drama
in Maseratis

and he had big Benz.

And I'm like, "What
the fuck is going on?

He can't be doing
that many mixtapes."

- You would think it was
like he was moving kilos

or something crazy like that.

He was moving mixtapes.

- I don't know if I really saw
the heat coming.

[sirens blaring]

- This is where
the actual studio was,

this building right here.

I remember the day
that the raid happened.

I got a call from my mans
who was up here.

I almost felt like he was
looking out the window.

- So I went outside
to move my car.

- "Something's going on.

"The FBI,
there's mad police, cars,

"sirens everywhere in
front of their studio.

Yo, you need to get over here."

- Here come the trucks
and the sirens and...

- I see mad cops, FBI.
Yo, it felt like a movie.

- You know, they jump out and
pull out the M-16s

and, you know, point 'em
right at me.

- Fulton County SWAT team

and officers
from Clayton County

raided DJ Drama's
Gangsta Grillz

recording studio last night.

- [imitates static] "We got one
of the perps, Tyree Simmons."

And I'm like, "Oh, shit."

They read me my rights
and tell me

I'm being arrested for
bootlegging and racketeering

under the RICO law.

- Donald Cannon,
known as DJ Cannon,

and Tyree Simmons,
known as DJ Drama,

are accused of bootlegging

thousands of CDs
for sale on the Internet.

- The artists that they helped
break, be it Jeezy, Snoop,

Pharrell, no one had
any idea that the FBI

was gonna come knocking
on anybody's door,

let alone them.

- Among the items seized,

50,000 counterfeit CDs,

recording equipment,
computers,

cars, cash.

- The feds had to come in like,

"Yo, you doing
too much, my man.

You're getting too
much money right now."

- These niggas is making
way too much money.

So now they want in.
They want they cut.

- If they knock Drama,
like, nobody's safe.

- Then I got, like, ten calls
from about ten other DJs,

all concerned about the FBI
knocking on their door.

- Yo, dog, all our names
are on a list.

Like, they can get us all.

- Everybody was shook.

- Everybody was scared
shitless.

It was like, oh, shit.

It can happen to anybody.

- I mean, we're
not selling drugs.

We're, like, fucking putting
together incredible music.

- I knew that was it.

It was over.

- I was like, yo, I can't let
this culture die on my back.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, I didn't
come here for that.

- That was the one
that kind of, like,

blew the whole game up.

And I'm sure many
record labels, owners,

and executives were smiling
and glad that he

was made an example of.

- It actually was more of
a message to all the other DJs

and to hip-hop in general
that no matter

how big you get, no matter
how much money you make,

we can shut you down.

But they didn't.

- It definitely made me
more famous than I ever was.

♪ And we back, like that ♪

It got my record label excited

to put my album out
even faster.

♪ DJ Drama ♪

"Billboard" put me
on the cover of the magazine.

♪ The Philly's nigga ♪

You know.
So I was happy to be here

10, 11, 12 years later

and watch the mixtape game,
in a different form,

still be bigger
than it ever was.

- You know, the story of
mixtapes going from criminal

to legitimate enterprise
is really the story

of the industry trying
to keep up with the culture.

- I think the label
learned the lesson.

You can't fight them.

You have to adapt.

- So without mixtapes, hip-hop
would probably be fucked up.

- Facts.
[object clatters]

- That's funny, dude.

So, yeah, just go through
this channel right here.

[record fast-forwarding]

- ♪ Blood stain on
the sidewalks ♪

♪ Another nigga hit
'cause of side talk ♪

♪ Outline in silhouette,
white chalk ♪

♪ They popped off ♪

♪ Another son dead,
mom tears dried off ♪

♪ Every day in LA
they trying to show off ♪

♪ Daddy issues,
they never had a father ♪

♪ Show 'em right from wrong ♪

♪ Fuck a tissue no emotion ♪

♪ They like, fuck a bitch,
hot boy summer ♪

♪ Credit card scammer
sucker bitch ♪

♪ Set the world aflame,
fuck everyone ♪

♪ Demon shit ♪

♪ And I'll just watch
the world set aflame ♪

♪ I pray for the youth ♪

♪ They'll remember his name ♪

♪ Another one down everyday ♪

♪ I--I--I just watch
the world set aflame ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ I--I just watch
the world set aflame ♪

♪ ♪

- One of the things
that's happened with mixtapes

is that, as they've
grown in stature

and everyone wants
to be a part of it,

because they understand
the value

and the cultural
relevance of it,

there's been this perversion
of the term mixtape.

- A mixtape these days
is dead, history.

No longer.
It doesn't exist.

When they turned to people
just putting out albums,

you're just putting out
regular music,

meaning it's not a song
that's out.

This is produced music
you did in a studio,

and you put this shit out
and call it a mixtape.

No, that ain't a mixtape.

I'm sorry.
That ain't a mixtape.

A mixtape is, jacked
somebody's beat and kill 'em.

And if you can't do that,
that ain't a mixtape.

That's an album
that you called a mixtape.

Yeah.

- So I think it's transformed,

mutated into something

that's absolutely vital.

But it doesn't have a lot
to do with where it started.

- Most of these artists
come up independent.

The label gets on late.

But these cats have
already blown up

on YouTube and the Internet.

And the reason why is
because they're streaming.

What are they streaming?

They're streaming on
Spotify and SoundCloud.

And so their version
of a mixtape,

which is online now,

has them performing
at festivals,

getting $100,000 a show.

- We turned playlists
into mixtapes.

- You make a playlist.
Curate your best playlists,

because that's all
somebody gonna do.

They're gonna nitpick
through your project.

Before, people used
to pay the full amount,

so they would just listen to
the whole shit back and forth.

And like, I paid
them for this shit.

- It was different for me
coming up

'cause you have a record,
and it had life.

There was a story behind it.

Now it's like,
the song comes out.

Poof, it's out.
It's in and out.

The next week, the next record.

- You don't hear nobody just
blowing up because they did

a dope freestyle on the radio.
You don't hear nobody.

Like literally people are
online, posted up with smoke,

posted up with guns, posted up
with bitches, online,

on they block, online,

shooting motherfuckers
on Facebook Live online,

getting locked up online.

Streets definitely online.
Sorry to tell you.

- That's the game, man,
mixtape streams.

It's pretty much all the same.

It's just reinvented.

- Yeah, you can call it
whatever you wanna call it,

playlists or whatever.
It's a mixtape.

You know the vibes.
[laughing]

- That's the power
of that word.

You know, it's transcended.

- These psychologies with
the cassette, long gone now,

but affecting us
in certain ways

that we don't even remember
where it came from.

- As for another mixtape
from me,

you'll be able to stream 13
to 14 other people's songs

that your dog just
fucking slaughtered.

That's a mixtape.

- What we gonna do
right here is go back,

way back, back into time.

[hip-hop music]

- The mixtape DJ
showed everyone

what hip-hop is
supposed to sound like,

unrestricted, uncut.

Here's the music.

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- Freedom is a road

that's seldom traveled
by the multitude.

- ♪ Over here with
number one ♪

- ♪ Show 'em--show 'em--
show 'em what you got ♪

- ♪ Don't call it a comeback ♪

♪ Don't call it a comeback ♪

♪ Don't--I say,
don't call it a-- ♪

♪ ♪

- I made a couple of dollars.

But some of y'all ran off
on the plug, with the bag.

Y'all got it.

And you didn't go to jail.

Nigga, what's up?

[laughing]

- Never mind that.
Oh.

What was it again?

I fucked up.

It's that pothead shit.

What's up?

My short-term memory sucks.

My long-term memory is amazing.

Never mind that.
Focus on this dope shit.

- You go to the next one.

Yes.

[bold hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- Little Simmons right here.
- Big D.

- ♪ Huh, hoo ♪
Damn.

♪ Slow down, baby ♪

♪ Slow down, baby ♪

♪ Slow down, baby ♪

♪ The whole town's crazy ♪

♪ Motion picture, nigga ♪

- ♪ What up, AZ? ♪

- ♪ Diaz brothers ♪

- ♪ With Sosa, huh ♪

- ♪ Wapo ♪
- ♪ It's only right ♪

- ♪ Toca♪
- ♪ Let's go ♪

♪ Scratch,
you know what it is ♪

♪ Let's turn up one 'em.
Ya heard ♪

- ♪ Pharmaceutical shit,
nigga ♪

- ♪ Slow down, baby ♪
- ♪ That's right ♪

- ♪ Slow down, baby ♪
- ♪ Yo ♪

♪ Talk to 'em, why ♪

♪ Them trailblazers
back at it ♪

♪ Raise your glasses to them ♪

♪ Not your average niggas,
we make magic ♪

♪ But no rabbits, nigga,
we just pulling out gat ♪

- ♪ And yo, Rob, we got
shooters for that shit ♪

- ♪ My bad, kid,
I caught a flashback ♪

♪ Hashtag, TBT, 1998 ♪

♪ You and me up at D&D ♪

♪ Cooking up that
D-I-A-Z brother crack ♪

- ♪ Wapo ♪
- ♪ What up ♪

- ♪ It's time to double back ♪

- ♪ Paint 'em
with the Dapper Dan leather ♪

♪ We rap better
than rap niggas ♪

♪ Even though
we scratch records ♪

♪ I'm about to smack academic ♪

- ♪ Never mind that
focus on this dope shit ♪

- ♪ I know, but these vultures
is fucking up the culture ♪

- ♪ But it's a new day ♪
- ♪ Oh, well ♪

♪ Let's give 'em new work ♪

♪ Have him running out the
club like jewels and new work ♪

♪ Jumping in the Uber
talking about ♪

- ♪ Do you remember ♪

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

♪ You know how we do ♪

♪ It's a full time jack move ♪

♪ Got to be cool ♪

♪ Yeah, I'm that dude ♪

♪ And even though
the track smooth ♪

♪ I'ma talk smack
in that groove ♪

♪ And call 'em out ♪

♪ I don't know what these
rappers is talking about ♪

♪ See me and my man's
got all the clout ♪

♪ Cause Diaz brothers
gonna work it out ♪

- ♪ We gonna work it out ♪

- ♪ It's the tale of the tape ♪

♪ Five foot 11 with
a tail and a cape ♪

♪ Plus I'm weighing
in like a buck 88 ♪

♪ And once it all drops,
I'm upping the rate ♪

- ♪ Bring it back ♪

- ♪ Do you know you
fucking with? ♪

♪ Me, Wapo oh yeah
and a bunch of spics ♪

♪ And we always keep
something lit ♪

♪ And stay free
from that sucker shit ♪

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ On the corners
of Prineville ♪

♪ I let the thing talk to you ♪

♪ I'm talking the mark to you ♪

♪ Same talk to you ♪

♪ Y'all niggas doing
felony crime ♪

♪ For them niggas
that won't jaywalk for you ♪

♪ Diaz bros, bring it back ♪

♪ Throw me to the wolves,
return leading the pack ♪

♪ From the days when
you get your face caved in ♪

♪ Crushed in, face
down on the pavement ♪

♪ Hashtag when I drop by,
50 emcees, 95 live ♪

♪ Stomping this bitch,
side by side ♪

♪ Talking to Mac Lizzie,
five time five ♪

♪ Young boy shit,
who wants rope ♪

♪ The return of the rampage
two point oh, motherfucker ♪

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ I'm on a rampage ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[smooth hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- We just serving history,
just keeping it what it is.

See, we don't have so many
things that we had back then--

fucking mixtape,
fucking music, just things

we had back then.

We don't have 'em,
and we miss 'em.

So, shit, if we can still
have a little bit of it

and still call it what
it was, then let's do it.

But make sure it's
a fucking mixtape though.

Make sure it's a beat
that you--

you know what I just
said earlier.

Please.