All language subtitles for Hip-Hop.Evolution.S04E04.Street.Dreams.720p.10bit.WEBRip.x265-budgetbits

[female reporter]
A couple of local DJs

are accused of bootlegging
thousands of CDs.

Fulton County SWAT Team
and officers from Clayton County

raided Gangsta Grillz recording studio
last night.

Among the items seized,
50,000 counterfeit CDs,

recording equipment, computers,
cars, cash, and bank statements.

[hip-hop music plays]

[ambulance siren burst]

[traffic sounds]

[male narrator] Rewind hip-hop's history
all the way back,

to a time before rappers,

and you'll find DJs.

As hip-hop entered the new millennium,
DJs were still the culture's taste makers:

the bridge between what was happening now,

and what would happen next.

And one way in which
DJs played hip-hop's unofficial A&R role,

was through mixtapes.

[DJ Mars] The mixtapes were
how a lot of DJs got their name.

It was your audio calling-card.

[Riggs Morales] Kid Capri, Ron G,

Chill Will, Clue.

They were our radio
before radio got into hip-hop.

That's what the mixtape DJ was.

They were highlighting
either singles that were due out,

or awesome album cuts
that the masses didn't really know about.

There was people getting known
off of being on my mixtapes

that wasn't getting any shows
or anything, they wasn't eating.

So, that was helping a lot of people.

Now, keep in mind
that this was an underground thing.

It wasn't something
that was really lawful.

You're dealing with other people's music.

[narrator] Mixtapes were collections
of the hottest music on the streets.

They also happened
to break every copyright law on the books.

But, as long as DJs
were also breaking new artists,

a delicate peace
between record labels and DJs existed.

It was a system that benefited everyone,

and it kept hip-hop firmly connected
to its roots.

And there was no better place in the world
to cop the newest mixtapes

than the chaotic, open-air market
in downtown Manhattan:

Canal Street.

[hip-hop music playing]

[car horn blows]

[DJ Whoo Kid]
Canal Street was
the biggest hub in New York.

We had Irish, African, Chinese.

Every race bootlegging, selling shit.

Every idiot from all over America,
or overseas, would go to Canal Street.

These tapes were so legendary
that they came to buy tapes.

[DJ Mars] The Canal Street market
was the internet of mixtapes.

The cats on Canal Street
were the very first ones

to set the bar for what happened
in New York City on the mixtape scene

and the entire rap industry, period.

[DJ Drama] The mixtape culture was
just booming in so many ways,

and it was pandemonium.

Like, the streets were on fire.

Mixtapes became so much more
at that time.

I always look at mixtapes
like there's a post-50 Cent era

and there's a pre-50 Cent era.

Fif' revolutionized that part of the game.

[narrator] For decades, the DJ was
the marquee name on the mixtape.

A DJ's reputation was
what made a mixtape hot.

It was a crucial position in the culture

because a DJ's blessing was a lifeline
to up-and-coming rappers,

and the first step
towards a coveted record deal.

Or, at least, that's how it used to work,

back before one MC
with a chip on his shoulder

changed how mixtapes
and stars were made in hip-hop forever.

[50 Cent] I met Jam Master Jay a while...
Like, three years ago.

And, I was signed to JMJ Records
for, like, a year.

I recorded 18 songs with him.

He kind of, like, taught me
how to write in song format.

-[interviewer] Okay.
-[50 Cent] So, he helped me a lot, like.

[interviewer] How did you meet 50 Cent?

[Sha Money XL]
I was in Jam Master Jay's studio

in Rosedale, Queens.

Jay was playing me music.

He was playing me Onyx,
he was playing me Sweet Tee, Lost Boyz.

All the stuff he was doing.
A lot of Queens stuff.

Then, all of a sudden,
he started playing something different.

He was playing a record called "The Hit,"

and I heard that voice.

Something different
from everything else he was playing.

Nobody was screaming, no one was...

You know, just, it was somebody rapping

and talking some real good shit.

♪ The only thing hotter than
my flow is the block ♪

♪ That's why I left this snow biz
and got in to show biz ♪

♪ Let's get this clear ♪

[Sha Money XL]
I was like,
"Yo, who is that?"

And when he saw my face,

that's what made him get excited, like,

"Yo, let me go get this kid."

I went back to my hood
and kind of told them, like,

"Yo, I just met this kid, he was dope."

And a lot of people already knew
who he was.

"Yo, that kid got caught in school
with a gun."

You know what I mean? He had a story.

I heard 50 Cent...
He started putting out demos,

started putting out freestyles.

He was a different type of heartbeat.

Raw, pure,

and I was a huge fan.

But, then, he came up with "How To Rob."

"How To Rob" is this concept record

where he went around robbing rappers.

Most of these rappers were still alive,

which made it all the more audacious.

I want to take hip-hop to being,
like, back.

Like, back to when we were
a little more competitive.

Now it's to the point where the artist
is even scared to say your name.

So, I figured it would be groundbreaking
for me to come out the gate

and, just, say whatever.

"How To Rob" was what made me love Fif',

because he don't give a fuck what he says
or who he's saying it to,

and if you're offended, so what?

I was offended because he said
he'd rob Big Pun.

I wasn't trying to hear all that.

♪ I'll rob Pun without a gun
Snatch his piece then run ♪

♪ This nigga weigh 400 pounds
How he gonna catch me, son? ♪

[Fat Joe] But, I knew it was, like,
a parody, it was a joke.

But, still, we wanted to beat 50 Cent up.

Big Pun addressed it,

♪ To the 50 Cent rapper
Real funny, get your nut off ♪

♪ Real life, you don't know me
I'll blow your motherfuckin' head off ♪

Rappers were like,

"Is he gonna come try to rob me?

Who is this guy?

He's out of his mind."

Like, to the point where dudes thought
they were gonna get robbed.

It created a whole bunch of energy
that a lot of people didn't like,

but, it was just a marketing move.

Like, "How can I make the entire industry
like me, love me,

but, most importantly, talk about me."

[Riggs] 50 really showed from there,
like, he was not gonna stop.

He wanted everyone's attention, he got it.

That's one of his biggest contributions
to the game,

which was, like, not really giving a fuck.

You don't do that, and not be prepared
for the repercussions that come from that.

Whether it's from the business standpoint,

or from a street standpoint.

[narrator] "How To Rob" wasn't the only
record bringing 50 fame and infamy.

The Queens MC dropped
other controversial tracks,

name-checking real-life New York City
drug kingpins on "Ghetto Qu'ran,"

and publicizing his never-ending beef
with Ja Rule on "Your Life's On The Line."

50 quickly became a polarizing figure
in the NYC rap scene,

and his on-wax recklessness and mayhem

was making him serious enemies
in the music industry,

and in the streets.

I got shot in the thumb.

My legs a bunch of times.

I got shot in the face.

I was scared the whole time.

Nobody gonna tell you they ain't scared.

It's a hit, man. You supposed to die.

[Sha Money XL] When he came home from
the hospital,

he called me and was like,

"Yo, they put Humpty Dumpty
back together again."

I said, "50?"

He was like, "Yeah."

I said "Yo, get the fuck out of here!

Yo, this nigga's back!"

So, here you got me, Sha Money,
the new producer on the scene,

intern at Def Jam,

running around,
speaking his name to everybody.

Like, I'm speaking...
Jesus, like, seriously, like,

I'm telling everybody, "He's coming back."

But, guess what?

No one wanted to fuck with him.

He was already dubbed, just,
"fucking troublesome."

So, a lot of people actually were like,

"Hmm, I don't know."

[Riggs] No one would sign him.

Guy got shot nine times.

Like, most label folks,
they didn't want that problem.

They didn't want that kind of energy.

[Sha Money XL] He called me and was like,
'Yo, this is fucked up."

I was like, "Yo, Fif',

I just bought a new crib,

I got a studio in my basement.

Come to my house, you can record.

Nobody knows where I live.

Come fuck with me, bro.

You can rock, bro."

And he listened to me.

He came with the soldiers,

Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks: G-Unit.

So, we're in my basement.

My baby mother is not allowed
to come down.

It's a lot of weed smoke,

ninety-nine-cent burger wrappers
on the table,

guns on the table,

50 doing push-ups in between verses.

A lot of niggas, man.

That shit was crazy.

The next thing is,

"Alright, 50 got the hardest part locked.

We need a DJ."

[funky breakbeats]

[Sha Money XL] Whoo Kid's my cousin,
so I brought him to the table.

[DJ Whoo Kid] I was scared to go see him

because he'd just finished, like,
dealing with all the shooting.

Because I'd heard he'd got shot
and all his teeth came out or something.

I don't know. Maybe he did, I don't know.

But I was like,
"Damn, I'm gonna meet him?"

Everybody had bulletproof vests,
there's guns all over the basement.

He said, "Yo, if somebody comes at me,
with, like, guns and shit like that,

what the fuck you gonna do?"

I'm like, "I'm getting the fuck
out of here, yo!

What the fuck do I look like, a hero?
Get the fuck outta here!"

He was like, "You know what, I don't have
to ask you the second question,

you're hired."

They knew I was a mixtape DJ.

So, we just was like, "Oh, why don't
we just make, like, mixtapes?"

The traditional mixtape was
either a DJ blending,

or a DJ having new exclusives
that he would put on a mixtape.

I was like, "Yo, 50,
we did all these freestyles,

let's put it on the streets
and let the hood hear it."

That's what the first mixtape was.

And it was called 50 Cent Is The Future.

I was the one
that distributed every mixtape.

I literally slipped the inserts into CDs

and got it to Queens, Bronx, Canal Street.

Then the African bootleg at night.

Spotify like you never seen it.

It's out of here, man.

That shit was everywhere, man.

[hip-hop music playing]

[Sha Money XL]
When I came back the next time,

"You, Sha Money?

50 Cent? Oh!

Yo, let me get that shit, bro."

They wanted that
like it was fucking Blue Magic, for real.

This was the Blue Magic of mixtapes.

It was crack, man.

It was fucking crack.

What 50 did was,
I would call a ghetto album.

"I'm gonna take your record
and make it hotter than you.

I'm gonna take your song
and make it hotter than you,

and I'm gonna resell it in the street,
and that shit will make me a superstar."

And what did it do?

[Sha Money XL]
So, the bootleg was out there.

This shit was traveling.

So, it got to Detroit.

Em was hearing it as it was coming out,

and he was playing it non-stop,

and he was loving it!

To the point where he called me and 50
at my house,

and told us he wanted us
to get on a plane tomorrow

to come fly to meet with him and Dre.

And that was the meeting
that changed 50's life.

I'm on the dream team right now.

I got the two biggest bodyguards

I could possibly have
at Interscope Records.

Eminem and Dr. Dre. You heard me?

[Fat Joe] The moment he got
with Eminem and Dr. Dre,

people realized, "Oh, this shit is real."

And then they gave him that,

♪ Go shawty, it's your birthday ♪

That's when niggas knew,

"Oh, my god.

This guy is here to stay."

♪ I'm feeling focused man ♪

♪ My money on my mind
I got a mill out the deal ♪

♪ And I'm still on the grind ♪

[DJ Drama] You know, even
after Get Rich Or Die Tryin' came out,

I think he dropped a mixtape, like,
two weeks after.

Here's a guy that's a million records
out the gate,

and he drops a mixtape with more material.

It comes from a background
from the streets.

Like, "I'm really gonna flood the block."

Like, "I'm not letting nobody in."

[50 Cent] I'd like to thank Eminem
and Dr. Dre.

This is a special night, thank you.

[DJ Whoo Kid] He became bigger than life.

In that era, if you listened to 50 Cent,

he had, like, "In Da Club," "PIMP."

He had, like, so many songs on the radio
but then he had mixtape cuts on the radio,

which had never been done before.

[crowd cheers]

[Kid Capri] "You ain't gon' get me
a record deal?

You ain't spending money on me?

You don't think I'm an artist
you could push?

Who are you to decide my fate for me?"

He's waking up the industry.

[narrator] 50 Cent broke hip-hop's
decades-old model for mixtapes,

turning mixtapes into street albums,

and empowering rappers
to cut their own path to stardom.

The impact of this massive shift
was immediate across the country,

and no city would use it
to greater effect than Atlanta,

where mixtapes would facilitate the birth
of a whole new sub-genre of hip-hop:

trap music.

And one of the architects
of the trap sound is this man:

T.I., who I met sitting
in his very own trap museum.

Thanks for the consideration.

I see you shuffling.

Yeah, man, I was just, you know...
Nervous energy.

I was just killing time.

Why don't we start with
where you're from in Atlanta.

What was your neighborhood like,
growing up?

So, I grew up with my grandma
and my granddad, you know.

And then I went to live with my mom.

The communities that my mom stayed in
were heavily, heavily Section 8.

You know, apartments and trap houses.

Now, all the while,
while I was living with my mom,

is probably where I learned all the stuff
that you shouldn't be talking about.

I was about 15 at the time.

That's when I learned to sell crack.

I hooked up with my guys,
who we know now as the P$C,

and we basically started trapping.

Everyday, that was, like, our clubhouse.

The trap was our clubhouse.

We would meet there every single day
and sell dope.

Every single day.

Finding a way to take this product,

and turn it into currency

so I can have something to eat tonight

and so my mama's lights won't be cut off.

A lot of people were going through that.

And I mean...

I just felt like they needed a voice.

I started writing my own raps

and I'd perform at the trap,

but I needed a studio.

My homeboy Dennis, he told me,

"There's a man up there, he got a studio
in that house."

We hit the path.

I headed straight to the crib,
knocked on that door.

-[door knocking]
-[door opening]

Big, burly guy
that had a beard, deep voice,

"What's up?"

I was a little, bitty kid, like,

"You got a studio in there?"

[T.I. laughing]

He said, "Yeah I got a studio,
why you ask?"

"Man, I wanna record."

So, he let me in.

So, we went in and recorded a demo,

and in the midst of us doing all this,

he introduced me to DJ Toomp.

Little, skinny red dude,
walking up my driveway,

arms out like he big as hell.

And then he started playing
some of the music.

I was blown away, man.

I was like, "Yo, this kid is amazing."

He has an East Coast flow
with a Southern drawl,

and that's all I needed,

because I was looking for rappers
at that time, for real.

During that time,
it was more of a beat-driven era.

That's what really gave us our sound, man.

The Roland TR-808.

Out of the drum machine you had...

Boom! Boom!

You can adjust the decay,
where it's just a solid kick.

So, what we did was sample all the sounds
out of that drum machine

and we used to put it on a floppy,
so we got our 808 floppy.

And we got on the SP1200.

They have this thing called
"time correct."

If you hit "time correct"
and hold a kick, snare, or hi-hat,

you can adjust it to when you got...

[imitates accelerating metronome]

So, now, here we started
having our own sound,

as far as that drum roll,

with the snares
and the hi-hats real repetitive,

and it was just our sound, man.

What gave it the thing
when we were doing it,

was the subject matter,

and of course the sound, too.

But the subject matter was
what really made people start saying,

"Oh, that's a trap song."

To hear, you know,
someone like Tip rap over that.

He was the first person
to put trap music together.

There was a trap.

-Yeah.
-There was music.

Trap music.

["Dope Boyz" playing]

♪ Do it fifty mo' times ♪

♪ The quarter go for five
And the half go for nine ♪

♪ Still in the trap with them
Break down dimes ♪

♪ Hit me on the hipper anytime
I don't mind ♪

I mean, the first trap song
was "Dope Boyz and Trap Niggas."

That was really just an ode
to my old lifestyle,

to what I was doing,

and to what the people
around me were doing.

How we were living.

That's where you get trap music from.

That's where you get the language
of the trap.

That's where you get the ideology
of the trap.

We get T.I. popularizing it.

♪ Standing around in my trapp
I think you fucking up shawty ♪

♪ Same nigga who taut AK
Getting paid in the trapp ♪

♪ Made a song for the niggas
And the J's in the trapp ♪

♪ The dope boyz in the trapp nigga ♪

♪ The thug nigga, drug dealer
Where you at nigga ♪

[DJ Toomp] You know, the album came out,
I'm Serious.

We had signed to a label, LaFace.

I love L.A. Reid,
but he really didn't understand.

He was like,
"What y'all mean, 'the trap?'"

His whole thing was like,
"Man, is it built for radio?

Y'all talking about selling dope

and y'all want me
to push this song to radio?"

I really don't get it."

You know what I mean?
L.A. really didn't get it.

So, that was just a project
sitting on the desk

that nobody really knew what to do with.

As a rapper,
he got a bunch of attention really fast,

but it wasn't supported
in the way that I thought it should be,

or he thought it was, right?

Because, he sold about 200,000 of those,

so it felt unsuccessful.

So, we all kind of went
in our little hole, like,

"We don't know."

Well, the world would
consider our album a flop.

But, to us, we were like,

"Shit, man, down here in the south.
I hear y'all hollering this flop shit,

but this "Dope Boyz In The Trap,"
everybody's crazy about it."

[T.I.] I was discouraged
but I wasn't defeated.

Everybody who heard my shit loved my shit.

So, I said "I just gotta get it
in the hands of the people."

In New York, you have 50 Cent
starting his dominance of mixtapes.

"Let's do
what 50 Cent's doing right now.

This dude is winning,
let's do the same thing."

"Man, these dudes living in mansions
off mixtapes, man."

I'm like, "What?"

And he's like, "Yo, man, we need
to bring that shit to the south.

We need to start doing mixtapes."

[DJ Toomp] Most of the beats were
coming from me,

for all the P$C stuff.

My house was the office, basically.

I mean, I might wake up by eight or nine
and work on a beat

and everybody might come
to the house around one.

And while we were making a track,

I used to cut everybody's hair.

But, while I was cutting the hair,
I'd have some type of beats playing.

["24s" playing]

I had there the "24s" beat.

[imitates bass line]

I was cutting Tip's hair, man.
He heard the beat.

He was like, "Dude, don't play that
for nobody else, I got something, man.

By the time you finish that line up,
I'll have a hook.

Got a hook for that shit."

And he had--

[murmuring lyrics of "24s"]

He was mumbling.

I was like, "Bro, let's get it."

♪ Money, hoes, cars, and clothes
That's how all my niggas roll ♪

♪ Blowin' dro on 24s
That's how all my niggas roll ♪

♪ In a drop top Chevy
with the roof wide open ♪

♪ My partner's looking at me
To see if my eyes open ♪

♪ Cause I've been drinkin'
And I've been smokin' ♪

♪ And flying down 285
But I'm focused... ♪

We decided to put that song
on one of the mixtapes.

And that's when shit went crazy.

♪ ...Still bumpin number eight on NWA
Straight Out of Compton ♪

[T.I.] So, we put out
In Da Streets Volume 3,

and passed them motherfuckers out
in the hood, you know what I'm saying?

Outside the club.

The song, "24s," is going crazy.

Enough for L.A. Reid
to call us and, you know, say,

"Hey man, how about, you know,
we start working on the second album."

I said, "Tell you what,
we work on the second album,

I'm gonna need a million dollars,

or you let us go."

He said, "I tell you what,

I'll get you what you want."

I say, "Shit!"

"I'm letting you go."

[interviewer laughs]

"What?

Yeah, great."

[T.I.] But, the million dollars
that L.A. didn't give me,

I negotiated two million

and a joint venture at Atlantic.

So, that worked out.

Yeah, L.A. did me a favor.

[T.I. laughs]

I started recording the first album
that we did on Atlantic Records.

I ain't giving them nothing but trap shit.

I'm gonna call it Trap Muzik.

David Banner came
and we did "Rubber Band Man."

That's why he came.

I have to be totally honest,
I didn't know what it was.

Beause if I knew
what "Rubber Band Man" was,

I'd have used it for myself.

He said, "If you let me have this beat,

I'm gonna return it to you in a way
that you will never forget."

I told Tip, like,

"Bro, you can have it for five."

He said, "I don't have five,
but I'll give you $2500."

-[trap music playing]
-And he looked me in my eye,

he said, "Watch what I do with this
if you give this to me for $2500."

That was the song
that made me a platinum producer.

♪Rubber band man
Wild as the Taliban ♪

♪ Nine in my right
Forty five in my other hand ♪

♪ Who I'm is? ♪

♪ Call me trouble man
Always in trouble, man ♪

♪ Worth a couple hundred grand
Chevy's, all colors, man ♪

♪ Rubber band man
Like a one man band ♪

♪ Treat these niggas like the Apollo
And I'm Sandman ♪

♪ Tote a hundred grand
Cannon in the waistband ♪

♪ Looking for a sweet lick?
Well this is the wrong place man ♪

[DJ Drama] When "Rubber Band Man" hit,
it was a dope boy anthem.

It was like a coming out party.

Like, T.I. was the sound of Atlanta
that came from the streets,

that wasn't crunk music,
that wasn't Ludacris' sound.

It wasn't OutKast, you know.

This was street music.

People were talking about selling drugs
and stuff before,

but I don't feel like it was as in depth.

That's just, kind of,
like, Atlanta culture.

Guys in Atlanta, period,
they actually love to sell drugs.

["Rubber Band Man" playing]

T.I., I think if he had not
started putting out mixtapes,

he would be forgotten and probably
would've been a one-hit wonder.

Mixtapes gave him a way
to communicate directly with people.

You got people all over the world
talking about trap music

and trap beats
and trap this and trap that.

Like, it's infiltrated the whole culture
and created a whole life of its own.

♪ Rubber band man
Wild as the Taliban ♪

[narrator] Both 50 Cent and T.I.
used mixtapes to revive their careers

and turn themselves into bona fide stars.

But, what if you were already a star?

How could giving music away
for free benefit you?

The answer to that question would come
from an overlooked child star

who would use mixtapes
like a public sketch pad,

pumping out rhymes and flows
at such a furious pace

that he transformed himself

into one of hip-hop's
premium rhyme stylists.

[Li'l Wayne rapping]

[Mannie Fresh] Wayne was this kid
at the time

who was really waiting
for a platform to shine.

Cash Money was in trouble.

Juvie was gone,
and we were failing miserably.

I'm like, "If we don't fix this shit,
we out of here."

We got Wayne on the back-burner
while all of this is going on.

And I'm going, "Bro, now you gotta step
up to the bar. Like, you gotta step up."

And I think he took it serious, dude.

Super serious.

This was the importance of Tha Carter.

♪ I'm the Cash Money Makaveli,
Y'all ain't ready ♪

♪ Quick, fast like Tom Petty,
Y'all just petty ♪

♪ '82, I was born ready,
I'm too ready ♪

♪Y'all baller blockers
I'm too heavy ♪

Wayne was fascinated with Missy.

Missy's wordplay, how Missy did raps,
and did the...

[scatting]

He'd do ad-libs, you know,
and he'd make a sound.

He's like, "I make my alarm 'beep beep'
and 'chirp chirp.'"

And I'm like, "Okay."

That was Wayne's style,
but then we do the first Carter,

he's really rapping.

♪ I be easy,
Fall back and be cool with it ♪

♪ Pallbearer is moving his dead
Flow I'm through with it ♪

♪ I'm in the sh--
Naw I'm sewer-rich ♪

♪ Weezy-f baby
I do this... ♪

Everybody was like, "Ah! I like Lil Wayne.

I like his voice, I like his delivery
and all of that."

So, then, everybody's paying attention
to him now.

But, even when we were doing
the first Carter,

he's like, "Bro, I feel like there's
something holding me back, creatively."

And then, he's telling me about DJ Drama
and these mixtapes.

For Wayne, this is what was missing.

[interviewer] Where would you say
Wayne was at in his career,

in terms of popularity,
in terms of respect?

Wayne had already become, like, a phenom

from the Cash Money days.

Those guys were already
going into the record books

because of records like "Bling Bling."

I'm not gonna lie.
Like, you know, I liked Wayne

but he was, like,
the "Drop It Like It's Hot" guy.

But, man, he shined on Tha Carter.

He was more lyrical
than we were used to around that time.

I was on the road with T.I., I was his DJ.

And Tip was on the phone with Wayne,
and I was like, "Lemme talk to him."

And I was like, "Yo, let's do a tape."

And he was like, "Bet. Let's do it."

The Dedication 1 mixtape...
I wasn't even prepared.

His wittiness, and, you know,

the creativeness
of how he was putting words together...

It was a whole other level of lyricism
that was going on.

I'd done mixtapes all my life,

but I'd never done it with a known DJ

and DJ Drama was the first known DJ
I've done it with.

He's well-known in the South
and it got it pushed heavy, you know.

I've never had a mixtape circulate
the way that one did.

That tape wound up getting flooded
in New York.

And around this time,
in the mixtape world,

it was still very East Coast-driven.

Like, the majority
of the mixtape world, you know,

still lived on the East Coast,
lived in New York City.

From Dipset to, you know, G-Unit.

The South still had a bad rap
when it came to lyricism.

[Don Cannon] On Dedication 2,
he really wanted to show his talent.

Like, a freestyle talent.

"Give me a beat, I'll shred all of 'em."

Me and Drama sat down to pick some beats.

My idea was
to take "C'mon N' Ride This Train,"

which was, like, a bass song in Miami,

and flip it to an East Coast beat.

["C'mon n' Ride This Train" beat playing]

[Don Cannon] When we sent this beat
to Weezy,

I didn't really know what he was gonna do
to the Cannon beat,

but it was back within an hour.

He gave us three minutes straight
and we were like, "Damn!"

♪ Howdy-do motherfuckas it's Weezy baby ♪

♪ Niggas bitchin' and I gotta tote the
(cannon) ♪

♪ Listen close, I got duct tape and rope

♪ I'll leave you missing
Like the fucking O'Bannons ♪

That's what the fuck I'm talking about.

That's what was missing.

Like, something in him clicked.

Like, he got pissed off about something.

Because he is running raps that--

a style that I never heard him do.

Shit, like, where's all this coming from?

I'm like,
"Dude, this dude's delivery is nuts."

Man, those mixtapes are so good.

Arguably better than the albums.

And, you know, that just goes to show you,
the approach is different.

With a mixtape, you put out
what you fuck with, what you like.

Whereas, with an album,
you're thinking "hits, charting, mass."

It's less stress, less overthinking
with a mixtape.

♪ You fucking with the hitman ♪

♪ Kidnap a nigga,
make him feel like a kid again ♪

♪ Straight up,
I ain't got no conversation for you ♪

♪ Nigga talk to the (cannon) ♪

[White] They'd reintroduce him to people,
because he was putting albums out,

but I felt like he wasn't all the way
getting that respect.

Wayne was like, "Nah. I rap."
You know what I mean?

Like, "I really rap.
I'm the down-South Jay-Z."

He was just going crazy on it, man.

Like, every song was,
you just felt like it'd never stop

and he just keep on coming and coming
with the bars.

[DJ Mars] It was just total creativity
that you hadn't seen from Wayne before.

Southern rappers weren't rapping
like he was.

You had lyrical artists
in the South, clearly.

OutKast, Goodie Mob, T.I.

But, Wayne just took it
to an entirely different stratosphere.

I thought it was dope because you looked
at him in this one particular way,

and then, next thing you know,
he's on mixtapes,

standing like a giant, killing it.

["C'mon n' Ride This Train" playing]

[Don Cannon] For a long time, it's like,
mixtapes were "B" music and not "A" music,

but most of the critics
in the magazine would say,

"We love Dedication more
than we love his album."

You know, that became a thing in rap,
where it's like,

"Your mixtape's better than your album."

So, I come from the record-selling days
where we sold tapes and CDs.

You know, I thought,
"You giving away music for free,"

but not knowing it would turn
into actually a business.

He saw the future.

He was on something that I didn't see.

But, when he dropped
that "A Milli" record,

that song there, like that...

I was like, "Oh, man, he going bananas."

["A Milli" plays]

♪ I'm a millionaire
I'm a young money milllionaire, ♪

♪ Tougher than Nigerian hair...♪

[narrator] The Dedication mixtape series
came in the midst

of one of hip-hops greatest runs.

Wayne's free association rhyme style
found the perfect home on mixtapes,

and he'd apply his hundreds of hours
of rhyme practice

to his next studio album,
and earn a spot

in the most coveted
barbershop conversation in hip-hop:

Who's the greatest rapper alive?

♪ They say I'm rappin' like
B.I.G., Jay, and 2Pac, Andre 3000 ♪

♪ Where is Erykah Badu at?
Who that? ♪

♪ Who that said
they gon' beat Lil Wayne? ♪

♪ My name ain't Bic,
but I keep that flame, man

[DJ Drama] He was a monster.

Like, he was just a savage.

It was very key, you know...
He understood the mixtape culture.

You know, and even on those tapes
there were early jabs at--

you know, he was coming for hoes.

Like, Jay was top of the food chain.

Like, Jay was the king of rap, lyrically.

But, around that time was when Hov said
he was gonna retire

so, when a guy like Wayne really stood up
and said, like,

"The best rapper alive."

Like, yeah, you're fucking right.

[Kid Capri] He had 77 songs
out in one year.

I remember Busta Rhymes said to me,

"Lil Wayne is my hero."

He said, "Nobody works like Lil Wayne."

This is Busta Rhymes saying that.

Somebody that I know did some beats.

♪ Like, "look at bastard Weezy!♪

♪ He's a beast, he's a dog
he's a muthafuckin' problem ♪

♪ Okay, you're a goon,
but what's a goon to a goblin? ♪

♪ Nothin', nothin',
you ain't scarin' nothin' ♪

[Mannie Fresh] I show up in LA
to go to the studio,

and there's kids out there.

They got posters
and motherfuckers with candles,

and teddy bears and all kinds of shit.

And I'm like,

"So, what happened?
Somebody passed away or some shit?"

And they just like,
"No, they been out there all day,

waiting for Wayne to come out the studio."

[crowd cheers]

[Mannie] That's bigger than rap.

I'm like,
"This dude is really a rock star."

Like, you know, on a whole other level.

This dude is rap God.

[Don Cannon] We gave him that platform.

Like, "Man, I can be myself

and I can show these people
I can really rap?

Let's do it this way."

And then, even for our mixtapes
and our careers,

it kind of pulled us this way
because everybody called us, like,

"Yo, I need to do a Dedication."

Everybody remembers that, you know,
that point.

That point changed everything.

♪ Motherfucker I'm ill
Not sick ♪

[narrator] Lil Wayne, T.I. and 50 Cent

were just the tip
of a giant mixtape iceberg.

For barbershops and bodegas,
and even traditional record stores,

new mixtapes
were hitting the shelves daily.

The mixtape business model
had become the new norm in hip-hop,

and DJs and rappers
were making good money from it,

but that wasn't true
for the record labels.

And as studio album sales dropped,
the tenuous partnership

between the record industry
and mixtape DJs finally broke.

[female reporter] Fulton County SWAT team
and officers from Clayton County

raided DJ Drama's Gangsta Grillz
recording studio last night.

[DJ Mars] A friend of mine lived across
the street

from where their studio was in Atlanta,

and my phone rings.

The phone call was like,
"Yo, Drama and them going to jail."

"What are you talking about?"

"The cops are outside the studio right now
I'm telling you, look."

I see these black Tahoes coming
down the street.

There's cars coming from both sides
and they jumped the curbs.

You know, right in front of me and Cannon.

These SWAT guys jump out with M16s drawn,

and tell me to get on the ground.

Like some shit out of a movie.

[Don Cannon] It was a real sting.
Like, you know, they had helicopter views

and vans riding back and forth

and taking pictures of us.

Like, this was some real, like,
Goodfellas shit.

But, of course we were terrified

at the moment
when we heard charges of racketeering.

[female reporter] Donald Cannon,
known as DJ Cannon,

and Tyrese Simmons, known as DJ Drama,

are accused of bootlegging
thousands of CDs.

Among the items seized,

50,000 counterfeit CDs,
recording equipment,

computers, cars, cash and bank statements.

[DJ Drama] You know,
me and Cannon are shook.

My first time ever in jail.

I don't know if it was a definite tape
that alarmed them,

but, they said they confiscated, like...

I've heard 50,000,
I've heard 80,000, mixtapes.

It was crazy.

It really was crazy.

I mean, I was the top of the food chain
when it came to mixtapes.

[Kid Capri] Y'all gotta remember how hot
Drama was with the mixtapes.

You know what I'm saying?
He was hot.

It now becomes too much attention on it.

You gotta remember the repercussions
that's gonna come with that.

The music industry as a whole,

the powers that be felt
that they were losing power,

and losing their grip on what gets out.

And that's a big deal.

[male police officer]
Under the New York State Penal Law,

failure to disclose the origin

of a recording is a misdemeanour
and you're under arrest.

Put your hands behind your back, please.

Put your hands behind your back.

Turn around.

[DJ Mars] After that day happened,

the game died.

[engines starting]

The raid ended the distribution
of mixtapes.

Mixunit: dead.

The mixtape spots downtown: dead.

The artists, mixtapes,
the way they were doing it,

collabing with the DJs: all of that died.

[Cannon] It was time for change.

We did mixtapes so much

that it was going
in a direction it didn't need to.

That changed the game
to go into streaming.

The attempt to shut something out,

as it always does,

brings so much more light to it.

And it helped the next wave
of mixtapes that were coming.

Everyone was way more internet-savvy

so you didn't have to necessarily go
to your local bodega to get a tape.

You could just go to the next blog,

and get it that way.

For the last ten years,

we've gotten all our biggest artist
off mixtapes.

We get Wiz, we get Cole,

we get Kendrick, we get Drake.

Mixtapes will never die.

You know, they became bigger than ever
after that.

[narrator] From the beginning, hip-hop's
been about using what you got

to make something happen.

If you can't sing, rap.

♪ All the ladies love me
Because I'm, Oh so "G" ♪

♪ Well I'm din ding dang
From the bla bla bla ♪

[narrator] No instruments? Sample.

[drum beats playing]

Mixtapes are part of
that same hip-hop pragmatism.

And even though they haven't been
actual tapes in a long time,

the spirit and purpose
of mixtapes remains intact,

and innately hip-hop.

Mixtapes have always been
about getting your voice out there

without asking permission.

And what greater amplifier could there be

than hundreds of millions
of computers networked together?

If hip-hop can build empires
with analog tech,

just imagine what it could do
in the digital world.