Mix Tapes Rise From Street As Hip-hop Promo, A&r Tool

Mix tapes are not just for mix-tape DJs anymore. Labels, recording artists, and marketing companies have got into the mix-tape game, adding commercial releases to what was once mainly a street market. These compilations—both illicit and authorized—are being used to discover and break R&B/hip-hop acts, and mix-tape DJs are being sought out for label deals.

Typically sold via independent retailers or street vendors for $10-$15, mix tapes—on CD or cassette—are DJ compilations of album tracks, freestyle rapping, and exclusive songs. The sale of these street mix tapes is illegal, and in some cases the tracks that are used are not cleared by the artist or the label. However, many new and established rap artists willingly participate on them to gain or maintain street credibility.

The tapes' booming street trade has caught the attention of the majors, which have signed a number of prominent mix-tape DJs to produce legal compilations. Additionally, several artists have crafted their own for both street and promotional use. While this signals a noteworthy new chapter in the evolution of mix tapes, there is some concern that the form will lose its street credibility.

Mix tapes have long been a staple of hip-hop culture. Lately, their potential to impact the mainstream marketplace has been evident in the chart success of such rappers as 50 Cent, Fabolous, and Nas, all of whom have been prominently featured on mix tapes. While the compilations are most popular in the Northeast, their sale has spread throughout the U.S. and occasionally overseas.

Mix tapes began with early DJs like Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, Brucie B, and Starchild, who had their live shows recorded and then traded throughout New York. Such currently active DJs as Ron G., Kid Capri, Funk Master Flex, and DJ Clue perfected the art form as it is known today. The last three artists were the first mix-tape DJs to sign label deals, inking with Warner, Loud, and Roc-a-Fella, respectively. Other prominent mix-tape DJs who have recently landed deals include Kay Slay, Green Lantern, and DJ Envy.

"Mix tapes were the songs that were a little too risky to be put on radio," Def Jam VP of rap promotions Rob Love says. "DJs realized that there were album cuts that never got any exposure, so they took the songs they liked and put them on tapes.

"I realized in '94 that mix tapes were a viable force in breaking artists," Love adds. "At first, I was anti-mix tape, because I thought it was stealing and I thought that the resale of [the recordings] did not benefit the artists. Then I went into the New England area where they had one radio station, and it was really, really far out in New England. There were a whole bunch of college towns that were in between New England and New York, and when I visited those college campuses, I wondered, 'Other than college radio, how did all these people know all the current records that the labels were putting out?' It was through mix tapes."

POWERFUL PROMOTION TOOL

Numerous labels have begun to use the format as a promotional tool, servicing tracks to mix-tape DJs. "It's the match that starts the fire," Sony Music director of street marketing and promotion OJ Wedlaw says. "When we get a potential single, we run off CD-Rs and we hand them to the mix-tape cats like Kay Slay and Clue. That gets the buzz out and gets your phone ringing from the club DJs and the mix-show DJs. The mix tapes are really just a way to create the buzz in the DJ world."

The interest in mix tapes has grown considerably since the breakthrough of Shady/Aftermath/Interscope artist 50 Cent. After being dropped from Columbia in 1999, 50 Cent began to promote himself via his own mix tapes. Under the G-Unit moniker, 50 Cent released a series of collections that gained the attention of hip-hop fans and label executives alike. Eminem's Shady label won a subsequent bidding war and released the rapper's major-label debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', which went straight to No. 1 on The Billboard 200.

"The great thing about mix tapes is you can get an early read from fans that buy them on the streets to determine what's hot," says Shady Records CEO (and Eminem manager) Paul Rosenberg, who also signed Green Lantern. "It's a really organic process."

Love says, "It's a double-edged sword, because selling mix tapes is illegal. I like to look at it as depending on the artist. If I have a baby act that I want to break, I want to develop them there first. Instead of having them do free showcases and battles on the streets, you have another program you can put them in—the mix-tape program. I have them pick the top five mix-tape DJs, and they do freestyle for each of them or they do a record exclusively for them. Let them do their 5,000 or 10,000 copies, and then let the bootleggers bootleg them and make 20,000 copies. Before you know it, you have a marketing tool that just gave you 60,000 pieces at no cost."

In addition to tapping into the promotional benefits, labels and artists use the tapes as an A&R resource. "We're definitely used as test dummies for a lot of artists—not only [for] new artists, but artists that haven't made an album in a few years," Kay Slay says. "They may not be sure if they have the right record to come back with, so they'll holler at me to throw it on a tape to see the response [from the streets]. We're a very valuable tool for that.

"For instance, Method Man hasn't been out in a long time. If [Def Jam] just threw a Method Man album on the shelves next to a new 50 Cent album, Method Man is a great rapper, but if people don't know what he's going to give them, they're going to go with what they know is already blazing: They're going to pick up that 50 Cent album.

"That's where the DJs come into play," Kay Slay continues. "We get to showcase what's coming from Meth in 2003. That way, they'll know that Meth has some shit, and they'll go cop it. That's the balance. Times are hard these days. You're going to spend your money on what you know is guaranteed."

A DJ since the early '70s, Kay Slay got into mix tapes as a way of building a name for himself. A New York native, the self-proclaimed "Drama King" recently parlayed his celebrity as a mix-tape DJ into a mix-show gig with WQHT (Hot 97) New York as well as "Backtalk," his own column in The Source magazine. His major-label debut, The Streetsweeper Vol. 1, will street May 20 via Columbia.

TAKING IT TO THE MAJORS

Green Lantern and Kay Slay are only two of those DJs who have recently taken their street-driven sounds to the majors. DJ Envy of Queens, N.Y., recently released his major-label debut, DJ Envy Blok Party Vol. 1—The Desert Storm Mixtape, on Desert Storm/Epic (Billboard, Feb. 1). It debuted at No. 57 on The Billboard 200 and No. 8 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

"It's one of those things that after seeing how successful Clue and [Funk Master] Flex were with their deals, it became the next steppingstone," Envy says of his label deal. "It was just one of those things that I felt like I had to do."

A mix-tape DJ since 1992, Envy's success also landed him a job as a mix-show DJ and then as an on-air personality for Hot 97.

Signing these DJs can serve the strategic needs of the labels. "We have Killer Mike, one of our new artists, on the Kay Slay album, and the record is hot," Wedlaw says. "It's going to help Mike, because he's from the South. If we were to ship Kay Slay's record today, we would ship 75,000 in New York alone. That's going to help Killer Mike out tremendously. So the mix tapes at that bigger level is beautiful because it's not just a Northeast or a Mid-Atlantic thing. I had artists from Europe calling me back when Nas did 'Stillmatic' and 'Ether' because they heard it on a Kay Slay mix tape in Europe. Mix tapes are in our marketing plans now. You can't do it without mix tapes right now."

Rosenberg, who initially signed Green Lantern as a tour DJ for Eminem's Anger Management tour, was blown away by his creativity. "He's not one of those guys who just puts out compilations," he says. "He spends a lot of time putting together his tapes. That's what really stood out to us. The relationship grew from there."

For Green Lantern, who began DJ-ing in '95 in Rochester, N.Y., it's all about the art. In addition to his touring gig, he also serves as mix-show DJ for Hot 97. The opportunity to sign with Shady is likely to open more doors.

"It's obviously shining a big light on me, but even more so it's the best home that I could be at, because it's a small label with the biggest major behind them," Green Lantern says of signing with Shady. "That's the Shady mentality: It's a boutique label with Interscope behind them. The creative flow is non-stop, and creative freedom is unparalleled. As far as mix-tape DJ albums, the labels have this mentality that if you are the hottest guy on the streets or you have this huge fan base, we're going to sign you. We'll put the album out because it's easy—it's a regular compilation. At Shady, the reason for signing me was that they knew I was going to make a hot DJ album."

Like his peers, Kay Slay sees his signing with a label as a means to an end. "It's just another steppingstone in doing what I need to do to get an imprint deal," he says. "That way, I can sit back, get behind the scenes, and let whoever I put out do their thing."

LEGITIMATE BUSINESS

At least one marketing company has built a business around circulating legitimate mix tapes. Noticing their potential early on, independent promotion company Cornerstone Promotion launched its own mix-tape series in 1999 as a promotional tool for DJs and new music. The Cornerstone Mixtape series will celebrate its 50th installment in May.

"It started as a way for DJs from other regions to showcase their skills to other DJs and record promoters," Cornerstone Promotion VP of urban marketing and promotion Chris Atlas says. "It also promoted new records that were breaking in different regions. A lot of DJs don't have access to mix tapes from other regions. This was a mix tape that is available throughout the country, and it has records from all over.

"Mix tapes are a great way to find who's new, what's hot, and what's about to blow," Atlas adds. "You'll hear so many songs on mix tapes in their infancy, even before the label is ready to promote it, and it's a great way to get familiar with an artist. That's the most valuable tool of the mix tape."

While many look to mix tapes and their DJs for the newest trends in hip-hop, the future of the format itself seems unclear.

"Today's mix-tape cats are your new music and program directors. So it's doing nothing but growing," Wedlaw says. "There are even DJs in Canada, France, and Africa doing mix tapes."

While Wedlaw is optimistic, some DJs have a different take. "It seems like artists are trying to take the mix-tape DJ out," Envy says. "Every artist is doing their own mix tape now. I don't think the mix-tape DJ will ever go out while [artists] are creating mix tapes where they're rapping over other artists' beats and doing their own songs, but what they fail to realize is that the reason people buy mix tapes is not to hear one artist. They want to hear a variety of artists and songs."

Kay Slay agrees. "It's sad to say, but I don't see a big future in it, because like every other hustle, everybody is trying to do it now. There are, like, 10 new mix-tape DJs coming out every week. They're not playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. Going up against Clue and some of the other great mix-tape DJs in the game, our whole m.o. was if I looked at Clue's [track] list, I wouldn't play any of the records he had on his tape because that's the only way I was going to shine. Other than that, people would think we had the same tape. These DJs now will look at your lists, try to get every record you played, and will put a tape out two weeks later with the same records. What's the sense in that?"

But Green Lantern is among those who are upbeat about the format. "The future of mix tapes is still in promotions. It's the biggest, tried-and-true form of promotion for an artist, a label—anything. People say because 50 [Cent] went the 'mix-tape route' that no one else is going to be able to do it. I don't agree with that. It's working for me, and it's working for a lot of other people."