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Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

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Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#21

Post by 6stringmerc »

This is definitely culturally relevant and very cool to see it being treated as such. That whole motif of Mixtape cover art is a trip and a half to me, seeing these cliches over and over and over.

As for the Mixtapes themselves, I'm still kind of reluctant to jump all-in on the Copyright free-for-all that Rap likes to work with (e.g. Tarantino's Kill Bill siren) and occasionally gets called out on. I think retaining some kind of performance rights and compensation standards - think 2Pac's version of "Changes" - is just fine for the useful progress of the arts (as Copyright intends).

Besides, I'd be pretty pissed off if a shitty rapper used a track of mine and started blowing up without cutting me a piece of the action - that biting shit won't fly with me, even if it makes me sound like Don Henley. Now, if approached by somebody I respect and admire, say, Chance, I'd have to think about signing for free or not. One situation apparently went down kind of like that with Chance and Apollo Brown, in that using a beat for free was not approved by the respective camps[1]. Hip-hop showing respect and doing good business is nice to see.

[1] http://uproxx.com/smokingsection/chance-the-rapper-apollo-br...

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#22

Post by madethemcry »

I'm impressed by the effort he put into this.

But I can't find anything older then 2002. I mean the most interesting times where anything before, especially the 80s & 90s. Did I miss something or this this just a huge load of more or less modern mix tapes leaving out all the old gold nuggets from the good times ?

I understand that these tapes are scraped from torrents which might be the reason that most analogue cassettes are missing or maybe the very old tapes are burried in the rest of the upload queue?

I'm currently looking at this ordered version: https://archive.org/details/hiphopmixtapes?&sort=date

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#23

Post by whatok »

madethemcry wrote: post #22

I'm impressed by the effort he put into this. But I can't find anything older then 2002. I mean the most interesting times where anything before, especially the 80s & 90s. Did I miss something or this this just a huge load of more or less modern mix tapes leaving out all the old gold nuggets from the good times ? I understand that these tapes are scraped from torrents which might be the reason that most analogue cass…

I'd imagine this is going to be more modernish stuff when things were starting to get distributed online, like slightly-post Napster days. There are definitely cassette mixtapes available via torrent but there just aren't that many due to the initial nature of the medium and distribution.

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#24

Post by whatok »

aarmenante wrote: post #16
stuxnet79 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple with all their force, is cracking down on sites like datpiff for releasing the tapes they have exclusive rights too. You might be on to something. I was trying to download Chance The Rapper's new mixtape from Datpiff, and saw a message that it has been taken down due to copyright quibbles and what not. Went to HotNewHipHop and same thing ... I have to say this is the first time I've seen a message of that kin…

Yep. Apple got the rights. You can get it in two weeks for free, but have to buy it to hear it today. The worst part is it's working... I caved and bought it. It's fire by the way...

Wow, Apple securing exclusives on mixtapes is some of the corniest shit I've heard of. Get money and all but damn.

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#25

Post by whatok »

6stringmerc wrote: post #21

This is definitely culturally relevant and very cool to see it being treated as such. That whole motif of Mixtape cover art is a trip and a half to me, seeing these cliches over and over and over. As for the Mixtapes themselves, I'm still kind of reluctant to jump all-in on the Copyright free-for-all that Rap likes to work with (e.g. Tarantino's Kill Bill siren) and occasionally gets called out on. I think retaining…

Honestly, I used to love mixtapes because of the "look the other way" sentiment towards copyright at least in regards to using other rappers' beats. When a track was hot, you would hear everyone on it and you would hear people completely outshine the original artist many times over. Really was nothing like that.

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#26

Post by don_loemax »

esaym wrote: post #17

Pretty cool. Wish Pandora or something would get on the boat with this. (at least pandora can censor out swear words)

Same with Spotify, although I have heard from a publicist yesterday that Spotify plans to announce at IMS next week that they will begin supporting mixes/mixtapes very soon, but I am betting they will require "papered" mixes (as in all songs and samples cleared by ip owners, which is very rare in the mixtape world and could be argued is against the entire philosophy of the free mixtape...). Mixcloud and podcast services seem to be the main venue for mixtapes in the dance scene. Anyone know of any alternatives for hosting mixes for streaming?

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#27

Post by aarmenante »

whatok wrote: post #24
aarmenante wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Apple got the rights. You can get it in two weeks for free, but have to buy it to hear it today. The worst part is it's working... I caved and bought it. It's fire by the way...

Wow, Apple securing exclusives on mixtapes is some of the corniest shit I've heard of. Get money and all but damn.

The next iPhone release is going to come with Gucci Mane's "iTrap" album pre-installed, if you buy the Apple limited edition "Fam" version.

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#28

Post by ghaff »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #15
ipsin wrote: post #10

More than once, archive.org has hosted something I though was not possible under the current copyright regime. MAME ROMs, old time radio shows, and, well, this. So for someone who's not paying attention, does anyone have an explanation of how they're allowed to do this? For example, do they have special dispensation from the Librarian of Congress?

The Internet Archive receives an exemption from the DMCA and other copyright law for the majority of the works it hosts.

I don't believe that's the case. The Internet Archive works in a legal gray area but manages by clearly being not for profit and by readily honoring removal requests, including retroactively honoring robots.txt instructions.

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#29

Post by Mizza »

As a hip hop head, this is the best news I've seen on HN in a while. Some of my favorite old mix tapes are on here, stuff I'd lost years ago! Great job, Jason!

PS, this is my favorite Houston mix ever: https://archive.org/details/DJ_Michael_5000_Watts_Overdose - listen to Track 5. Z-Ro holds it DOWN!

Re: Thousands of Hip Hop Mix Tapes, Why Not

#30

Post by 6stringmerc »

whatok wrote: post #25
6stringmerc wrote: post #21

This is definitely culturally relevant and very cool to see it being treated as such. That whole motif of Mixtape cover art is a trip and a half to me, seeing these cliches over and over and over. As for the Mixtapes themselves, I'm still kind of reluctant to jump all-in on the Copyright free-for-all that Rap likes to work with (e.g. Tarantino's Kill Bill siren) and occasionally gets called out on. I think retaining…

Honestly, I used to love mixtapes because of the "look the other way" sentiment towards copyright at least in regards to using other rappers' beats. When a track was hot, you would hear everyone on it and you would hear people completely outshine the original artist many times over. Really was nothing like that.

Yeah that type of thing I'm very cool with, in that it's part of the community and a shared expectation of sorts. I think it's a great way to build up cred in the scene. I really don't have any beef with that.

What gets me though is the lifting from other genres where the traditions and expectations are different. I'm not saying 'tributes' and using other people's material isn't huge in, say, rock or blues. Covers and doing 'Standards' are rites of passage.

It's just that I can kind of see why Don Henley got ticked off at Frank Ocean though, because jumping on a really well known track and twisting it in a new direction kind of blurs the expectations. Don & co. are super protective of their legal rights, this isn't news really; I do think Frank Ocean is very talented and his music is quality, so it's not like I'm arguing against his art - just a specific technique or approach in the scene.

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