10 Track Tapes Pares Rap Mixtapes Down to the Bare Essentials
March 28, 2014 | Andy Cush
Migos’ No Label IIis a good mixtape, but it’s also 25 tracks long. Commenting on the tape at Pitchfork, Carrie Battan wrote, reasonably, that she would “enjoy this mixtape quite a bit if it were six to eight tracks shorter.”
Well, here’s 10 Track Tapes, a new project from Meaghan Garvey aimed at “streamlining new and new-ish rap tapes to a healthy, manageable 10 tracks so you don’t have to waste time or iTunes space.” She’s already tackled the Migos, as well as Doughboyz Cashout’s We Run The Cityand the Migos/Thugga/PeeWee Longway affair Lobby Runners.
Previously, ANIMAL looked at Garvey’s Illuminati-inspired portraits of Kanye West, Drake, Rihanna, and others, which are fucking great.
Rap mixtapes have roots in 1990s DJ mixes, but took shape in their modern form the early 2000s, with The Diplomats and G-Unit remixing popular songs of the day and putting out tapes for self-promotion. The increased popularity of the format through the decade raised the expectations of these free…
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Earlier this week, Lil B released a very #rare diss track, taking belated "shots" at NYC rapper Joey Bada$$ for an offhanded, innocuous line his late crew member Capital STEEZ tossed out months ago. B's track kept things relatively light and impersonal--it almost seems like he was just looking for…