Saturday, January 29, 2011

Mixtape Mayhem II


     It's about time for another Mixtape Mayhem round up of the latest mixtapes that have been dropping and worth listening to.  Top artists are still consistently putting out free music directly to their fans in large quantities.  After a year where all music sales numbers declined significantly, Hip Hop still managed to increase their share of the overall market.  That's very impressive considering the only genre of music to do that.  Rolling Stone has the numbers in their current issue, with of course, Weezy on the cover.  Rap is today's Rock and Roll.  I think part of that can be attributed to artists building loyal fan bases through social media outlets such as Twitter but also giving out their music for free.  They're counting on that fan to out and get their major release album when it drops and buy their concert ticket when they tour.  Plus any other associated product that musician endorses.  Sprite anyone (Drizzy voice).
     With all that said, let's get into the latest releases in the past couple months.  First off, the Boss himself, Rick Ross put out another great mixtape on Christmas Eve as a present, called Ashes to Ashes.  He just re-released it with two more tracks, one being with Drake.  It has an all-star guest line up and one of my favorites.  Next up is brand new from The Game, a two album 29 song mixtape called Purp and Patron.  Dr. Dre, Pharrell, and even my man The RZA contribute tracks along with Wayne, Wiz Khalifa and a ton of other of guest stars show up all over the album.  His situation is different than others since he's had an album ready to be released, but record label tape has held it up.  So he continues to drop mixtapes to the public to keep himself in the conversation.  JCole dropped Friday Night Lights a while ago and I still need to give it a full listen but from what I've heard, it's been consistent with his others where he delivers a great product.
Young Chris from the Young Guns from the Roc's State Property group has been on his grind and is now on Division 1 records led by super producer Rico Love.  His mixtape called The Re-Introduction  sounds like a veteran artist who has done this before and now has the confidence as a solo artist with his own hits.  I'm expecting big things from Chris and Rico.  CyHi da Prince put Royal Flush out a couple months ago, but he definitely brings a fresh sound to quality metaphors.  His name has been in rotation as he's been on Ye's G.O.O.D. Music label and on Kanye's latest album.  This mixtape is one I've listened to regularly, it's got a good sound.  I also support Wale and his latest More About Nothing has been out for a while as well, but Wale works harder than most artists and puts 120% into his mixtapes.  If you like smart rap, it's a must download.
Ashes to Ashes here
Purp and Patron here
Friday Night Lights here
The Re-Introduction here
Royal Flush here
More About Nothing here.

**Download at your own risk, not responsible for any problems. 

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