By Sam Chennault

WITH THEIR HAZY legality, street-corner ethos, and focus on local scenes, nothing is more quintessentially hip-hop than the mix tape. As a point of entry into the hip-hop industry, mix tapes are indispensable in breaking new talent. As the chosen vessel for some of hip-hop's most creative and influential artists, they have helped mold the music's current sound. They are the record industry's window onto the streets and allow for the kind of artistic freedom that copyright and intellectual-property laws threatened to take away in the early '90s. They have been responsible for the massive popularity of 50 Cent and have also allowed underground artists such as Phil da Agony (who also works with Krondon and Mitchy Slick in Strong Arm Steady) to continue releasing new music despite having their career derailed by dead-end record contracts.

Back in the day

Although the mix tape has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity and morphed from audio cassettes to CDs, its history dates back to the formative years of hip-hop and includes significant contributions from both coasts. When mix tapes originally appeared in the late '70s, they were called "party tapes" and were the only recording opportunities hip-hop artists had in the early years. Famous old-school New York City DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, and Hollywood hustled each borough to peddle their tapes. In an atmosphere in which bootleggers were bootlegged, the early DJs developed innovative marketing strategies to make ends meet. Neighborhood drug dealers and pimps would pay as much as $100 to receive a personalized mix tape with the DJ shouting out their name.

The structure of early mix tapes was much more open-ended and not confined to a particular scene or sound. Death Mix Live, a 1983 Bambaataa tape on Paul Winley Records that was subsequently rereleased in 2001 as Death Mix on Landspeed Records, featured selections as disparate as Vernon Burch's funky "Get Up" and Yellow Magic Orchestra's experimental new wave, while Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" culled songs by Blondie, Chic, Queen, and Spoonie Gee, among others.

In the '80s, as hip-hop grew populated with a wider range of artists who had a narrower definition of what constituted the genre, mix tapes became increasingly specialized and less inclusive of other sounds. Gone were the krautrock-electro fusions, and in came the dense lyricism of artists like Rakim and KRS-One. Throughout the latter half of the '80s and into the early '90s, Kid Capri held the title as king of the NYC mix tape circuit. During those years, Capri released such classic mix tapes as 52 Beats, consisting of nothing but breakbeats, and 10/9/89. Along with Capri, DJs Funkmaster Flex, Brucie B, Ron G, Doo Wop, S&S, and Clue? held down the New York scene in the early '90s. Flex and Doo Wop, of course, continue to exert their influence on hip-hop. And Ron G's series of early-'90s mix tapes, titled Blends, mixed hip-hop instrumentals with R&B a cappellas – a formula that was then unheard of but is now the accepted template for R&B production. In these cases, the mix tape DJs not only introduced new artists and songs, but they also contributed to shaping the sound of hip-hop.

The foundation that Clue? laid

Out of all of the '90s mix tape DJs, it's DJ Clue? who has had the longest-lasting impact on the industry. Mirroring the mainstream's indifference to the traditional role of the DJ as musician, and blurring the line between artist and hustler, Clue? eschewed turntable theatrics and instead actively pursued freestyles and unreleased tracks by hip-hop's emerging superstars. The audience responded, and Clue? quickly ascended to the upper echelon of NYC DJs. He released two major-label albums that went platinum, The Professional (Def Jam, 1998) and The Professional Pt. 2 (Rock-A-Fella, 2000) and went on to form his Desert Storm label.

Following the path that Clue? forged, DJ Kayslay (a.k.a. Slap Your Favorite DJ) has emerged this past year as NYC's most popular DJ. An ex-graffiti champion, Kayslay has been in the scene since nearly its inception, appearing as Dez in Henry Chalfant's seminal 1983 documentary Style Wars. The self-proclaimed "Drama King," Kayslay gained instant notoriety when he became the first one to include "Ether," Nas's nail-in-the-coffin response to Jay-Z's dis song "Takeover," on his tape.

After spearheading the Nas-versus-Jay beef, Kayslay began releasing a series of mix tapes titled Streetsweeper. Although Kayslay's constant shout-outs border on intrusive at times, his slew of beef-related freestyles, celebrity drops, and unreleased gems generates a sort of battle royal atmosphere that makes his tapes essential. The Streetsweeper series has included exclusive tracks by the Lox, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, DMX, Foxy Brown, Mobb Deep, and Joe Budden, as well as freestyles from Rah Digga, Common, Capone-N-Noreaga, and Styles P. Unfortunately, the charm of his street mixes couldn't transfer to his new major-label mix, The Streetsweeper Vol. 1 (Sony). Although Kayslay used his considerable clout to garner an all-star cast, the album lacks the carnival, anything-goes dynamic of the mix tapes. Regardless, his influence remains pervasive, and there's an entire new generation of DJs now waiting to challenge him for the throne.

The Bay Area scene

The history of Bay Area mix tapes reflects the scene's dedication to eclecticism and turntable experimentation. Perhaps the area's two most famous mix tapes are QBert's Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik, which upon its release was hailed by hip-hop magazine Rap Pages as the greatest mix tape of all time, and Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow's Brainfreeze and Product Placement. Both CDs utilize an eclectic array of soul, jazz, funk, and novelty records that privilege obscurity over accessibility and feature some of the most incredible blending work ever recorded. Brainfreeze and Product Placement limited their parameters, utilizing only 45s. The response to these two records has been overwhelming. Because of their limited printing, they became collector's items overnight, and they forced an entire generation of crate diggers to search deeper into record store inventories for those ultrarare 45s.

Similar to the aesthetic that Shadow, Cut Chemist, and QBert popularized, Bay Area turntablist DJ Quest has been releasing mix tapes since the mid '90s with angular turntable cuts and thickly layered samples. Influenced by old-school Bay Area DJs EFX and Juanito, his recent Mutation Mann tape (Reverse Technique) is, in his own words, "Hardcore thumpin' hip-hop electro dark underground smooth breakbeat type shit with flavor!" Surprisingly, that isn't much of an exaggeration. When asked why he feels the Bay Area veers away from the more straightforward style favored by NYC DJs, Quest attributes it to the Bay Area's ability to integrate different cultures. "Just the fact that you have such wide ranges of cultures in the Bay Area, it's accepted that you like other different styles of music," Quest said via phone. "On the East Coast shit is more underground, and you have to stick to a certain script. Out here, there are no rules, and that's what I love about it."

While turntablists initially won the praises of the critics and the attention of underground heads, it was DJ Vlad who eventually became the most visible DJ on the San Francisco mix tape scene. Since 1983, Vlad has alternately been a breaker, a producer, and a DJ. Perhaps because he predates the turntablist movement, his mixes bear more resemblance to the latter-day NYC DJs' than they do to his fellow Bay Area turntablists'. Utilizing his previous experience as a producer, Vlad even one-upped his NYC peers and switched up the game in the late '90s by producing his mix tapes on computers using multitrack sequencing, rather than just recording a cappella vocals over instrumentals or blending his records on turntables. Since then he has turned out crowds at nearly every major club in San Francisco, performed with Bounty Killer and Bunny Wailer before 15,000 people in Jamaica, been ordained the official DJ for reggae star Barrington Levy, and sold more records than perhaps any mix tape DJ on the West Coast. Although Vlad recently moved to NYC to be closer to the industry, it would be impossible to discuss the Bay Area mix tape scene without mentioning his considerable accomplishments.

With their recent After Party Vol. 1 mix tape, Bay Area DJ crew the Oakland Faders located a happy middle ground between Vlad's New York gloss and the turntablist's penchant for experimentalism. Featuring seamless blends and a diverse track selection that includes the best of the east and the west, the Oakland Faders have produced what could be considered the Bay Area's best straightforward mix tape this year. DJs Mere and Spair, who put together the mix, cut their teeth on the same experimental approach that dominated the '90s turntablist craze. Over the past two years, however, the duo adjusted their approach to accommodate the ever changing landscape of hip-hop. "I was doing a lot more eclectic tapes a few years ago," Spair recently told me over the phone, "but I learned that those don't sell as well. What really sells well with mix tapes is the song titles." Luckily, Mere's status as a DJ at KMEL-FM ensures he gets the hottest tracks first – although he was careful to include such old-skool favorites as Blacksheep and the Beatnuts on the tape.