S
Spektor
Guest
Are the quanity of mixtapes taking away the quality that's being put into album releases?
T
The Light
Guest
I would like to think so because "artist" spend more effort on mixtapes than they do albums.
ya boy the flash
New member
some artist end up using all their best material on mixtapes, but i think they're necessary. Mixtapes are the only place where an artist has complete creative freedom. there is less label bs so the music is more "pure." the artist can use whatever sample, collab with whoever, drop it whenever, etc.
JC Biffro
New member
S
Spektor
Guest
Why do labels fight against creative processes....that's one reason albums suck
Zonic
New member
Because most artist, even though they have creativity, don't have the ear for the hot single. Labels want singles or atleast 1 or 2 that can sell the album.
Mixtapes are a double edge sword. I love mixtapes but find it funny when they end up becoming better than albums. They help the artist but at the same dilute their music. Too much music is not always good.
Rick Ross is known to drop mixtapes like every 3 months or so and they end up having singles in them. Rich Forever was better than his album, but name me one memorable Ross verse/line. He has none.
On the other hand, look at Jay, zero mixtapes but has managed to stay at top. Perfect example of less is more.
New artists need mixtapes, but they also need to know how to expand the lifeline of a mixtape through marketing as oppose to dropping one every other month.
TzToppDogg
New member
Yes, the mixtape game over satuated the industry.
G
Guest
Guest
TBH, what is the difference between a mixtape and an album these days?
MoreRyanHall
New member
^^^My point exactly. Mixtapes use to be a bunch of freestyles on popular beats. Now, I'll buy a mixtape before I"ll buy an album.
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well I think there is alot of factors that go into the necessity of a mixtape....
Mixtapes = More creativity, less formula = Jeezy doesn't have to make "The song for the ladies" on a mixtape. No one has to make one thought provoking song for there homies to prove to critics they have depth. Every artist can just make an undiluted version of there ideal project
Mixtapes = NO sample clearances. Thats a double edged sword for songwriters and producers like us but it also brings us songs like Best I Ever Had, and Help on Lil wayne's mixtape, Something You Forgot on Lil Wayne's album, or the entire Soul Tape series by Fabolous.
Mixtapes = More posse cuts and collabs because there is no feature price for rappers they're cool with.
The reason Jay-Z doesn't have to drop a mixtape is because 40-50 year old fans of his don't listen to mixtapes no way. Hell most of them probably don't listen to many rappers anyway but a Jay project drops and there going to the store to buy it.
If Wayne drops a tape we need to know its sober wayne, we need to know its focused wayne we need to know what wayne before were getting before we cop an album. The same applies even more so for less successful artists like Juelz or J.Cole or Currensy.
I'm all for the mixtape game. I don't think it dilutes the game it strengthens it. If it weren't for the mixtape market we would have never heard of So Far Gone. It would just be a demo tape heard in Universal. We might have gotten Successful or Best I Ever Had on his first album but absolutely not the whole thing on a comprehensive project.
We may never have gotten Friday Night Lights or Return of 4Eva. We wouldn't get half the Mood Muzick series or Trap Or Die etc.
Most the songs are songs not able to be on albums so they would be throw away songs any way....
Mixtapes = More creativity, less formula = Jeezy doesn't have to make "The song for the ladies" on a mixtape. No one has to make one thought provoking song for there homies to prove to critics they have depth. Every artist can just make an undiluted version of there ideal project
Mixtapes = NO sample clearances. Thats a double edged sword for songwriters and producers like us but it also brings us songs like Best I Ever Had, and Help on Lil wayne's mixtape, Something You Forgot on Lil Wayne's album, or the entire Soul Tape series by Fabolous.
Mixtapes = More posse cuts and collabs because there is no feature price for rappers they're cool with.
The reason Jay-Z doesn't have to drop a mixtape is because 40-50 year old fans of his don't listen to mixtapes no way. Hell most of them probably don't listen to many rappers anyway but a Jay project drops and there going to the store to buy it.
If Wayne drops a tape we need to know its sober wayne, we need to know its focused wayne we need to know what wayne before were getting before we cop an album. The same applies even more so for less successful artists like Juelz or J.Cole or Currensy.
I'm all for the mixtape game. I don't think it dilutes the game it strengthens it. If it weren't for the mixtape market we would have never heard of So Far Gone. It would just be a demo tape heard in Universal. We might have gotten Successful or Best I Ever Had on his first album but absolutely not the whole thing on a comprehensive project.
We may never have gotten Friday Night Lights or Return of 4Eva. We wouldn't get half the Mood Muzick series or Trap Or Die etc.
Most the songs are songs not able to be on albums so they would be throw away songs any way....
Didn't Mac Miller get sued for a sample he didn't clear on a mixtape?
Prosthetic
The One-Armed Bastard
I was just thinking the exact same thing. What song was that?
"In June 2012, producer Lord Finesse filed an exorbitant $10 million lawsuit against Mac Miller, (Rostrum Records) and DatPiff for the use of a sample of Finesse's song "Hip 2 Da Game" used in Miller's 2010 mixtape song "Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza", even though the song was not commercially released and Finesse was given credit for the sample from the beginning. A case can be made that the song "made money through YouTube ads and Lord Finesse could be entitled to some of those, but instead Finesse believes that his beat has been instrumental to all of Mac's success." This was done even though the song is itself based on a Oscar Peterson sample, which he himself never paid for.[SUP][43][/SUP] In January 2013 the lawsuit was settled outside of court with actual legal results not revealed.[SUP]"[/SUP]
MoreRyanHall
New member
So you telling me, producers who made a name off sampling old records are getting made people are sampling them? The same producers that said "Why all these old musicians coming at me trying to get money because I sampled them?" Well I'll be... I don't think I'll ever clearly understand the industry. I guess he that old musician now. No disrespect to Finesse, but he kinda wrong for that.
Dang, I think this tread bout to get off topic.
Dang, I think this tread bout to get off topic.
G
Guest
Guest
Jay-Z doesn't have to make a mixtape because there is no need to. His fans are there still jamming to his older albums. What a lot of people fail to realize is that there are some billion people on this earth. So what is old to you may be new to someone else who has never heard of Jay-Z.
Jay-Z, Outkast, T.I., Busta Rhymes, or many more older cats don't have to release troughs of content because their content is generated through showcases and performances. Now Gucci, Wayne, Future, Yo Gotti, Dipset, Juelz Santana can do the mixtape game and do it well. But out of all these cats flocking to the mxitape, only a few succeed.
Albums don't mean limited creativity. You can be apart of your own indie label and release an album. Do you limit yourself? Mackelmore released "The Heist" and went No.1 and he wasn't apart of any label backing.
To me, the mixtape game has been played out. To many people do it, thus the saturation of the market. It used to be a very solid form of music exchange. Now it's just another fad that should run its course.
I'm not saying people still can't utilize it, I'm just saying it isn't what it once was and that is one of the reasons albums don't sell as well.
Jay-Z, Outkast, T.I., Busta Rhymes, or many more older cats don't have to release troughs of content because their content is generated through showcases and performances. Now Gucci, Wayne, Future, Yo Gotti, Dipset, Juelz Santana can do the mixtape game and do it well. But out of all these cats flocking to the mxitape, only a few succeed.
Albums don't mean limited creativity. You can be apart of your own indie label and release an album. Do you limit yourself? Mackelmore released "The Heist" and went No.1 and he wasn't apart of any label backing.
To me, the mixtape game has been played out. To many people do it, thus the saturation of the market. It used to be a very solid form of music exchange. Now it's just another fad that should run its course.
I'm not saying people still can't utilize it, I'm just saying it isn't what it once was and that is one of the reasons albums don't sell as well.
Prosthetic
The One-Armed Bastard
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Tech N9ne yet. No mixtapes, countless albums, no "limited creativity" detected. Then again he's doing his own thing.
SwagProductionz
@SlurRty on Twitter
It sucks when a rappers mixtape is better than their album but if you think about it, you can't really blame them. when albums drop they have to answer to the record labels. record labels always want a commercial feel.. even when it's not in that rappers lane..
But that was a very rare an unprecedented instant that as somebody pointed out. I don't think he didnt have any grounds to sue any way. But the reason I say "NO Sample Clearance" isn't because its legal its because there hasn't yet been any legal precedent set. But like I said before with mixtapes you can get Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and such samples.
There's only two examples I can think of that have back fired. Mac Millar's situation and Frank Ocean with Hotel California. And in bot cases I think it was because of how big those projects got to be. In Hindsight I doubt they would have used samples in those projects because they could have made alot of money. But on the flip side they couldn't have predicted they'd be so big so soon. Another example is Best I Ever Had but I don't know what they were thinking. I guess they didn't originally plan to put a mixtape single on radio.
But for people citing Jay-Z or Tech N9ne as a reason for not having a mixtape I have to point out that both those artists have fans from the pre-download era. They absolutely were established before napster. And they still sell as if that's the era there in. But again there fan base is much older and established as well.
If an artist is looking to be independent or so big that they have no reason to listen to a label's input then of course they don't need a mixtape to be creative but not everybody has freedom of Kanye or Eminem, for smaller artists label's have too much control over what can be put into an album. Ask Lupe.....
The only artist I can cite that doesn't deal with mixtapes and is really new is Kendrick Lamar. He's only ever released albums. But again Top Dawg ENT. gives him full creative license. And when he released his Major Label Debut, Dr. Dre gave him that same freedom since that album was several years in the making. But its not like every artist has that luxury....
Ask 2 Chainz if mixtapes are necessary. He wouldn't be able to do Cocaine Cowboy with the Bon Jovi sample. And he said he bought a house with his mixtape money.
MoreRyanHall
New member
Ask 2 Chainz if mixtapes are necessary. He wouldn't be able to do Cocaine Cowboy with the Bon Jovi sample. And he said he bought a house with his mixtape money.[/QUOTE]
No wonder albums never better than the mixtape. You getting money like that off mixtapes, you like what ever on the album.
No wonder albums never better than the mixtape. You getting money like that off mixtapes, you like what ever on the album.