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Mixtape Meltdown



Four months after the RIAA decided to take a break from prosecuting college kids to criminalize mixtapes, it looks like, at least on a national level, there seems to be a movement away from $5-a-pop physical tapes (which confusingly have been CDs for years) to online-only free mixtapes available on rappers' myspace pages or on sites like mixtapetorrent.com. Here's two choice freebies for ya:
  • Chamillionaire. "Mixtape Messiah 2"
  •  Lil Wayne "Da Drought 3" Just got this and we'll almost certainly devote a post to it soon. Dude just gets stranger and stranger, but charmingly.
That said, I don't know that there's necessarily RIAA-fear around here. I can't imagine agents lurking around waiting to nab somebody in the River Market parking lot selling out of their trunk, BUT my dad, who knows such things, tells me that ASCAP and BMI sends covert folks out to waiting rooms around here, from time to time, to count the number of times a song or a CD plays to nail businesses who don't pay their dues. And it's all one brotherhood, so who knows.

At the Conduit show this weekend, somebody handed me "As Seen on TV," the new mixtape from the Starcyde crew. Headed by All-Star the Big Beat Maker, who's done tracks for Joe and SWV and Jadakiss and is apparently a much in-demand producer, Starcyde is a label based in New York that bafflingly features mostly Little Rock artists. Of the four local acts on the label, three are from here: rappers Lil Rok Playas and Mista Ye and soul singer David Lawrence.

Lil Rok Playas, you might remember, had an almost-national hit a while back with "Mrs. Jones." Half of the duo, Filthy Rich, is out and about in Little Rock all the time. He has one of the most intricate tattoos ever.

Anyway, the mixtape is pretty fun. It's called "As Seen on TV" because all of the tracks are built on samples from TV shows and movies. Bizarrely, it sort of has a TV Land feel. "Hawaii 5-0," "The Munsters," "Get Smart," "Happy Days" and "The Twilight Zone" all get represented. It's totally a novelty thing, but the dudes can write a hook.

Download the full mixtape here.

Here are choice favorites:






Posted by Lindsey Millar on May 1, 2007 02:12 PM |

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