Welcome back good people. It’s the one and only, The Honorable Adam Thomas here to give you the drop on the latest and greatest from the world of mixtapes. Some other sites try to keep up, but who else you know does five a pop, every week like we do.
On the cool, this edition’s lineup is a rather interesting one. We start off with Brooklyn’s triple threat, leading into Mr.Thugication’s return to the mixtape circuit. The brothers Young take on their own unique style, the Mixtape Messiah returns, and because it can’t all be good, the sergeant of finger snap tries to keep his name in the light.
DJ Mike Nice
Brooklyn Bullsh*t
Heavy Rotation
Whenever you place Big Daddy Kane (“Ain’t No Half Stepping”), Notorious B.I.G. (“Ni***z Bleed”), and Jay-Z (“Pass the Roc”) on the same tape, and you can make it sound inspired, you’re already halfway there with most fans. When you can then weave a cohesive track listing around unreleased tracks and demos that are rarely in the same place at the same time, your mixtape is that much better. If you consider yourself a fan of New York Rap, there is no reason why you shouldn’t dig this.
Papoose
21 Gun Salute
Heavy Rotation
Papoose has had a tough go of it. He spent the last year watching his wife get arrested, locked up, and sentenced to a bid upstate. Not only that, his music career has suffered, with his last two efforts (Already A Legend & Build Or Destroy) coming off less than inspired. He seems to have turned it around with 21 Gun Salute. Opening up about his label troubles (“Live & Learn”), dropping another law library (“Take These Bars”), and just hot music (“Brooklyn Go Hard”), we see one of Brooklyn’s own coming back at full speed.
Young Dro & Young La
White Boy Black Boy
Peep It
After being primed to be Grand Hustle’s number two man a few years ago, Young Dro had all but disappeared. He has appeared back in the company of his brother Young La for White Boy Black Boy. The title simply means they have a combination of Black and White swag. The music however is the same Southern snapping (“Ain’t I”), D-boy stuff (“36 O’s”) that wild club nights are made of. Nothing two twitter about here.
Chamillionaire
Mixtape Messiah 6
Heavy Rotation
Sometimes artists just seem to relate to their audience better when not contained on a standard LP. The poster child for this would have to be Houston’s own Chamillionaire. Mixtape Messiah 6 is no different, as you get musical offerings fans should expect including some funny skits (“Roy Jones”), some good remixes (“Everything”), and solid bars (“Best Rapper”). Toss that in with a tribute to Pimp C (“One Day”), and it’s a pretty good body of work worthy of the same distinction of the rest of the series.
Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy TV
D.O.A
Pretty much everything you expect it to be. Shallow rhymes built around some decent beats. When you’re the rapper getting out shined by Shawty Lo (“100k”) of all people, you just might want to hang it up. There is a reason why his second album went triple copper.