There are many ways a music compilation can be put together. Some DJs even release projects that are entirely blends. A blend is when the acapella of a popular song is mixed together with an instrumental of another popular song. This produces a new sound. Some of these blends are great and some you will want to pass on and skip to the next track. A few of the popular mixtape blend DJs are DJ Vlad, DJ Cinema, DJ Ty Boogie, and Mista Rello & Jadel. Although blend projects are not as popular now as they were about 6-7 years ago, DJs continue to release them.
Another mixtape format is a ‘best of’ mixtape. Some DJs can produce these mixtapes consisting of 100+ tracks. Since 100 tracks is over 80 minutes of music, which is well over the standard 80 minute CD, these tracks can only be around 1 minute long. Even though the songs are so short, it is a sample of the featured artist’s musical work and makes for a great listening experience. One of the most popular DJs to do these types of products is Rob E Rob. He has released many ‘best of’ drops consisting of over 70+ tracks. For a DJ to be able to release a mixtape with that many songs by an artist also tells you that this person is serious about their music career. If they already have a greatest hits mixtape with that many songs, then they have a bright and lucrative future in the music industry.
One method for a hip hop music artist to be recognized in the mixtape community is to freestyle over the beat of a popular song. Some artists rely solely on this to gain acceptance and recognition in the hip hop community. Well-known artists do this to show they can take a popular song, flip it to their style and be able to make it a hit record as well. This was the primary format used in the beginning on mixtapes. Fabolous would do this to show he can take a popular song and make it even better with his style of rap. Music artists still do this today, but it is not used as heavily as it once was. Also freestyles are not very long, the majority only lasting around 1 minute and 30 seconds on average. Today, artists will record full original songs with original beats as they would for a retail album and release them on these music compilations. These products are official releases to let the public know that it is not just some product consisting of the artist’s music released by a DJ without their knowing. Many of these drops exist to try and hype up the DJ as having exclusive access or content when they really do not.
References:
http://www.buymixtapes.com/Young-Money-Young-Money-Avengers.9787.mixtape
http://www.buymixtapes.com/official.php