P.R.A.D.E.

Mixtape Vol. 1

There is a great post on Cocaine Blunts and Hip Hop Tapes all about the culture of the hip hop mix tape.


Inspired by a fantastic online collection of images of recordable cassette tapes here, Noz shares a few of his favorites and waxes philosophical on how the new generation of hip hop heads will never know the joy and pain involved in crafting the perfect mixtape.

Noz is completely on point when he reflects, "It pains me to think that the youth of this and future generations will never know what it felt like to have to tape new songs off the radio if the album hadn't drop and you either couldn't find or afford the cassingle. They'll never fret over getting everything perfect on a mixtape for or about a girl you had a crush on, they won't know third generation hiss or cross their fingers in hopes that the drop outs won't be that bad after rerecording over a tape for the sixth time . . . or have a song cut off at the end of the side and have to rush to flip over the tape to get the rest of it"

The post is a great walk down memory lane and I recognized a gang of the old tape designs on the site. But it also made me realize, my generation is probably one of the first that will have all of our childhood memories accessible on the internet. From old Atari and Nintendo games to theme songs from my favorite cartoons, my fellow sons and daughters of the 80's are digitally cataloguing our childhoods and making nostalgic surfing through memory lane instantly available.

When I see these tapes I'm right back at my desk after school, waiting patiently for the radio station to play Boyz II Men one more time so my ultimate Paul's Slow Jamz Mix Tape Vol. 1 would be complete.

posted by Paul at 4:25 PM