DJ Doo Wop

Mixtapes have an out-sized role in the emergence of hip hop around the world. Before radio play, the internet, and social media, there were mixtapes. No matter where you lived, you could pop a cassette into a tape deck, and be transported to a party halfway around the world. DJs were taste makers, trendsetters and creators of the sound that became the biggest musical genre on the planet. A meteoric rise for an art form not yet 50 years old. The importance of mixtapes goes well beyond the tapes themselves. Mixtapes were a form of currency. A signifier that you were In-The-Know and had your ear to the streets. A skeleton key to the underground. The culture was too strong to be stopped, and the artists were too talented to be ignored - so they turned the sub-culture into the mainstream, and made hip hop what it is today.

Long before the days of platinum and gold success, a rapper’s worth was in the DJ’s placement within his mix. Ultimately, it would be the growing popularity and increased necessity of The Mixtapes created by DJ’s that would serve as the lifeline to Hip Hop, as it grew into the most celebrated art form.