The intro which featured New Jack Swing staple Aaron Hall served as more of a prologue and autobiographical look into a man who had been entrenched in the culture since his early days as a respected graffiti artist. 1 was one of the first CDs I reached for when finally getting back to Kuwait in May of that year.įiguring a good mixtape would be the fastest way to catch up to the pulse of the street, and by just reading the star-studded track list, I could see that Kay Slay had assembled an impressive group of collaborators for his debut studio album.
Feeling like I had missed so much in the months my unit was on the ground in Iraq, Kay Slay’s The Streetsweeper Vol. For the first time since 1993, my weekly record store visits were put on hold as duty called and I deployed overseas to Southeast Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. With many rifts lingering throughout hip-hop, DJ Kay Slay’s Hot 97 “Drama Hour” and street mixtapes provided a platform for the storied tradition of the emcee battle, and his signature East Harlem bravado only added to the excitement like the voice inflections of ring announcer Michael Buffer.īy the spring of 2003, I had been a hip-hop consumer for a strong decade, rarely missing a Tuesday without copping some brand new music.
#MY WAY USHER ZIPPYSHARE SERIES#
Clue achieved new heights of commercial success, the inaugural chapter of his series reaching platinum status.Īs the new millennium rolled in, other DJs like Frankie Cutlass, Tony Touch, and West Coast media icons Sway & Tech featuring DJ Revolution all released similar studio projects that helped add a new dimension to hip-hop, expanding the sub-genre of compilation albums.īuilding his brand by harvesting key relationships with marquee artists during pivotal times of their career like Nas, Cam’ron, and 50 Cent, it almost seemed as if it was DJ Kay Slay’s turn to release a hot studio album to usher in the summer of 2003. DJ Clue would follow suit as his own label, Desert Storm Records, merged with Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Music Group for his own three-part series The Professional. Veteran nightclub DJ and radio personality Funkmaster Flex was able to secure a major label deal with Loud Records for the first three installments of his Funkmaster Flex Presents: The Mixtape, (60 Minutes of Funk) series. Regardless of the particular brand, this underground circuit became a bicoastal-and even international-phenomenon by the mid ‘90s, garnering the attention of major record labels. Following the tradition set by the older DJs, it seemed that everyone had their niche, while following the one uncompromising principle of keeping the listener well in-tuned with the street.ĭoo Wop’s specialty was featuring raw studio freestyles from hardcore artists, while Clue frequently boasted of debuting exclusive new music. At least until my older brother was able to secure a plug that supplied DJ Craig G, DJ S&S, Doo Wop, and DJ Clue mixtapes on a regular basis, circa 1994. Since the 1970s, notable dee jays have always shown great marketing acumen by pushing the culture, so when the new generation of rap acts began to heat up the game around Y2K with a fierce spirit of competitiveness, a superstar DJ emerged not far from hip-hop’s Mecca and dubbed himself “The Drama King.”įor me, growing up about 200 miles south of the Big Apple in Baltimore, MD during the ‘90s, an actual mixtape was as hard to get as a Triple Fat Goose Bomber underneath my Christmas tree. In fact, long before cultural pioneers like the late great Love Bug Starski coined the term hip-hop or the musical genre was branded as rap music, the cool kids of New York City’s five boroughs filled parks and recreational centers just to be in the presence of turntablists such as Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Disco King Mario. Unfortunately, we often forget that the very fabric of hip-hop culture was originally woven and, in many cases, remains stitched together not just by the master of ceremonies but largely by the ingenuity of the disc jockey.
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