This project will investigate hip-hop artists' use of the internet to publish mixtapes. Both popular artists and unknown artists have released official mixtapes on the internet that have caught the public's attention. Popular artists such as Lil' Wayne take the beats of other artists' songs and make their own lyrics, whereas unknown artists such as Kid Cudi released original works in the forms of mixtapes that sparked widespread interest in their music. The reasoning behind the use of the internet as a form of distribution and the positive effect of these mixtapes on these artists' careers will be discussed.
My project does a case study on 8 mixtapes by 7 artists. Three artists have been previously established in the hip-hop mainstream, and four are relatively unknown. I show how the mixtapes have earned the artist public recognition or how the artists intend to gain recognition through the mixtape. I also demonstrate how the internet was an instrumental factor in the spreading of these mixtapes to the public. Many of the mixtapes were released on the internet, and they can all be downloaded legally and for free from DatPiff amongst other sites. Several of these artists also distribute their music through MySpace.
Note: Only mixtapes with original lyrics will be discussed. This project does not address mash-ups or compilations. All of the mixtapes can be found for free at DatPiff.com. Although you will need to create an account to download the music, no account is necessary to listen to the songs. Considering all of the albums mentioned are mixtapes, labels and catalog numbers are not available.
