Here's where you get
the benefit of my Hip Hop experience. In this section, i'll recommend/review
old and new mix tapes, DJ's, and albums. Tastes may differ, so don't
blame me if you don't like the same things. But, if you like something
on my lists, then you'll probably like the rest.
There are so many DJ's and DJ crews around, that it's very hard to find tapes you're going to like without trial and error. Here's my recommendations:
Hardcore East Coast: If you want all the new tracks each month or two, there are a few choices. My pick is Tony Touch, okay skills, good track choice, and no annoying shout-outs. Less regular, but better DJ's are Avee, and Eclipse. People seem to like DJ Clue, and he does have good tracks sometimes, but the problem with Clue is too many shout-outs, and no skills. Best picks: Tony Touch 50, 55, 57, any Avee tape, any X-Men tape (Roc Raida, Total Eclipse, Mr Sinista) any Eclipse tape. Avee is especially good for underground tracks.
Sometimes, you get one-off tapes, or unregular releses by East Coast DJ's. These are usually much better than the regualr DJ tapes. Examples include DJ Roc Raida/DJ The Boy - Next Stop Brooklyn, and Sinista Sketches. Both of these tapes are highly recommended for hardcore East Coast/Underground fans. New recommended tapes are The Downlow mixtape series, camillo/Spin One - Underground Funk, O-Dub tapes, any tapes by Spinbad, JS One, or any other members of the Cold Cutz crew are recommended, since they usually contain good exclusives, good tracks, and good skills.
Commercial East Coast: If you're after the latest tracks by Puff Daddy, Mase and similar (no talent?) artists, then you need to find tapes by DJ Juice, Ron G, Luvbugstarski, etc. You're unlikely to find good mixing skills on thse tapes, and most have too many shout-outs. Better ones are: Doo Wop, Funk Flex, and Tony Touch collaboration tapes - Face Off, and Diaz Brothers.
West Coast: DJ Rectangle does a mix of West Coast tracks and commercial East Coast tracks these days. He still does great mixing. King of Kuts is another West Coast DJ, but to be honest, rectangle is the only one widely available. Lots of good West Coast underground tracks means they are heavily featured on tapes by people such as the Beatjunkies.
Freestyle Tapes: There have been a lot of these recnetly, probably started by the success of Doo Wop's and Tony Touch's tapes - Wopduizm 1&2, Power Cypher 1&2. First came the Stretch and Bobbito freestle tapes which are from 93/94. They are not as well produced or put together as the Tony Touch/Doo Wop tapes, and the sound quality is not very good for original tapes, but still, freestyle fans love them. There are also now Wake Up Show freestyle tapes available. I'm getting one soon, so i'll be able to say how they stack up. At the moment though, all the above tapes are recommended as long as you bear in mind what i have said. My personal favourites are the Tony Touch tapes 1&2, with 3 being good but not as good.
Old School: I havn't got any bad old school tapes. Here's my favourites:
Turntablist
Tapes: To me, there are two types
of turntablist tapes. Tapes with over 80% being scratching, and other
tapes where there are also tracks, and different types of skills like beat
Juggling. For the first type of tape, the ISP have the market sewn
up with the scratch practice tapes. These are for DJ's out there
who can appreciate the skills, but they are not really good party tapes,
or good for listening to in your car etc. They also require a good
knowledge. If your looking for the other kind of turntablist tape with tracks as well as skills, you
need: Mixmaster Mike tapes (my favourite of his is Unidentifried Decomposed
Essentials), Bullet Proof Scratch Hamster/Space Travellers tapes, Beat
Junkies, Shiro, Cut Chemist, DJ Noize, Rip One, Cut Chemist, 5th Platoon, Roc Raida, and Q-bert's Demolitioon
Pumpkin Squeeze Musik.
Albums
Don't you just hate it when you hear a single, think it's great, buy the album, and the rest of the tracks are either really similar to that track, or they are nowhere near as good? Here's the albums I consider to have almost all great or very good tracks (I would rate them all at least 8 or 9 out of 10). Also, i'm sure I have missed some, but the lists will be added to (all of the albums listed here are recommended):
And here's the ones that have mostly good tracks (7's out of 10 on a strict scale):