S. Samuel
The Lox's Styles P recently voiced his thoughts on the mixtape game and said he has moved beyond the promotional marketing strategy.
Reflecting on the mixtape game’s past popularity, the “Ghost” explained his issues with the underground format today.
“I don’t even f*ck with mixtapes right now,” Styles said in an interview. “Mixtapes are not what it was back then. Right now, you have so much garbage out. People have one or two hot songs on a mixtape and the rest is trash. When we were coming up, the mixtape was like a street album. A mixtape was like a street bible with the Ron G‘s… You had the hood sh*t, the club sh*t, the girl sh*t. I can’t blame the kids. I gotta blame some of the record labels man. These n*ggas just want that one ringtone hit. They don’t care abou tthe rest of your music…Motherf*ckers aren’t gonna spend $10 on that sh*t man.” (Hip Hop Game)
Fabolous recently shared similar opinions on today’s mixtape circuit.
“That game is really saturated,” Fab said in an interview about the mixtapes. “I feel like you really have to do something special now, but there’s not really anything special you can do on a mixtape besides trying different things musically or with the way you distribute it…There’s nothing special to me about a mixtape now…There’s pretty much one coming out every five minutes. Right now, I think the dopest thing is to have a mixtape online–don’t even have a hard disc, because even that’s slowed down. When was the last time someone went somewhere and bought a hard copy of a mix CD? So maybe the next step is to release something digitally and tie it in with that.” (Hip Hop DX)
Chamillionaire announced his mixtape retirement earlier this month.
Somebody told me that nobody’s paying attention,” Chamillionaire said in an audio clip. “But it looks like everybody’s paying attention now…Y’all ain’t got to worry, I’m not retiring from rap. I’m not completely retiring from rap. What I am retiring from is the Mixtape Messiah‘s, being the Mixtape Messiah. That part of my career, I’m done with that…I’ve done that for a decade strong, it’s time to let that rest and step to another level. It shouldn’t be a bad thing, it should be a good thing. We’re gonna open new doors, do something else…I’m not sad, not depressed, I just been doing this for a while. The formula is old.” (SayNow)
Aside from music, Styles is currently penning a book.
The book, which Styles describes as a “jail mystery,” is the D-Block rapper’s first foray into the literary world. “I got a fiction book called Mr. Invincible coming out Nicki Turner Presents,” Styles revealed to XXL. “It’s just a fiction joint. It’s a little story, I’m just trying to get in another lane and do something creative and you gonna get to see it in a minute.” When asked if he had any help putting the work together Styles replied, “They got a little editing team, but all the writing is me, all the idea is me, all the thought is me…We about to get on the road do a lil’ promo tour for that…Hit up Philly, VA, North Carolina, Connecticut, Boston and the Midwest and West too.” (XXL Mag)
