Cyrus Langhorne
[With an impressive career ranging from hip-hop production to becoming an on-screen television personality, Clinton Sparks talks to SOHH about his days as a mixtape king.]
I am a visionary and an entertainer. That sums it all up.
Pretty much everyday, or at least three or four times a week, I run into somebody that tells me a different mixtape of mine that was their favorite mixtape. Like, “Man, I used to listen to this all the time,” or “I still got this.”
You know what’s funny? I work so hard and I’m so focused on what’s next, that I hardly ever look up to see the effect I’ve had on something or to hear, good or bad, comments about me. I do something and I’m like, “What’s next?” Throw it out, “What’s next?” Throw it out, “What’s next?”
It’s so funny because when I was in the prime of mixtapes, maybe 2006, 2007, it’s like I didn’t realize how much of an effect I had on the culture.
Even though I created MixUnit.com which was the biggest mixtape site in the world, I knew from a business standpoint I knew my impact and my influence from a business point of view. But I never really realized how much I touched individuals in the streets.
It became a fabric of the culture of mixtapes and hip-hop. Here we are, 8, 9 years later and I literally don’t go anywhere without someone recognizing me and pointing out something I’ve done to their life whether it’s a song I produced, a mixtape I produced, a joke I said.
I’ve done so much. I’m probably like the first guy that ever did a rock mixtape with a full-on successful rock band. I did a mixtape with Fall Out Boy. Who ever did a mixtape with a successful rock band like that?
PEOPLE BE INTO TRASH SHIT SOMUCH