A few weeks ago I was feeling nostalgic and while rummaging through my stock pile of boxes from previous eras of my life, I found all my cassette tapes. Hundreds of them. Then I found a box within a box that had a dozen or so mixtapes that friends had made me in the late 90's early 2000's. I really miss that era of swapping physical media with friends: the effort of making a mixtape, artwork and tracklist by hand, careful selection of tracks that you think your friend will like and those that will push some boundaries, and others that are there for pure comedy.
Over the next couple weeks I'll be sharing several of these, with as much backstory as my old brain can remember.
The first is from my good friend and former roommate Claudia. She has gone on to much greater things in the Pacific Northwest, but when this tape was made she was the manager of Independent Records and we had many thorough and enlightening conversations about music. This tape in particular was on heavy rotation for years, I remember loving it more that most of the others I had at the time. Side A was the alternative selection, and side B was hip hop and rap. Two sides to both our personalities at the time, though we were both avid punk and reggae fans. I recall that Claudia included many of these side A tracks because she knows how much I loved these groups; specifically Mazzy Star, Breeders and the Sundays. The Deee-Lite track was chosen because we both had the same a-ha moment together recognizing the Clash sample at the beginning. Elastica is there because I recall telling Claudia that I thought Elastica was unoriginal and could only copy riffs from Wire. The next two Deee-Lite tracks were from that era where there were hidden songs at the end of a CD, making excessive use of the fast forward button to get through several minutes of silence.
Side B starts off with a fun and funky remix that I keep getting stuck in my head. The rest is hip hop, and some solid late 90's tunes here. Black Eyed Peas way before their super stardom changed everything about them. Probably my favorite Redman track up next, supplemented by the incredible Busta Rhymes. Then the Beatnuts, which I had totally forgotten about until I dug up this tape and remembered, yeah I used to listen to them A LOT. Outkast, also before their mega hits changed their sound completely. Jay-Z, ok yeah still not a huge fan of his though it is nice revisiting some classic tracks like this one. Another wonderful Black Eyed Peas track, an earworm for the workday for sure. Then taking a bit dirty and raw with Goodie Mob and Lil Jon. Not my style, though I do bump these very hard when they come on.
00:00 Omark Faruk Tekbilek - Shashkin
06:40 Mazzy Star - Disappear
10:39 The Breeders - Drivin on 9
13:55 The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends
17:41 Deee-Lite - Apple Juice Kissing
20:48 Letters to Cleo - Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
25:11 Elastica - Stutter
27:32 Deee-Lite - Funky Chunky Bonus Beats
30:39 Deee-Lite - Bring Me Your Love (Johnny Vicious Cosmic Isness Remix 1)
36:17 Dean Martin & Julie London - Sway (The Rip-Off Artist Remix)
40:59 Black Eyed Peas - Joints and Jams (remix)
44:20 Redman feat Busta Rhymes - Da Goodness
48:29 The Beatnuts - Watch Out Now
51:24 OutKast - Rosa Parks
55:29 Jay-Z feat Mariah Carey - Things That U Do
60:19 Black Eyed Peas feat Macy Gray - Request Line
64:05 Goodie Mob - Get Rich To This
68:15 Lil Jon & The Eastside Boys - I Like Dem Girls
photo credit: the mix
