rap tapes

Our friends over at the cocaineblunts.com blog discuss a subject near and dear to my heart.

"Tapes to me are more hip hop than anything in the universe. That's my one element right there. The rap tape. Fuck KRS and whatever his temple tells you. You could do seven windmills while rapping and leave a hand style on the cardboard box beneath you, but if you've never worn out a cassette you need to get the fuck out of here and go to a rave or something.

In the mp3 blog press frenzy a lot of writers compared the phenomenon to making a mixtape and that's just not the case. As much as i love what technology has done for the dispersion of music (such as providing me with a venue to wax like this), it will never come close to the hand to hand distribution of a really good pause/mixtape. it pains me to think that the youth of this and future generations will never know what it felt like to have to tape new songs off the radio if the album hadn't drop and you either couldn't find or afford the cassingle. They'll never fret over getting everything perfect on a mixtape for or about a girl you had a crush on, they won't know third generation hiss or cross their fingers in hopes that the drop outs won't be that bad after rerecording over a tape for the sixth time. They'll never shove tissue in the top of a wack retail tape to record some good shit, or have a song cut off at the end of the side and have to rush to flip over the tape to get the rest of it. ipod playlists are heartless beasts in comparision. when i look through the tapes on that website i have a rush of good memories. here just a few things that come to mind when i see specific tape designs"

As always, noz says it better than I could've. Definitely a blog to bookmark and visit often. link

japanese blank tape collector
phil the soulman on tapes