10 Mixtape-Era Bangers That Could Only Have Existed in the 2000s |
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10 Mixtape-Era Bangers That Could Only Have Existed in the 2000s
Noisey selects 10 vital mixtape-era classics for anyone feeling nostalgic for the 2000s and the days before we were ruled by the internet.
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What even is a mixtape in 2026? With everything getting chucked onto the same streaming services, there’s hardly a difference between records anymore. Unless it’s placed in the EP section, there’s no telling what is a tape vs an album. But back in the 2000s, mixtapes had all the freedom in the world.
Initially, it was a system where you’d buy them at barbershops or someone’s trunk. Then, the emergence of the internet brought DatPiff and MyMixtapes, where artists would give away music for free, and they’d receive buzz as a result. Now, in the age of copyright and not a lot of money in the industry, the mixtape feels like a dead entity.
In the spirit of remembering a beautiful time in hip-hop, Noisey has selected ten classic songs from different mixtapes that’ll make millennials remember rosier days in the 2000s.
Ten Essential Mixtape Classics That Instantly Transport You to the 2000s
“Dough is What I Got” by Lil Wayne
Back in the day, artists used to really vouch for the title of ‘best rapper alive.’ They’d fill a mixtape with them rapping over popular beats in order to show their contemporaries how it’s really done.
But no one took that title as seriously as........