By the time of the raid, mixtapes had grown from homemade mix cassettes sold on street corners and barbershops to an underground, semi-legal marketplace where album-quality releases from high-profile rappers generated between $30 million and $50 million sales each year, according to the RIAA, working out to a conservative estimate of $150 million to $250 million annually by the end of 2006. The music industry generally looked the other way, exchanging lost royalties for the promotion and buzz that artists could build from the streets up with multiple “unauthorized” releases per year. But as the medium grew in populatiry and revenue, the major labels decided they would no longer allow their artists to release music without compensating the label.

This incident is considered the official death of the digital mixtape era. From this point on, record companies would not allow their artists to release music on platforms they could not reap sales from.

Up-and-coming artists were soon quick to follow and move away from those platforms to the major streamers. When popular artists like Drake could no longer be hosted on platforms like DatPiff, they lost all legitimacy.

This incident also blurred the lines of what the modern definition of a mixtape is, and what distinguishes it from an album. Even after it's release on Spotify and the iTunes store, Drake continued to refer tot he project as a mixtape. Today, many artists release 'mixtapes' on Spotify & Apple Music. But are they really mixtapes if there isn't any physical tape or free digital access?

Today, most in the industry agree the moniker of 'mixtape' is a shorthand for a music project that is not as long/highly-produced as an album. However, as far as the major streaming services and record labels are concerned, they couldn't care what they're called as long as they're generating steaming revenue.

Historically, artforms of black and brown people do not achieve mainstream success until white audiences take notice; meaning art released prior to that point gets lost to history.

Unlike, other eras of music, digital mixtape era hip-hop is not easily accessible, as most of the music does not exist on major streaming platforms. Additionally, the journalistic writing on this era came from blogs that are no longer operational or print magazines that aren't digitally accessible. On top of that, there's limited physical media to preserve and this era of music mostly exists as digital ephemera. This archive will tell the story of the mixtape era by organizing primary sources spread out all across the internet into one place.

Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that the artists and innovators who laid the groundwork for hip-hop today receive the credit they deserve for their invaluable contributions to the rich tradition and history of this culture.

-The art of speaking well.

-The art of persuasion.

-The art of amplification.

-The art of presence.

I would argue, that any great rapper embodies all of these qualities in their music. Rappers are distinguished by their abilities to:

-Curate words into a compelling aesthetic

-Emphasize certain words and phrases

-Make an argument (a lot hip-hop is often political, i.e. Public Enemy)

-Establish their presence. Great rappers have gravitas in their rhetorical style, some might refer to it as 'swag.'