Recently, I was going through some of my old cassettes and I came across the entire stash of mixtapes I’ve done throughout the years. And these aren’t pause tapes, trust me, they’re MIXtapes. Most of them I hadn’t heard in years; maybe close to a decade for some of them. It gave me the idea to do a kind of retrospective—a chronological backtrack if you will—of my mixtape ‘career’. I didn’t actually get one in the stores until ’99 so I use the term ‘career’ loosely, but the entire reason I became involved with this music was to make mixtapes. Most of my heroes are mixtape DJs so I aspired to follow in their footsteps.

I’m gonna go back to what I think is the first legitimately dope mix I did, because I realize what’s classic to me beyond that most likely wouldn’t be classic to you.

Last week we started with my most recent, most intricate mixtape made in 2008, and now every week I’m gonna post backwards all the way to ’96. Let’s go!

FOR MY PEOPLE (2006)

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD “FOR MY PEOPLE”

ABOUT FOR MY PEOPLE:
In 2006, a Japanese website called Soundtable asked me if I would do a mixtape for a monthly series they were doing. Their idea was to put free mixes up for download to get traffic to the site I guess, which sells vinyl, CDs, etc…

CLICK TO READ ON

Then they told me that Lord Finesse and Double K of PUTS were also going to do mixes. I said count me in, but I knew I had to rep if I was going to be in the company of such amazing DJs.

Ironically enough, I had recently been to Japan with my Time Machine crew and while there, I had found a bunch of early-90s rap 12″s that I had been looking for since I was a youngin. I remember walking into a store hoping to find the Royal Flush, “Rotten Apple” 12″. I walked in, they were playing Giant Panda’s new album, I found the record…BOOM.

Anyway, “For My People” is a collection of some of my favorite, somewhat obscure jams from the early-90s era. It was also given out by UGHH.com as a bonus when you copped my “Live and Learn” album from them. I’ve gotten great feedback from this, so enjoy…

TRACKLISTING:
1. “One In A Million” – Pete Rock & CL Smooth
2. “Room To Breathe” – Downtown Science
3. “Check The Method” – Lord Finesse
4. “Real Ting (KRS One Remix)” – Mad Lion
5. “My Kinda Moves” – Q Ball & Curt Cazal
6. Party record transition
7. “Brooklyn Kids” – Jemini the Gifted One
8. “Just Hangin Out (Remix)” – Main Source
9. “Sweet Therapy” – Rumpletilskinz
10. “A Penny For My Thoughts” – Common Sense
11. Party record transition #2
12. “C’mon Wit The Git Down (Buckwild Rmx.)” – Artifacts
13. “Rotten Apple” – Royal Flush
14. “Keep It Real” – Jamal
15. “Check It Out Y’all (Instr.)” – Little Shawn
15. “Proof Is In The Pudding” – Madkap
16. “Can U Dig It?” – Roughouse Survivers f/ CL Smooth
17. “Box In Hand (Lost Rmx.)” – Ghostface Killah f/ Method Man, Streetlife
18. “Regulate” – Royal Flush f/ Mic Geronimo
19. “Nuttin Ta Lose (Nuttin But Sax Mix)” – Dred Scott
20. “Saturday Nite Live (Remix)” – Masta Ace
21. “Cut That Weak Shit” – Lace Da Booms f/ Royal Flush
22. “Legion Groove” – The Legion
23. “Somethin 4 Da Youngstas” – Da Youngsta’s
24. “How Nice I Am” – World Renown
25. “Roadrunner (Q-Tip Remix)” – Chi Ali
26. “Dawn To Dusk” – Powerule
27. “Understanding” – Nas