Due to lack of support House music mixtapes, once a mainstay on the streets of New York, have been replaced by Hip Hop. SpeedGarage.com examines the past, present and future of the Mixtape Industry.
In the days when David Morales ruled the Red Zone, Rudolf reigned as the emperor of New York nightlife and Little Louie Vega (along with Barbara Tucker) kept the Underground Network alive at the Sound Factory Bar, HOUSE mixtapes dominated New York City. On the streets of Greenwich Village aspiring house DJ,s would set up shop on a stoop or a street corner with a boombox and their latest homemade mixes. Rogers S would be chillin, in front of UNIQUE, the club clothing store on lower Broadway, other mix DJ,s would hang on 6th Avenue by the West 4th Street subway stop and still more DJ,s in front of the Astor Place Barber Shop. DJ,s shopped tapes with names invoking either the style of music or name of the club from which the music derived. &DEEP House Vol. 38, &Red Zone 128, and &Live at the Shelter 18 were common mixtape names. Tunes cranked ranged from the latest techno to hot house singles from London, to house treatments of Susanne Vega. College students, local New Yorkers and tourists alike devoured mixtapes. Slowly but surely the House mix movement died. Nuisance abatement laws, enforced by NYC Police, forced a crackdown on blaring boomboxes. These same laws led to the search and seizure of illegal street vendors and their wares.
The UNIQUE clothing store shuttered its doors, HOUSE, a clothing cum mixtape shop located on 7th Street in the East Village fell victim to a fickle economy. Radio abandoned its support of house music in favor of a growing interest in hip hop, and New York lost its last surviving prime time house radio program, THE MIDDAY MIX with John Robinson. Attacked from all sides, the growing giant called house music fell to its knees. From its fiery ashes, the mix tape Phoenix rose again, this time embracing the growing homeboy culture and the hip hop movement. Fueled by growing radio play (Hot 97 &Kickin, Flavor!8), MTV rotation (Yo! MTV Raps!), films on, or incorporating, hip hop (Deep Cover, Boyz In the Hood) and a multitude of magazines devoted to the genre (The Source, Stress, Blaze, Vibe, etc.) the hip hop mixtape industry is alive, well, and very, very profitable.
