Why do rappers make mixtapes

If there is a case where a dj wants to put out a major mixtape under his name, then he or the label he is signed to will pay rappers for verses or full songs. All copyright content produced by the artist under contract belongs to the record label, and any use of the artists recording needs to be paid to the label. Another way rappers get paid from mixtapes is to sell it on their own. Either on Itunes or their website.

Datpiff or Livemixtapes do not allow rappers to sell their music on their platform. But an interesting thing to be notes is mixtape websites often pay major rappers to host their mixtapes on the websites, so that their website can become more popular. This has happened on Spinrilla, Datpiff, Livemixtapes and other sites like them. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive. Mixtapes have an iconic status in hip-hop.

From there it was off to the races. By the early s, this DJ-centric model was butting up against a more artist-centric take on the form, popularized by 50 Cent and G-Unit. In order to build a buzz, the crew and countless other rappers in their wake began taking instrumentals from pretty much everywhere—already-popular songs included and encouraged—and rapping over them. The result was a new kind of mixtape, that sat on the shelf at your local mixtape spot R.

Of course, not long after, the internet came for the retail mixtape game the way it came for the rest of the music industry. Suddenly the same legally dubious mixtapes were spread to a huge audience, often for free or for the cost of your email address, through sites like DatPiff and Live Mixtapes. Liberating mixtapes from their physical form led to an expanding of the concept as well.

Suddenly artists like Drake were making fully-fledged debut statements of purpose with barely a stolen beat. Then you had The Weeknd and Chance The Rapper demonstrating that, if you had a great album to your name, released it for free and called it a mixtape you, too, could have a meteoric rise.

Why Do Rappers Make Mixtapes? Well mixtapes is and always has been a way for rappers to promote and market themselves. New rap artists drop them to gain recognition and build a fanbase. Having mixtapes as body of works can really help propel an upcoming artist to stardom.

Major rap artists use mixtapes as a way to stay relevant in the eyes of fans, until they drop their official album. Some major artist will actually get paid from a mixtape website like Livemixtapes.