Mixtape

Mixtape

Mixtapes have an outsized role in the emergence of hip hop around the world. Before radio play, the internet, and social media, there were mixtapes. No matter where you lived, you could pop a cassette into a tape deck, and be transported to a party halfway around the world. DJs were tastemakers, trendsetters and creators of the sound that became the biggest musical genre on the planet. A meteoric rise for an art form not yet 50 years old. The importance of mixtapes goes well beyond the tapes themselves. Mixtapes were a form of currency. A signifier that you were In-The-Know and had your ear to the streets. A skeleton key to the underground. The culture was too strong to be stopped, and the artists were too talented to be ignored – so they turned the sub-culture into the mainstream, and made history along the way.

Director: Omar Acosta
Producers: Nick Quested, David Kennedy, Omar Acosta, Tony Touch, Daniel Seliger
Executive Producers: Paul Rosenberg, Barak Moffitt
Runtime: 87 minutes