Tapes: Side A

Rock the deck with the ill cassette!!!

The other day I went to Goodwill not even looking for music, but because I'm a digger, I had to go through their music section.  It's just something I have to do.  Even if I put down the mic and the beats, I know when I go into Goodwill or Half Price Books I WILL thumb through their LPs, CDs and anything else they carry.  So, as I looked through their tapes I found what had to be some cat's early 90s hip hop collection.  They were $.49 each and I picked up a gang of them.  Classics like Cypress Hill, Lords of the Underground, Onyx, Digable Planets, LL Cool J and more.  I honestly stood there saying, "Oh SH!T" again and again as I found gem after gem.  Whoever out there dropped off those tapes, please know they went to a good home.

In this digital age there's something lacking and what makes old school tapes/cassettes so dope.  I'm not sure how much of it is nostalgia from cats my age or if it's because there is something that is missing in music in this iTunes generation.  I will say, amongst audiophiles, there is the argument of digital vs. analog regarding dynamic range.  I wouldn't consider myself an UBER audio hipster, but no doubt there is SOMETHING in the way a tape or record sounds vs. a CD or digital file.  (not going to even get into the whole MP3 compressed frequency argument)  As the technology improved, everybody jumped on the "what's next" vibe and went for the ease of selecting tracks and the "clear/crystal" sound of the digital age.  It's only been in the last few years that people have started to crave what they missed.  The warm buttery sound that vinyl and cassettes had.

But, it wasn't just that...

Coming up there was music was that was discovered via tape and the culture around it.  You'd make dubs, there would be dubs of dubs passed around of really rare tapes, like "Project Blowed" or the Casual Vs. Saafir battle on the wake up show.  It wasn't just buying albums, there was a whole culture of mixtapes and recording radio shows.  As CDs became more popular, the format was put on the back burner.  I knew growing up, whatever release came out, I wanted it on CD, but regardless I would still make a tape of my favorite joints for the walkman, for the ride or for my boys.  Heck, I'd even throw it on tape like how cats make playlists on their iTunes.

Cue J-Zone.

Flip over to continue the post on Side B