It’s no secret that there are a lot of hip-hop documentaries. As the first genre to really break in an era where it could be widely documented in real time by camcorders, tape recorders, and eventually, film crews paid by artists and their labels, it’s kind of inevitable that there’d be so many movies about its foundations and growth. Unfortunately, because it’s all so well-covered already, it can feel at times like there’s so much overlap between the events and figures being cited that nothing new or worthwhile is really being unearthed — especially for fans who’ve voraciously consumed all these histories in an effort to learn everything there is know about hip-hop.
With hip-hop’s 50th anniversary going on, it’s the perfect time to go back and check out some of those docs (we’ve got a handy list here), but if you already have, or if you’re like me and feel like many of them only offer the same-old-same, then Mixtape is definitely the one you need to see. A joint production of Def Jam and MTV Films currently streaming on Paramount+, Mixtape does one thing that makes it great: It sticks to its subject like glue. By focusing on the rise, spread, and influence of mixtapes and their creators on the hip-hop landscape, it offers a fresh perspective on well-examined eras throughout hip-hop’s history.
For instance, while those early park jams and club performances often receive obligatory nods, those nods can also often seem cursory. But with Mixtape, so many names and personalities get their due, from Brucie B and Kid Capri (shout-out to The Notorious B.I.G.) to pioneers like Tony Touch. The film drills down, not just into who these individuals were or what their contributions changed about the art of making mixtapes, but also into their techniques and why they were so innovative in the first place. While the usual timeline landmarks are all still in place, they’re sublimated in service of telling this specific story — the story of the mixtape.
That includes a worldwide perspective, from the Dirty South and the West Coast to France, Japan, and Puerto Rico. The evolution of the art is tracked through pause tapes, the growth of freestyle tapes and exclusives, and the introduction of CDs and the big business of the late ’90s and early 2000s — the beginning of the internet era. And, as far as seeing something you didn’t know, let me just say — I grew up with these mixtape DJs, and I had absolutely no clue what most of them looked like until now. Also, the collection of interview subjects is so good at recounting their tales, I didn’t mind hearing them again.
It also touches on the corporate appropriation of the culture via moments like the Tommy Hilfiger mixtapes, Sprite sponsorships, and more. There’s even some light labor advocacy; a couple of the DJs who get interviewed readily admit that they got their early leaks by simply bribing unpaid interns (go figure that not paying your employees actually costs companies more). And thanks to the names involved, the list of interviewees is truly impressive. Yes, the usual suspects all appear, but so do A-listers like 50 Cent, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Lil Wayne, Mike Tyson, and even Shaq (Uproxx co-founder Jarret Myer even makes a quick cameo!). Befitting of a film about mixtapes, there are all kinds of great transitions and gimmicks — there’s even an intermission of sorts.
And, of course, the film digs into the dark side of the scene — the violence, the theft and damage to reputations, and eventually, the legal repercussions for some of the biggest mixtape DJs — with cutting insight. While the whole thing moves a little too quickly (basically chucking the whole of the blog era) and still clocks in at two hours long, it provides a broad and satisfying overview of its subject, shedding light on a subset of hip-hop that has been overlooked for nearly the entirety of its 50-year history. That’s all anyone could ask for — and like a real mixtape, Mixtape leaves the listener/viewer wanting more.
Mixtape is now streaming on Paramount+.