I’m not expecting this to be a regular feature on the site, but seeing as there have been a lot of great mixtape releases recently I thought it would be best to try and cover them in one go rather than writing an individual post for each one.
We have six brand new mixtapes for you below the cut from the following artists: ASAP Rocky, Freddie Gibbs, Ludacris, Talay Riley, Elite and Theme Park.
First up is ASAP Rocky who has been making big waves for himself within the hip-hop community, recently revealing that he has signed a $3M record deal with Sony/RCA. Thanks to tracks such as Purple Swag & Pe$o, the talented youngster has developed quite a following, and his latest mixtape Live.Love.A$AP is looking to capitalise on that.
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ASAP Rocky – “Live.Love.A$AP” (Mixtape)
Our second mixtape Going To California comes from an upcoming singer/songwriter from the UK called Talay Riley. We have featured Talay on the website before but since then it seems he has put his solo career on the backburner, preferring instead to do some writing and production for the likes of Rihanna, JLS, The Saturdays and One Direction.
The release of the 19-track long Going To California should put him back on the scene as a recognised solo artist, and will set him up nicely for the release of his debut self-titled studio album which will drop early next year.
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Talay Riley – “Going To California” (Mixtape)
Elite might not be a name that rings any bells with you, but the talented producer has been credited with creating some rather impressive singles already. Elite produced both singles Who Dat and Return Of Simba for J. Cole, and he has now decided to turn the focus onto his solo work by releasing a brand new mixtape called Awaken.
Awaken features a a number of artists who are affiliated with the DreamVille camp, such as: Voli, Omen and J. Cole. Not all production is from Elite either, he also has some beats from Cole World, The Alchemist.
Elite – “World Premiere” feat. J. Cole
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Freddie Gibbs‘ latest mixtape, Cold Day in Hell, was released during the 48-hour-period which followed ASAP Rocky‘s new mixtape hoping to capitalise on some of the hype, and it looks like his tactic paid off.
Cold Day In Hell has a diverse sound that shows a wider range of influences than his previous releases.
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This is the first mixtape in this post that isn’t from a young up and comer. Ludacris is quite the opposite in fact, a hardened veteran who has had a solid decade in the rap game already, putting out 7 studio albums to date, 4 of which have topped the Billboard albums chart.
Ludacris is currently back in the studio with The Neptunes working on his eighth studio album, Ludaversal, the ‘sequel’ to Theater of the Mind. Other artists such as: David Guetta, Nelly, Kanye West, Ne-Yo and Young Jeezy are rumoured to appear on the album, and his latest mixtape 1.21 Gigawatts should help build the hype ahead of its release in early 2012.
Ludacris – “Rich & Flexin” feat. Waka Flocka
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Theme Park are a band that I’ve wanted to cover for a long time now, so it seems strange that the first thing I’m writing about them is in the form of a mixtape that they have created to celebrate the upcoming release of Kitsuné‘s Maison 12 compilation.
Annoyingly the mixtape is in the form of a single mp3, but I guess that’s to be expected since it contains a lot of other artists’ material such as: Bon Iver, Quincy Jones and Kanye West.
Theme Park – “Kitsune Mixtape”
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