DatPiff.com's Top 50 Mixtapes of 2012

ooops gonna ask a mod to move to ilm

Kind of disappointed to find out DatPiff are Childish Gambino stans

i know right!

rich forever

Future, Dom Kennedy or Lloyd Banks.

ross, future, dom kennedy

Ross

ive been trying to build up the willpower to spend some more time w/ the big sean tape

i think i'm gonna skip straight to the album. "guap" is amazing

The Big Sean tape is good.

I thought we were supposed to collectively hate Big Sean?

i'm good w/ the handful of undeniable Big Sean singles where he has someone better to play off of, the idea spending a whole mixtape/album with him still seems like torture though

thanx to whatever mod moved the thread :)

rich forever vs trap back

Great fucking year. I'm probably voting Rich Forever, though that seems like a boring choice since there were so many more interesting mixtapes that were nearly as good

Disappointed Trap God didn't make the list. I've returned to that one almost as much as Trap Back

one of the reasons i thought this list was interesting was a) for the first time in a while this year major label albums generally were more highly regarded than mixtapes by major label artists and b) this stuff is in a weird middle ground because it's pretty contained to those industry type artists and lacks a lot of more marginal goon mixtape favorites.

of these i've only really heard Meek, Future, Gucci, T.I., Ross, and Jeezy, which i preferred in more or less that order.

you really liked that T.I. tape? i thought that was pretty bad (i think the album is alright)

i thought the t.i. tape was underrated too

seriously how can anyone keep these new gucci tapes straight

I was definitely in the "mixtapes are better" camp this year. Some of my favorite releases of the year were the Ross and Meek Mill tapes, which were way better than their albums, and that Big K.R.I.T. tape, which was wonderful and singular in all the ways his run of the mill album wasn't.

T.I.'s tape was better than his album, too, and the Jeezy tape was probably better than TM103, as well. And Gucci didn't release an album this year, but his 2012 mixes were better than any album he's put out since Vs. Radric Davis.

Oh, and Flocka's mix was better too, of course. Salute Me or Shoot Me 4 was awesome.

seriously how can anyone keep these new gucci tapes straight

Trap Back was the weirder, more intricate one, with better Mike Will beats. Trap God was the shamelessly catchy, crowd-pleasy one that would have made a better commercial album. I'm Up was the pretty OK but not very distinct other one.

'i'm up' has some great stuff on it, not sure why it's being slept on other than its generic title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNSokSYpt9w

T.I., tape was awesome

I'm gonna side with albums over mixtapes this year, but I usually do anyway

you guys are crazy about this T.I. tape. he ruined the best beat on the tape by calling the song 'harry potter'

T.I. was having such a hot streak this year; I thought he was going to pull a Nas and parlay all those reinvigorated guest verses into a pretty solid late-career album, but then Trouble Man happened

first half of trouble man is dope

then ugh

only song i pulled from the tape was the dro one

Most of the teaser songs from Trouble Man were so damn good, I really got my hopes up for it. But that second half is a sinking ship

you really liked that T.I. tape? i thought that was pretty bad (i think the album is alright)

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:29 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i didn't "really like" it so much as i liked it more than Runs On Forever

new Jeezy tape is DEFINITELY not better than the album though (which was surprising because the pre-TM103 tapes were pretty consistent)

i didn't "really like" it so much as i liked it more than Runs On Forever

― some dude, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 7:51 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Runs On Forever had songs i remembered for more than 20 minutes after it ended

yeah Stay Snoozing haunts me for sure

way to pick the charting single as your counterpoint

you said songs you remember, that's the song i remember

you guys are crazy about this T.I. tape. he ruined the best beat on the tape by calling the song 'harry potter'

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:39 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

tko capone would like a word

how is 'harry potter' even an egregious rap song title by 2012 standards, have you SEEN what most songs are called now

I know this sounds like a dumb question, but is that Ace Hood mixtape any good? I have a couple of friends who insist I need to give that guy another chance

that mixtape was surrounded by a lot of vaguely positive chatter and a surprising lack of "lol ace hood's existence" but i never heard it -- and i liked his first album and most of his non-embarrassing singles

i despise the term "struggle rapper" but it and all the negative connotations seem to fit ace hood to a T

haha wtf is a struggle rapper

tko capone would like a word

― dead cera (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how is 'harry potter' even an egregious rap song title by 2012 standards, have you SEEN what most songs are called now

― some dude, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

TKO Capone is a bad pt of comparison.

was about to make a joke like "if young jeezy called one of his songs 'underground king koopa' i'd have issues too" but that example is probably a bad one

you really liked that T.I. tape? i thought that was pretty bad (i think the album is alright)

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:29 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

didn't you give it a 7 on pfork

ha yeah i wouldn't have even scored it that high!

i cant recall what the deal was w/ the score on that one but my review pretty clearly state the problems i had w/ it

I know, which is why I was hella confused

idk i hate doing scores for album reviews & generally there you're always trying to balance 'rap is undervalued' w/ the averageness of a record, or a major artist's overarching talent w/ the underwhelmingness of a late period record, cant recall if there was discussion about the score on that one or not either

^^

it's true, scoring is a bitch

especially at a place like pitchfork where so much of the readership still only respects 3 rap albums per year

I know this sounds like a dumb question, but is that Ace Hood mixtape any good? I have a couple of friends who insist I need to give that guy another chance

― Evan R, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 7:24 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This tape is good.

trap back or dreamchasers 2. didn't expect gucci to make such a focused, tight mixtape in 2012 (maybe it helps that i didn't bother with his other two). dreamchasers 2 is pretty much everything i love about meek mill that his album wasn't.

re : ace hood

Starvation is good but Body Bag Vol. 2 is even better imo

Trap Back or Astronaut Status.

re : ace hood

Starvation is good but Body Bag Vol. 2 is even better imo

― sisilafami, Thursday, January 3, 2013 8:07 AM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"B.L.A.B." was a pretty awesome single, wish that had been a hit

I like Ace Hood. He does that one thing he does pretty well.

Fat Trel was robbed, love that Nightmare on E Street tape. Everybody forget about it?

Fat Trel is a bit overrated.

Not anymore overrated than Chief Keef and a lot of Chi-town rap.

Course what do I know, I just geek out over Harry Fraud beats.

well yeah like i said a lot of mixtapes from regional/rising acts get shortchanged on a list like this. might be useful to use this thread to make a list of good mixtapes not on Datpiff's list.

I like Fat Trel, but I doubt that he is gonna do anything really interesting. Keef is, at the very least, interesting.

fat trel is awesome, but his last mixtape was half great half ehh

Is he though? I'm leaning towards "solid", "enjoyable" and "dependable" rather than "awesome" right now.

Uh speaking of those three adjectives, I'm still listening to that Trae mixtape that came out this summer.

Also brings to mind the phrase "late career highlight".

Yeah, Trel is definitely a bit Trae-like. I kinda forgot to listen to that tape, btw.

Thanks for the Ace Hood advice, all. Gonna check out Body Bag Vol. 2.

I finally joined a gym last month, so my rap consumption has probably almost tripled since then, since it's the only music I can lift weights to. That means I can't really be so choosey about which mixtapes I listen to anymore, since I've got to listen to something. I'll probably get around to hearing most of the ones here I haven't already exhausted. Like, even the B.o.B tape, because a friend insisted the production was kind of fun.

yeah fat trel's most recent tape wasnt touching 'no secrets' or 'april foolz'

it's funny to realize that Styles P released a mixtape called "The Diamond Life Project" with a bunch of big name guests and then released a retail album called "The Most Hardest MC Project" w/o a lot of industry people on it

wtf Trel is nothing like Trae

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe54TlWNsP4

Not talking about style. More in terms of what we can expect from his career - in a best case scenario. The comparison is probably too kind to Trel though.

oh yeah, i hope i'm (we're) wrong but his career path doesn't seem to be the best one.

i think i'm gonna skip straight to the album. "guap" is amazing

it would be if it was someone else, he just about carries a basic-ass hook but there's no reason at all my attention should be wandering at any point with a beat like that

yeah that song is a big nothing imo

hearing him on a single w/o a big star for the first time is like "nope, put the training wheels back on, he ain't ready"

i was almost expecting better, i saw him live recently and he was...not great or anything, obv, but he kinda curated the show well, albeit mostly with other people's music, and it ended up being fairly enjoyable. so he has good taste, an inclination towards hookiness, bad rappers have made great singles out of worse and then i hear this and it's like NOPE not you

also that song is the culmination of his whole weird "i worked so HARD, you've been hearing me on the radio all year but i just got my CHECK" thing. is it possible to be that successful and goofy and still be a struggle rapper?

that kind of does work because you can hear how hard he's working to have some, any charisma at all on the track

i hate doing scores for album reviews & generally there you're always trying to balance 'rap is undervalued' w/ the averageness of a record, or a major artist's overarching talent w/ the underwhelmingness of a late period record

My problem with scoring is that it's easier to be generous than it is critical. At every major publication I've ever worked for, the editors have begged writers to be more conservative with good grades, saving them for the releases that truly, truly deserve them. And almost without fail, the writers ignore those pleas and give away great marks to forgettable albums.

I understand why that is, though. I think I tend to be a tougher grader than my peers, and I usually end up taking a lot of flak for it and feeling like the bad guy.

"The Most Hardest MC Project"

lol what in the world

i was lukewarm on "guap" till a few weeks ago when i started playing it relentlessly. the beat carries it mostly but i love that little bouncy hook.

fat trel is properly rated imo that tape was unfortunately a bit disappointing

"The Most Hardest MC Project" is even better than the also unfortunately named "Super Gangster (Extraordinary Gentleman" -- Styles P has a reverse quality ratio for titles/albums

excuse me, it's "The World's Most Hardest MC Project"

I don't have a problem with Big Sean's corniness. Most of my favorite artists are corny.

it's not his corniness anyone has a problem with, it's his black hole of charisma voice, it just DEADENS tracks that should be corny fun

He needs a messiah complex.

In other news I feel like Ace Hood had a better year than Meek Mill this year.

he kinda has one already? he's always taking a bunch of "making history" bullshit, his next album is earnestly titled Hall Of Fame. xp

In other news I feel like Ace Hood had a better year than Meek Mill this year.

― dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Saturday, January 5, 2013 4:08 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, those first four days of 2013 for Ace were next level

Last year of course. *sigh*

Al: IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH!

In other news I feel like Ace Hood had a better year than Meek Mill this year.

― dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Saturday, January 5, 2013 11:08 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

flagging this post

lol

i mean it says it all that Ace's best song of '12 was produced by Jahlil imo

Ace Hood got more and more interesting to me as the year went on, while Meek Mill got less interesting. They have the same flow, more or less, and Ace Hood doesn't swear to pianos to get him in a sentimental mood. Plus, Ace Hood got a great Mike Will Made It beat too.

this whole idea that meek has more 'piano beats' than any other rapper and that it's a problem is so stupid

this is as good a place as any to say how much i repent for sleeping on gunplay last year? i mean i didn't really, two songs with incredible gunplay guest spots were in my top 10 for the year, but i didn't get into his own stuff, i genuinely think i was massively hungover every time he dropped anything and i couldn't take the dj holiday drops to listen to the tape more than once. i didn't know about the no-dj version, it's amazing! and "take this" is just mindblowing

Well, Meek has so much emotion in his voice anyway that with the additional emotive keys under it emo overdose is imminent. But for the record, I too prefer Meek to Ace Hood in general.

xpost

Ace Hood got more and more interesting to me as the year went on, while Meek Mill got less interesting. They have the same flow, more or less, and Ace Hood doesn't swear to pianos to get him in a sentimental mood. Plus, Ace Hood got a great Mike Will Made It beat too.

This is actually pretty sound logic. Meek had more classic tracks, though.

that is not sound logic at all

For one, Dreams and Nightmares > Dreamchasers 2, sooooooo I would disagree w/ the getting 'less' interesting.

Dreams and Nightmares was a slog

Rong

Would be a pretty uninterruptedly awesome first 2/3rds without "Young and Gettin' It", but that's what skip buttons are for.

Meek Mill has a special gift, but he made a generic debut album that could have come from any J. Cole. It was like he lost all understanding of what he does well.

Generic? gtfo. Some of the beats were, maybe, but the album itself wasn't. The intro was one of the best tracks all year.

If anything DC2 was more generic, and a big step down from DC1.

J Cole, maaaaaaaaaaaaaan, dats harsh

who is nino carter ? btw i also prefer the lp to dc2 although apparently this is a minority opinion

Honestly, the J. Cole thing isn't even that harsh of a diss. At least the J. Cole album had some inspired singles on it.

Listened to that album a few times, was ok, remember nothing about it

i have listened to both the J Cole album and the Meek album and the comparison makes no sense

I prefer DC2 by a lot but

"Meek Mill has a special gift, but he made a generic debut album that could have come from any J. Cole."

aw man cuz man this is craziness, next you're gonna be comparing this to Slaughterhouse

"some inspired singles" pretends that "Amen" doesn't exist, which is on both DC2 and the album but is legit one of the best rap singles of 2012

DC2 also had "Burn," so it's clearly the better singles release, if we want to use that as a measure

"young & gettin it" kind of underrated imo

saying that ace hood did meek mill's career better than meek mill last year is just asburd

i thought he was saying just musically though?

which is at least more a matter of opinion than the clearly wrong career version

xxp Not saying I agree with that conclusion, obviously, but I respect the logic at play

which is at least more a matter of opinion than the clearly wrong career version

― captain keefheart (some dude), Saturday, January 5, 2013 3:28 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

-_-

Yeah. Musically. Not career wise. And I liked Young & Gettin it. Wish he had more pop singles on the album.

Again: middle brow music.

Would have been nice if it had one song as good as "Amen" that hadn't already been released

Young & Gettin It is borderline unlistenable imo.

Definitely not as good as Can't Get Enough (Even though J Cole did his best to ruin it)

Either give me great hits or transcendent stuff that could never become a hit. The rest is silence and I am drunk.

here here

Either give me great hits or transcendent stuff that could never become a hit. The rest is silence and I am drunk.

― dyslectic Christ Brown (longneck), Saturday, January 5, 2013 10:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

or ace hood

Yes. Ace Hood at his best tends to work wonderfully in a club environment, which would be the third option (now that I'm sober).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Hay y'all, Ace and Hood... errr.... Ace and Meek just dropped a collabo track.

http://digitaldripped.com/jan/7/2013/ace-hood-ft-meek-mill--goin-down

they're supposedly doing a whole mixtape together (according to ace hood's wikipedia, anyway)

Ha. I thought they were sub-beefing.

Actually pretty tough,

Curren$y & Styles P - The 1st 28 (Only 5 tracks but contains the best Fela sample I've heard in a long time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6D6-m9IK4E

Big K.R.I.T. - 4eva N a Day (All the things that made it great can be used to explain why the album was so disappointing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9kc_0BfRrk

Action Bronson & The Alchemist - Rare Chandeliers (Masterclass in taking a ridiculous persona to its natural extreme with awesome/hilarious effect)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2AHvZWojSc

I'm sure if Gunplay hadn't snubbed Datpiff with 601 & Snort it would be listed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdE6aNuX5Y

Dreams & Nightmares is by no means infallible but i feel like most of the criticisms of it itt are kinda off-base. if i'd made a list 6 months ago of likely pitfalls for Meek's major label debut there'd only be a couple i'd be able to check off, and like even the Mary J. song is straight, which is a miracle. it ain't an album of nonstop "I'm A Boss"/"House Party" bangers but what it is instead of fine imo.

I agree that it was graded on an unfair curve, but I don't understand how anybody can listen to that staid album after Dreamchasers, and even Dreamchasers 2, and not think "I was robbed."

i still listen to it more than DC2

Could someone who really likes it please try to tell me (again) why I should listen to it? I guess I haven't given it a proper chance but it just feels so... flat. Sorry.

Man I really like the Joey Bada$$, so I'd probably vote for that off this list, with the Meek Mill and Big K.R.I.T. up there. My favorite mixtape of 2012 was Tree's though.

And with that I'll go back to lurking on goon threads...

Tree tape was my favorite as well. Fell asleep about halfway through the Joey Bada$$ tape and am still asleep iirc.

MTV Jams keeps playing a Joey Bada$$ video that's just the boringest thing ever

buh buh buh he's only 17! and the raps! and the booms! and the baps!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

is Trap Back the consensus '12 Gucci tape or did it benefit from being the only one here? i was kinda torn on it vs. I'm Up (w/ Trap Gourd a distant third).

it's definitely the best one

if only cos it has the most Mike Will

buh buh buh he's only 17! and the raps! and the booms! and the baps!

― tsrobodo, Monday, January 7, 2013 4:51 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah he can flow. Need to see what he is gonna do with original production and which production route he'll take. Like if he is just gonna go for like 2nd tier Statik Selektah type of stuff then idk, I'll probably stay asleep.

trap back is only slightly better

Agreed. He's still very much an unknown quantity, though I hear Premo is producing his next single which doesn't really bode well.

oh god who voted for childish gambino

also if joey bada$$ doesn't end up being this decade's termanology i will be shocked

haha TWO childish gambino votes

so who's really into the styles p/curren$y tape? it surprised me that they got together at all, can't really picture how their uhhhh styles would mesh but i should probably check it out

I really liked the latest Styles album (I mean it was what you'd expect), didn't hear the mixtape tho.

so who's really into the styles p/curren$y tape? it surprised me that they got together at all, can't really picture how their uhhhh styles would mesh but i should probably check it out

― thomp ynchon (some dude), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 02:46 (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Posted a youtube link somewhere above, I'd highly recommend it. Wish more rappers understood the beauty of a tight thoughtfully constructed 5 track EP.

good to see Trap Back up top, some of the year's best beats were on there. does no one else feel Rich Forever was horribly overrated tho?

no

i actually think joey badass is OK in a kind of middling throwback-y way, i mean, i could see him ending up having a career like as the rap frankie beverly and maze or something

pro era = maze in this scenario obv

He is ok yeah, I'm hoping his best is ahead.

that comparison is unkind to frankie beverly imo

i mean, idk, i love some frankie beverly joints but were they ever really a new sound in soul or something? idk i think of them as fairly comfort food 70s R&B (w/ great songs but joey's only a single album deep and i actually kinda like this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51e1gIkzHgk

i guess i should say, i see that as a believable potential career path for them, if i'm feeling inclined to be optimistic

I think I've said this before but I do think the whole thing about these kids trying to reinvent a sound they weren't there to experience in the first place is pretty interesting, at least in theory. What's disappointing is mostly that the things they try to recreate are pretty narrow in regards to the sounds and styles that were in fact circulating in the period they are trying to recreate. But on the other hand, they're the youth so it's their privilege to do it their way and not mine.

deej that makes no sense! Maze's music was maybe not cutting edge but it was contemporary to the era they were making it in!

Yeah, there's no way they were "retro" like Joey Badass is.

I'm taking back the bad things I've said about Ace Hood. Salvation 2 is wonderful. He's not a perfect rapper, but he raps with way more conviction and substance than I gave him credit for; and I'm actually moved by all his verses about his grandma and his daughter. He feels like a real, well-rounded person in a way a lot of his peers don't. Plus the tape's got some cool production surprises. Very satisfying release.

Exactly. #wecareaboutacehood

there appears to be ~ 350,000 datpiff mixtapes now available on the internet archive: https://archive.org/details/datpiffarchives

48.7 Terabytes of Datpiff...
Not sure where to start...
Can someone recommend the top five gigabytes...

....seriously though, any tips?

this is kinda wild, thanks for the tip blue6ave. I don't think I engaged datpiff at all any later than 2008 so anything I could recommend is gonna be pretty anitquated...I bought this one as an actual mix CD back when we had an actual rap-only store here in town, blessed days, the guy who ran it would get on the turntables when a customer came in. it was a big deal to me at the time, haven't listened in forever but when I cued it up now woooow those CANNONS drops, that was a time in my life. This Bone Thugs meets Memphis tape is absolutely beautiful but I'm like the target market for a Bone Thugs Memphis style thing. This UK one is from way later but if that's your thing this is really cool

daaaaamn

the S. Carter Collection mixtape which came packaged in his sneakers is one of Jay's best albums

https://archive.org/details/datpiff-mixtape-m5d64ff4

Thanks all, that'll get me started!