New Music? Mixtapes.

I really should just make this a music blog because music is kinda my life. The highlight of a good day is finding some new good music. I'll admit it. I'm NOT a hip-hop head. I'm unashamedly a fan of top 40 pop and pop-rock and lately, thanks to K have been experimenting with what I call alternative-pop (I'm kind of obsessed with Sia right now).I typically only like mainstream hip-hop (think Jay-Z, Kanye, Ludacris). I'll try out an artist or group if a friend recommends it, but again, I can't spit every Biggie line from 1994 forward. That being said, in the past few years I've been really into mixtapes. I guess it all started when Frank introduced me to Drake via So Far Gone. I immediately loved loved LOVED that CD. It's so funny because everyone who has gotten Drake's latest {Thank Me Later} all say the same thing, "It isn't as good as the mixtape." But honestly, I don't know if a studio album can ever be as good as a mixtape.

For me, there's a hunger and almost desperation that only a mixtape has. When an artist makes a mixtape they're usually trying to get signed or unable to sell commercially and thus kind of spit their soul onto this mixtape that they're hoping will create a buzz. Either way for me a mixtape is RAW. It establishes a new artists' identity or reestablishes an older artist. Its bold. Its "I-don't-give-a-fuck" music which is the best kind. I like to drink to a mixtape. If I smoked, I'd smoke to a mixtape.

Here are a few artists I've been listening to in the past few weeks: