The mixtapes I want to discuss this week are Pusha T's Fear of God, Red Cafe's Above the Cloudz and the XXL 2011 Freshmen Mixtape.
Pusha T Fear of God
I love this mixtape as a whole but my favorite tracks on here are Feeling Myself, Raid, Touch It and Alone in Vegas(outro).
Raid features 50 cent and Pharrell. I was a bit shocked to hear that 50 cent still has some shred of talent it has been so long since he has shown it really on his own damn albums.
Red Cafe Above the Cloudz
When I stumbled across this gem, I had no idea who Red Cafe and I'm going to assume that most of you don't either so I will give a little bio from Wikipedia on him.
Quote:
Red Café is from Brooklyn, NY rapper of Afro-Guyanese descent. He has been called " Dead Red" all his life, a nickname inherited from his father. He often refers to himself simply as "R" on songs he appears on by saying "It's R." Red Cafe began his career in a group called Da Franchise (or as often referred to Franchise) with Bed-Stuy artist Gravy and Flatbush rapper Q Da Kid appeared on many Whoo Kid and Kay Slay mixtapes under Franchise. Due to disagreements between the three, they split up and went separate ways.
In early 2006, Red Cafe was to release his first major-label debut I Got a Story to Tell, on Capitol Records in conjunction with Mack 10's Hoo Bangin' imprint, set to include singles "Bling Blao" featuring Fabolous and "Diddy Bop". Also believed to be on that album were his songs that received radio play "Jeep ****", which features Fabolous & Paul Wall and the remix of "Diddy Bop" which features Fabolous, Kardinal Offishall, Coco Chanel and Curren$y. However this never eventuated. Red Cafe has also contributed to the Coach Carter soundtrack.
He has also ghostwritten for many popular rappers over the years. As an underground rapper, his work is not internationally recognized, though he has been rapping on the circuit since the late 1990s. Red Café signed with several major labels over the years, including Arista in 2003, Capitol Records, and RCA, but circumstances dictated that albums were not released. Red commented "I just kept running into jams where the people who believed in me they lost their positions, or just the tables turned while I was at the company and you know things change and I wasn’t able to get the support that I needed".
Red Café released a mixtape with DJ Envy, The Co-Op, on October 9, 2007 with distribution by Koch Records. Remy Ma was featured on the album, while Cafe's new song "Paper Touchin Remix" features Fat Joe. Red Café signed to Akon's Konvict Muzik label in 2007, with his major-label debut album, The Shakedown, announced as due in 2008. In 2009, Red Café signed to Bad Boy Records, with The Shakedown still unreleased.
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Highlights of this mixtape would have to be: Faded feat. Rick Ross, Mariott and Put it in the Air.
I wouldn't have minded if he called Mariott, "World So Cold" instead but there are many songs with that title already I think.
All throughout this mixtape, there are audio clips from movies and before the clips are introduced he uses the signature HBO sound and I love that.
If I rated albums, I would definitely have to give this a 5/5.