Entry · catalog no. 9301
mixtape
/ /ˈmɪksˌteɪp/ /MIKS-tayp
noun · The Bronx, New York City · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A recording of live DJ sets and party performances, copied and sold or traded person to person, which carried early hip-hop out of the Bronx.
“We played that mixtape until the cassette ribbon stretched.”
2.
An artist-made release, usually free or cheap and outside the label system, used to build a name before or beside an album.
“His mixtape got him the record deal.”
Origin & Attribution
The hip-hop mixtape grew out of the Bronx scene of the late 1970s, where cassettes were cheap to copy and easy to carry. Early tapes were live recordings of DJs and MCs, such as those of the Cold Crush Brothers, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, traded and sold across New York; DJs such as Brucie B later sold blend tapes into the 1980s and 1990s. The word 'mixtape' for any homemade compilation is older and general; the sense recorded here is the Black and Latino Bronx DJ tape. The exact date the compound first appeared was not established.
1979
Live party tapes and DJ cassettes circulate from Bronx parties (late 1970s)
1989
DJ blend tapes become a business through the 1980s and 1990s
2000
Format shifts from cassette to burned CD and digital file
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
The Bronx, New York City · 1970s
Spoken by
DJs, MCs and hip-hop fans
$MIXTAPThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady47 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
85/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1979
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceRed Bull Music Academy Daily, 'A (Not At All Definitive) History of Hip Hop Mixtapes', 2013
web
See also