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Page 1
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"If you're a real rapper, you don't have to make a record for the radio or something for MTV." ...
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Page 2
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While the "real" music business is crumbling, the mixtape industry is thriving ...
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Page 3
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P. Diddy says labels don't have the heart to put out new artists anymore ...
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Page 4
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50 Cent's mixtape success leads to record-breaking chart debut ...
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Page 5
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"Distributing mixtapes is illegal, man!" ...
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Mixtape History
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Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa get the party started.
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Classic Mixtapes
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Five mixtapes that changed the game.
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Before We Had A Clue
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DJ Clue tells how he first became cool with some of hip-hop's most acclaimed line rippers.
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 DJ Clue's Photo Album
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Mixtape Mondays Archive
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For complete coverage of mixtape culture.
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Browse Bands by Name
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Or enter a band name below to search:
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 Bands Main
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DJ Clue is no snob, but he's made his career out of being exclusive. The Question Mark Man from Queens helped change the mid-'90s mixtape scene forever by flooding the streets with jams from your favorite hip-hop artists — long before they were officially released.
"Back then people didn't know how to react to something like that, " Clue said about saturating his mixtapes with songs so new, some of them weren't even mixed yet. "It was like having a disease break out. Like you have smallpox and no vaccine. It's all over the place — you ain't got it in the stores, you ain't got no vinyl, you ain't got no CDs ready to be made, it ain't mixed or nothing."
If you don't have a clue how the Roc-A-Fella-signed DJ who hosts MTV's "Direct Effect" was able to get records and freestyles from then up-and-coming artists like the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z before anybody else, his secret to success was simple — friends in high places. He had pals like Bad Boy CEO Puff Daddy and Jay-Z's longtime chum Irv Gotti act as middlemen.
Here, Clue tells the stories of how he first became cool with some of hip-hop's most acclaimed line rippers.
Click to see DJ Clue's photo album and read his stories.
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Photo: Walik Goshorn
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