January 22, 2018

AND1 Mixtape (Volume 1, 1998)


"It starts with the mixtape in '98. AND1 had a bunch of videotapes in the area of the kitchen of the office, and we used to go back there and watch them. There was all this old playground footage of Rafer [Alston] at the Rucker. Back then I was DJing, and I would play the tapes and turn the sound down and start DJing. That’s when it clicked, and I was like, ‘It would be incredible if we could package it and it would be the first ever video mixtape.' I was working with Rawkus and they gave me some exclusive tracks to put over the video, and that’s how the idea came about. I was like, ‘It still needs a couple more things,’ so I called artists I knew, like Mos Def. And once I hosted it, we got the drops to come in, and then we took it back to AND1 and we were like, ‘We got something.’ That’s how the mixtape started. I remember we came back, and we were like, ‘OK how many tapes should we do?’ I think at first, we did 10,000 VHS’s, and it got so crazy, 'cause we took them to New York and Rucker, and after that we pressed like 100,000 VHS tapes. We were like, ‘OK how many tapes should we do?’ I think at first, we did 10,000 VHS’s, and it got so crazy, 'cause we took them to New York and Rucker, and after that we pressed like 100,000 VHS tapes." —DJ Set Free. I was in the mood to revisit these VHS tapes today, so here's Volume 1 of the AND1 Mixtape (1998)...