To speak for a moment on this Mixtape from what I know. DJ XPrep was a part of a German Hip-Hop group called HaidenKrampf in the 2000’s, Germans really had a great sensibility for the elements of Hip-Hop including the graffiti of this generation. This album was made like a classic two-sided cassette mixtape. Audiotabletten A&B I learned translated into cassette tape side A & B, The original art and track list for this was designed from what I remember to fit a cassette tape case, that file is lost online, if I do find it again in my archives I’ll attach it where it belongs.

While the earliest information on the release of this mixtape was February 11th 2005 (Wayback Machine of http://www.haidenkrampf.de). From my personal memory I download this two-sided mixtape from Napster/Kazaa in 2002-3. I was getting into hiphop after the phenom of the Marshall Mathers EP and searching names like "Snoop-Dog, Rap, Dr.Dre" on Torrent websites so see if I could expand my knowledge of hiphop and this file had made it’s way to top, I assume most people who ever ran into this mixtape had come by it in the same fashion as I did and we share a narrow memory of the internet before it become a social-media marketing hellscape. (2024)

That being said. This Album has stayed close with me for over 20 years, I can hardly believe that as I’m typing this now. It’s graced every Mp3 player, iPod, PSP, Cellphone, Smartphone, iTunes and playlist I’ve ever made. This two-sided mixtape has been with me my entire life it feels. So much so that I seem to be the very last person on the internet (the English speaking side at least) who is keeping this mixtape available for everyone. I’m not sure If I’m necessarily proud of this, does it sort of link to my lack of musical literacy - My pre-teen years In general were musically challenged, even 2 decades later I couldn’t read notes or dance on beat to save my life. Queens greatest hits Vol 1 was the first album I ever listened to and it may arguably some of the best music of this century, but of course my bias is subjective like all musical opinions.  But perhaps it’s more that I’m a sentimental character who treats this mixtape with a regard as if it was a physical manifestation - ephemera of my childhood, Like a Tape or CD that’s travelled with me through this life, always at the bottom of an old cardboard box being unpacked last after moving to a new city.

For those too young to know. Mixtapes were made on cassette tapes; a physical media that came out after Vinyl records. They usually had two sides to them like vinyl where you could flip them, giving you about an hours worth of music in total, 30 minutes on each side. Hiphop grew in New York City in 1970’s when kids would record songs onto cassette off a radio-station and share them in person. Often the hiphop on the radio wouldn’t play till late at night on a single station but the value of these tapes was like gold to that generation by the next morning.  Perhaps I feel this was towards this album. By 2008 I would burn CDs for my friends of this mixtape, even jokingly tell them to play it at my funeral if I passed early (Don’t, or do?.. I’m gone It won’t matter) All I know is the music, the message of this era of Hip-Hop shaped me and every time I play it, the magic of it transports me some where / some time that feels like the essence of the culture. DJ Xprep where ever he is, took time to put together his tastes in music and share it online and in honour of him and these traditions I hope to keep this mixtape up as well.

NYKWHY

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