Vae'sz Mixx
Whatever happened to mixtapes? I’m not talking about local rapper mixtapes, I’m speaking on burnt-CD’s-with-pirated-music mixtapes. Making mixtapes was an artform itself. If you were able to make a good mixtape, you had talent. To get the vibes right, to transition moods with sequencing, it wasn’t something anyone could do. People who made great mix CD’s were the original art curators. Making mixtapes back in the day for your shorty was of the highest romantic gestures one could do. You would carefully select songs, songs that had lyrics to convey emotions you didn’t know how to articulate, and you would piece them together almost like an audio love letter in the format of a Memorex CD-R compact disc. As long as it was under 80 minutes, you could have as many songs on that mf’er as you wished.
A few months ago on my walk with Bagel, we found a mix CD near the street in our backyard. En route back home we cut through our backyard as there’s a street behind it over the hill. We live next to the PNC Music Pavilion, so we get a lot of traffic come summer time, and with traffic comes trash unfortunately. There’s always fast food bags and Cookout trays and what not, but when I saw a CD, I picked it up, curious as to who it belonged to and what would make someone throw a mix CD out. The title said Vae’sz Mixx. It was dated back to 2010 with the message inscribed in blue sharpie, “don’t touch, ask first yo!” I put it away and forgot about it until I was reorganizing a few things in my room this past week.
When I came across it, I realized I had never bothered to listen to the CD or check out what was on it. I put it in my old Sony VAIO laptop which I ironically got in 2010 (my new laptop doesn’t have a CD drive…I know) and was surprised at how good the mix CD was. The first song was the O Let’s Do It remix by Waka Flocka. This song brought back memories of rapping it in the kitchen with Ben and Kyle back when we worked at Andy’s ….in 2010. There’s not just rap and R&B, there’s other genres as well. Billionaire by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars? I forgot all about that hit. Soul Sister by Train makes it way onto Vae’sz Mixx on track 5. The sound quality of Neighbors Know My Name by Trey Songz lets me know Vae most likely used Limewire or Bearshare or perhaps even Rapidshare or Mega Upload. Early Justin Bieber is rocking on here as well, especially That Should Be Me. That’s a throwback for the real ones, for real. As if the CD couldn’t get any better, the last track is You Should Be My Girl with Sammie and Sean Paul of the Young Bloodz. Middle school jam came correct, god damn.
Listening to Vae’sz Mixx was an experience. It was like time travel back to a person I want to get know again. I wonder what the 2010 me would have to say about the 2018 me. Flashbacks, reflections, warm memories, these were some of the things I experienced while listening to these songs. This is an attest to the power of music, the art of curating, but more than that, it’s a relic of our past lives, a lifetime ago.
Check out the tracks at the link below. Just hit play and let it ride.