The Collection Vol. 8 (Fall 1998)

Side A
Marilyn Manson-The Dope Show
Soundgarden-Spoonman
Lauryn Hill-Doo-Wop (That Thing)
Shawn Mullins-Lullaby
Beastie Boys-Sabotage
Al Green-Let's Stay Together
Divine-Lately
Smashing Pumpkins-Disarm
Aerosmith-I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Sheryl Crow-A Change (Would Do You Good)
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Higher Ground
Dovetail Joint-Level On The Inside
Soundgarden-Pretty Noose


Side B
Sam & Dave-Hold On, I'm Comin'
Foo Fighters-I'll Stick Around
Xscape-Our Little Secret
snippet of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her"
Natalia Imbruglia-Wishing I Was There
Foo Fighters-My Hero
Local H-All The Kids Are Right
Metallica-Fuel
Bush-Glycerine
R.E.M.-Man On The Moon
Garbage-I Think I'm Paranoid
snippet of En Vogue's "Hold On"

Pretty much each volume of The Collection is special to me in one way or another, but in hindsight, Vol. 8 represented that I had arrived when it came to making mixtapes. Two years prior, my tapes were often sloppy and ramshackle, but this volume was seamless for the most part with nary a trace of a DJ's voice. My attentive methods paid off and this was the first volume that I played for a bigger audience.

The Collection Vol. 7 (Summer 1998)

Side A
Depeche Mode-Enjoy The Silence
Blues Traveler-Most Precarious
Grant Lee Buffalo-Truly Truly
Everclear-Father Of Mine
Smashing Pumpkins-1979
Green Day-Longview
Third Eye Blind-Graduate
Will Smith-Just The Two Of Us
Pearl Jam-Betterman
Counting Crows-Round Here
Hootie & The Blowfish-Only Wanna Be With You
Wyclef Jean-Gone Till November
INXS-Need You Tonight

Side B
Creed-What's This Life For?
Sublime-Doin' Time
Atrixo-Audacious
Live-Selling The Drama
Nine Inch Nails-Down In It
Barenaked Ladies-One Week
Bush-Swallowed
Soft Cell-Tainted Love
Monica-The First Night
Billie Myers-Tell Me
Dave Matthews Band-Stay
Lauryn Hill-Can't Take My Eyes Off You
snippet of Dovetail Joint's "Level On The Inside"

I probably used up all the summer jams for Vol. 6, which didn't matter to me at the time because I still played the hell out of it. If I had to take a guess, this might have been created in late-July or early August because I remember the Monica and Lauryn Hill songs got airplay towards the end of the season. Overall, this volume felt like summer winding down when I listened to it. As much as I enjoyed Vol. 7, it felt like my vacation had already hit its peak by then and it showed in the music. Following Brandy & Monica's "The Boy Is Mine," was there really room enough for another smash?

New post next week

For those of you wondering why there haven't been any new posts recently, I've been hard at work on my annual Grammy nomination predictions for my other blog, Hectic But Eclectic. If you click the link, you'll see just how extensive they can be and how dedicated I am to covering the Grammys in general. Expect a new post here on Mixed Reaction next week when all of that is taken care of.

ToneMaster Type I Normal Bias (Summer 1998)

Side 1
Smashing Pumpkins-Ava Adore
Harvey Danger-Flagpole Sitta
Blues Traveler-Hook
The Offspring-Gone Away
Savage Garden-I Want You
Dave Matthews Band-Ants Marching
Hootie & The Blowfish-Let Her Cry
Pearl Jam-Alive
Guns N' Roses-Live and Let Die
Metallica-Sad But True
The Verve-The Freshmen (softer AOR version)

Side 2
Garbage-Push It
Semisonic-Closing Time
Lisa Loeb-Let's Forget About It
U2-I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Gin Blossoms-Hey Jealousy
snippet of Blues Traveler-Most Precarious
Alice In Chains-I Stay Away
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Aeroplane
Spin Doctors-Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories-Stay (I Missed You)
The Wallflowers-Heroes
Natalie Merchant-Kind & Generous
snippet of Brandy & Monica's "The Boy Is Mine"

During the school year, I received money from my mother for which I was to use for transportation and lunch, but now that it was summer the stipends slowed down. I still remember being able to buy comic books every week, so I don't think my financial situation was that dire, but I was definitely more careful with my money. One time, I decided to try out a new cassette for recording instead of the usual Sony Hi-Fi Type I that I had been using for The Collection. My new choice was a brand called ToneMaster and was about 30 cents cheaper. It had a running time of 90 minutes so I figured I'd give it a run. When I finished making the mixtape and played it back, I could immediately tell where Sony used that extra money.

The Collection Vol. 6 (Summer 1998)

Side A
Sarah McLachlan-Adia
Veruca Salt-Volcano Girls
snippet of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman"
Jimi Hendrix-Crosstown Traffic
Dishwalla-Counting Blue Cars
Vonda Shepard-Searchin' My Soul
Beastie Boys- (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)
White Zombie-More Human Than Human
Sublime-What I Got
Pras feat. Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard-Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)
Usher-My Way
Aaliyah-Are You That Somebody
Marcy Playground-Saint Joe on The School Bus

Side B
Smash Mouth-Can't Get Enough Of You Baby
Smashing Pumpkins-Perfect
Prince-When Doves Cry
Billie Myers-Kiss The Rain
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Breaking The Girl
Foo Fighters-Walking After You
Big Punisher feat. Joe-Still Not A Player
Beastie Boys-Paul Revere
Beastie Boya-Intergalactic
Nirvana-Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Urge-Jump Right In
Sheryl Crow-All I Wanna Do

My expectations for music seem to always increase whenever it comes to summer. With it being the warmest season of the year, it's deliberate on the part of execs and artists to make sure that their most accessible and sunniest records are available for mass consumption. Due to the time off I had for summer vacation, I always associate the summers of my youth with good music since I had nothing but free time to indulge. All of these factors added up to my favorite mixtape of 1998.

The Collection Vol. 5 (Spring 1998)

Side A
311-Down
Everclear-Everything To Everyone
Nine Inch Nails-The Perfect Drug
Next-Too Close
Dionne Farris-I Know
Men At Work-Who Could It Be?
Will Smith-Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
Charli Baltimore-Money
Master P feat. Sons of Funk-I Got The Hook-Up
The Offspring-I Choose
Smashing Pumpkins-Rocket
Goo Goo Dolls-Iris
Mitch Ryder-Devil With A Blue Dress


Side B
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Breaking The Girl
Sarah McLachlan-Building A Mystery
Smashing Pumpkins-Tonight, Tonight
snippet of Dave Matthews Band's "Crash Into Me"
snippet of Days of the New's "Shelf In The Room"
Cherry Poppin' Daddies-Zoot Suit Riot
Luther Vandross-Here & Now
Black Sabbath-Paranoid
Blues Traveler-Most Precarious
U2-One
somethin' for the people-My Love Is The Shhh!
Rose Royce-Car Wash
Annie Lennox-Walking On Broken Glass
Faith No More-Epic

Before I popped inVol. 5 for the first time in years, I had long associated it with being one of my least favorite mixtapes. I just remember there always being a level of disinterest whenever I reached into my bag of cassettes and pulled out that case with the 5. I still liked it, but I think it suffered from a lot of filler.

At this point, I was still in my phase where I recorded just about anything as long as I thought it was decent and I was familiar with it. Master P had made a few appearances on my mixtapes so far, but I could never cite him among my favorite artists at the time.

The Collection Vol. 4 (Spring 1998)

Side A
Guns N' Roses-Paradise City
Stone Temple Pilots-Vaseline
Pearl Jam-Wishlist
The Specials-It's You
Third Eye Blind-How's It Going To Be?
Garbage-Only Happy When It Rains
Montell Jordan feat. Master P & Silkk The Shocker-Let's Ride
Tool-Sober
Sparkle feat. R. Kelly-Be Careful
Alana Davis-32 Flavors
Ben Folds Five-Song For The Dumped
Scott Weiland-Barbarella

Side B
Dave Matthews Band-Don't Drink The Water
Snoop Doggy Dogg-Gin & Juice
The Offspring-Come Out and Play
K-Ci & JoJo-All My Life
2Pac-Do For Love
Alanis Morissette-Uninvited
Fastball-The Way
Janet Jackson feat. BLACKstreet-I Get Lonely (Remix)
Fiona Apple-Shadowboxer
Nine Inch Nails-The Perfect Drug
Tori Amos-Spark
Jon B.-They Don't Know

Just looking at the selection from this volume and the previous one, I can't help but conclude that I had spent at least a few months without making a mixtape. I had always imagined that this was a near weekly experience for me, but that might not have been till '98 or '99 when I cranked them out on a consistent basis. If anything, this might have been very close to the end of spring since I always associate "Uninvited" and "The Way" with summer. I think I had pretty much recorded every current song that I desired for a certain time span and I may not have been in a rush to buy a blank tape. Plus, Christmas had passed, which resulted in me buying Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope and Boyz II Men's Evolution on cassette, both of which stayed in heavy rotation for months since I only owned a total of five albums.

The Collection Vol. 3 (Fall /Winter1997)

Side A
Smashing Pumpkins-Zero
Busta Rhymes-Dangerous
The Wallflowers-The Difference
Chumbawamba-Tubthumping
Paula Cole-Me
Silverchair-Tomorrow
Hanson-Weird
Madonna-Frozen
U2- Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Sarah McLachlan-Sweet Surrender
Barenaked Ladies-Brian Wilson
Tracy Chapman-Fast Car
Paula Cole-I Don't Want To Wait
snippet of Nirvana's "Dumb"

Side B
Blues Traveler-Runaround
The Verve-Lucky Man
Beastie Boys-What Cha Want
R.E.M.-Everybody Hurts
Chumbawamba-Amnesia
Jane's Addiction-Been Caught Stealing
Madonna-Take A Bow
Luscious Jackson-Naked Eye
Metallica-The Unforgiven II
Ben Folds Five-Brick
Eve 6-Inside Out
Nena-99 Red Balloons
snippet of The Nixons' "Sister"

By this point, I had started to take recording songs off the radio more seriously than before. I went between both my cassette player and my alarm clock radio in order to follow two stations at once and keep track of everything. I would plug my headphones into the cassette player as it recorded so I could better listen to what was going on at other stations and to be ready at a second's notice whenever one came back from commercials. With 90 minute tapes, I quickly started to grab all the current songs that I had been anticipating, so I was frantically in search of something I hadn't recorded yet. I no longer wanted to catch a song in the middle or even after the first couple of lines anymore. I wanted it in its entirety and I now had the patience to let a song slip away if I couldn't catch it at its beginning.

When I got into these moments, I was very attentive and determined. I likened myself to a doctor performing surgery, working in a swift manner while still carrying on with absolute precision because of the multi-tasking that was going on. I also felt like a gambling addict being entranced by a slot machine, anxiously hoping that successive songs on the station would bring riches. If not, I would simply move on to the next one with fingers crossed that I would get lucky.

The Collection Vol. 2 (Fall 1997)

Side A
Everclear-I Will Buy You A New Life
Loreena McKennitt-The Mummer's Dance
Marcy Playground-Sex and Candy
Chris Cornell-Sunshower
Master P featuring Fiend, Silkk The Shocker, Mia X & Mystikal-Make 'Em Say Uhh!
The Wallflowers-5th Avenue Heartache
Third Eye Blind-Semi-Charmed Life
Natalie Imbruglia-Torn
Blink 182-Dammit
Fiona Apple-Criminal
Savage Garden-Truly Madly Deeply
snippet of Oasis' "Don't Go Away"

Side B
Sublime-Wrongway
Nine Inch Nails-Head Like A Hole
Pearl Jam-Given To Fly
Mary J. Blige-A Dream
LSG featuring Missy Elliott-My Body (Remix)
Queen Pen featuring Lost Boyz-Party Ain't A Party
Mono-Life In Mono
The Getaway People-She Gave Me Love
Green Day-Basket Case
OMC-How Bizarre
The Offspring-Self-Esteem
Spacehog-Mungo City
first two verses of Foo Fighters' "My Hero"


One day I had to buy a swimming cap for P.E. class, so I went to the Walgreens near my home. While shopping for the cap, I walked around the store and found other items there that piqued my interest that I had no idea were so easily within reach, things such as magazines, comic books and most importantly, blank cassette tapes. Without much money of my own and barely any knowledge of how and where to shop for myself, I had to rely on my mother for anything that I wanted to purchase. A lot of the times I would either be too embarrassed to ask for something or I didn't want any money spent on me since I felt it could be put to better use. My weekly stipend from my mother (I associate the word "allowance" too much with carefree spending) was $20 every week and was to be used for lunch money and transportation to school. I definitely made sure I had enough to get to and from school on the train, but since I rarely ate lunch—and if I did it was usually chips and pop from the vending machine—I always had enough money to spend on the aforementioned goodies at Walgreens. Eventually, going there was a ritual I did every Monday after school.

Nothin' But The Hits: Pure Rap, R&B and Rock Vol. 1 (Summer 1997)

Side A

311-Beautiful Disaster
one verse of TRU's "Fedz"
Stone Temple Pilots-Interstate Love Song
Tool-Stinkfist
Pearl Jam-Evenflow
Missy Elliott featuring Da Brat-Sock It 2 Me
snippet of Mary J. Blige's "I Can Love You"
Missy Elliott-The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Will Smith-Men In Black
Radiohead-Creep
Smashing Pumpkins-The End Is The Beginning Is The End
The Verve Pipe-The Freshmen
Puff Daddy and The Family-It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)
Beck-Deadweight

Side B

No Doubt-Sunday Morning
311-Don't Stay Home
Sheryl Crow-A Change (Would Do You Good)
Timbaland & Magoo featuring Missy Elliott-Up Jumps Da Boogie
Jewel-You Were Meant For Me
Meredith Brooks-Bitch
Aerosmith-Sweet Taste of India
Green Day-When I Come Around
Monica-For You I Will
Aerosmith-Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)
Oasis-Wonderwall
Jamiroquai-Alright
Ginuwine-I'll Do Anything/I'm Sorry
snippet of Bjork's "Big Time Sensuality"

The title is a bit embarrassing now that I look back at it, but the sentiment was certainly true to how I felt at the time. I had never dealt with a cassette that had a length of 90 total minutes and where I could write down the track list, giving it a more authentic album feel. The moment was too epic to not have a fitting title to mark the occasion. This was also probably the first blank tape that I bought with my own money, for which I'm assuming that I got for vacation when I went to Tennessee with my cousin. I vaguely recall bringing this one with me along for the trip, which would place its creation sometime around June or July of 1997.

Sony Pure Gamma (Fall 1996)

Side A

Blur-Song 2
Daft Punk-Da Funk
Freak Nasty-Da Dip
Spice Girls-Who Do You Think You Are?
snippet of Do or Die's "Po' Pimpin'"
Do or Die-Playas Like Me And You
A Tribe Called Quest-Stressed Out
Squirrel Nut Zippers-Hell
snippet of Beck's "Jackass"
snippet of Richie Rich's "Pillow"
Lil' Kim-Queen Bitch


Side B

"Queen Bitch" continued
Cardigans-Lovefool
White Town-Your Woman
snippet of Sublime's "Santeria"
very slight snippet of Bush's "Machinehead"
Soundgarden-Black Hole Sun
Smashing Pumpkins-Thirty Three
Bloodhound Gang-Fire Water Burn
Nas featuring R. Kelly-Street Dreams (Remix)
Spice Girls-Mama
snippet of Aaliyah's "One In A Million"
snippet of John Mellencamp's "Key West Intermezzo" (I Saw You First)"

When I started pulling out all my mixtapes in preparation for my blog, this was one of the first ones I looked for. I panicked a bit when I couldn't locate it at first because I never lost a CD or tape, and also because this was simply one of my favorite mixes at the time. Much like a lot of its predecessors, original songs have been recorded over, but the final result was one of the most satisfactory mixtape experiences I had during this year.

This was another tape that I received from my brother. It was filled with some of his favorite hip hop tracks from recent albums. I'm pretty sure that he made it specifically for me, but I ended up recording over a lot of anyway. As an adult now and as seriously as I take mixes, I would have been crushed if someone used a creation of mine for another purpose besides listening to it in its original form, but as a kid, the idea of extra tape space was more alluring to me.

Integrity Music's Scripture Memory Songs (Fall 1996)

Side 1

Weezer - Buddy Holly
snippet of Everclear's "I Will Buy You A New Life"
snippet of Soundgarden's "Burden In My Hand"
Beck - Loser
snippet of Alice In Chains' "The Rooster"
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
snippet of Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head"

Side 2

Gary Glitter - Rock N Roll Part 2
snippet of Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head"
snippet of 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?"
Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket
Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart
Foo Fighters - My Hero
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
snippet of 311's "Down"

I remember this tape being in my cousin's possession, but part of me feels like it could have been his mother's instead. My cousin, who was the same age as me, was not that big of a gospel fan, so my memory wants to deny that it was ever his, but I remembered seeing it among his collection all the time. I used to go over my cousin and aunt's place a lot since we lived in the same neighborhood and I probably asked one of them for permission to take this tape. I had a knack for pointing out the ones that were useless to people and that no one had much interest in hearing. It was about 40 minutes long, which made it shorter than the last few mixtapes, but I still managed and I couldn't have been happier to have more space to record with.

Although I recorded over other songs for this mixtape, I distinctly remember recording the bulk of it late one night while listening to Q101.

Memorex dbs 2 (Fall 1996)

Side A

Devo-Whip It
Sneaker Pimps-6 Underground
Queen-We Will Rock You
Queen-We Are The Champions
Fiona Apple-Sleep To Dream
The Prodigy-Breathe
Smash Mouth-Walkin' On The Sun
2Pac-I Ain't Mad At Cha
Space-Female Of The Species
snippet of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova"
311-All Mixed Up
snippet of Collective Soul's "The World I Know"

Side B

ZZ Top-Legs
Garbage-Stupid Girl
Lauryn Hill-Sweetest Thing
snippet of Local H's "Bound For The Floor"
Metallica-Hero Of The Day
Peggy Scott Adams-Bill
Tori Amos-Silent All These Years
Ginuwine-Pony
Very very short snippet of Scarface's "Never Seen A Man Cry"

As I mentioned before in the previous entry, I also received this tape from my brother, who had previously used it when I was younger. That fact is most evident by a brief clip of him singing at the beginning of Side A that I never bothered to record over. He also included ZZ Top's "Legs," which I decided to keep also since I already liked the song. If I recall correctly, that might not have been the only ZZ Top song originally on here, but "Legs" was the only one I recognized.

Memorex dbs 1 (Summer/Fall 1996)

Sorry for the long wait. I was very busy with my Lollapalooza post on Hectic But Eclectic, which usually takes a long time to work on.







Side A

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
snippet of The Trammps' "Disco Inferno"
BLACKstreet-No Diggity
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Love Rollercoaster
Spice Girls-2 Become 1
snippet of Blues Traveler's "Hook"
Warren G-What's Love Got To Do With It?
slight snippet of OMC's "How Bizarre"
Boyzone-Words
En Vogue-Don't Let Go (Love)
Everclear-Santa Monica
New Edition-I'm Still In Love

Side B

New Edition-I'm Still In Love With You (continued)
snippet of Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero"
Joan Osbourne-One Of Us
Bush-Swallowed
Merril Bainbridge-Mouth
Spice Girls-Say You'll Be There
Jamiroquai-Virtual Insanity
snippet of 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?"
Gloria Gaynor-I Will Survive
Smashing Pumpkins-Eye
snippet of Soundgarden's "Blow Up The Outside World"
snippet of Pearl Jam's "Black"


I actually have two of these tapes, which I both received from my brother who had used them back when he was a teenager in the 80s. This was another step towards going into the world of cassettes that were strictly for recording. These two tapes were a blessing for a kid with hardly any allowance and no job. The only way you can tell the difference between the two is that I replaced the pressure pad on this one with a piece of cardboard, which you can spot if you look closely at the second picture above. It wasn't the only time I had to play MacGyver with my tape collection, but I certainly can't remember having have to do that with this one. It was slightly puzzling to see that little piece of cardboard there when I dug this one up.

On second thought...

So perhaps I was bit presumptive when I said that there would be a post this week. The birthday celebration was prolonged and it looks like I might be going to Lollapalooza this year, something that was not certain even up until today. For those who read my other blog, Hectic But Eclectic, you know that it's a pretty big deal for me to go to this fest and it will take up all of my weekend. In short, there won't be a new post until Tuesday. Thank you for your patience.

New post coming later this week.

Since I'll be celebrating my birthday this Tuesday, this week's post will be delayed slightly, but only by a day or two hopefully. Stay tuned.

Sunday Morning (Summer 1996)

Side B

Red Hot Chili Peppers-My Friends
snippet of Larry Mullen & Adam Clayton's "Mission: Impossible Theme"
Butthole Surfers-Pepper
Los Del Rio-Macarena
Dave Matthews Band-Ants Marching
some Chicago Bulls/Mission: Impossible mash-up that B96 played for their playoff run
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Under The Bridge
snippet of Spacehog's "In The Meantime"
Foo Fighters-Big Me
Tracy Chapman-Give Me One Reason
snippet of Seal's "Prayer For The Dying"
Beastie Boys-Sabotage
snippet of Blues Traveler's "Hook"
snippet of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"


Side A

Bruce Springsteen-Streets of Philadelphia
No Doubt-Don't Speak
snippet of Gloria Estefan's "Reach"
Celine Dion-It's All Coming Back To Me Now
snippet of Soundgarden's "Pretty Noose"
Primitive Radio Gods-Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand
Stone Temple Pilots-Plush
The Braids-Bohemian Rhapsody
Quad City DJs-C'mon 'N Ride It (The Train)
snippet of Jay-Z's "Ain't No"

When I moved back with my mother over the summer, the only cassettes I had were my mixtapes and my copy of Jagged Little Pill that my best friend dubbed for me. I would also listen to the few tapes that she had in her possession, mainly TLC's Crazysexycool, which I played heavily during this time. Seeing that I was enthusiastic about music and recording songs off the radio, my mother gave me one of her tapes that had an old church sermon on it with the words "Sunday Morning" written on the cover. It had been recorded on a 60 minute Sentry tape and it was the first time I had ever used an actual cassette that was created for the purpose of recording. Although I could tell the tape itself had some years on it based on the dated design of its cover, it didn't matter much to me since I now had an extra hour to record more music.

Sox Park Mob 3: A Gangstaz Gift (Spring/Summer 1996)

Side 1

Eels-Novocaine For The Soul
Celine Dion-All By Myself
snippet of Donna Lewis' "I Love You Always Forever"
snippet of Candlebox's "Far Behind"
Smashing Pumpkins-1979
snippet of Spin Doctors' "Two Princes"
Jewel-Who Will Save Your Soul?
Nirvana-Lithium
snippet of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing"
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-Shoot 'Em Up
snippet of Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories' "Do You Sleep?"

Side 2
Presidents of the United States of America-Peaches
snippet of Pharcyde's "Drop"
Seal-Kiss From A Rose
Live-Freaks
snippet of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
A Chorus Line-Dance: Ten; Looks: Three
Tom Petty-You Don't Know How It Feels
AC/DC-Big Balls
No Doubt-Spiderwebs
snippet of Jay-Z's "Ain't No"
snippet of Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen's "Mission: Impossible Theme"



The Sox Park Mob 3 mixtape was another hand-me-down that didn't get played until I recorded over it. Part of me wishes I had kept some of it intact since it was originally a juke mix and growing up on the West Side of Chicago naturally made me a fan of the genre. I also don't have any juke cassettes of my own so it would have been cool in retrospect to still have something by a master of the genre like DJ Deeon. I can't remember if my neighbor gave this to me or if I simply took it as my own after my cousin moved out of the house, but both have an equal chance of probability. I'm also not sure why I scribbled over the title in marker. It might have been because I didn't want my parents to think that there was anything dirty on it or something ridiculous like that.

America's Hit Parade (Spring/Summer 1996)

Side 1

Weird Al Yankovic-Gump
Spice Girls-Wannabe
LL Cool J-Doin' It (last verse and chorus)
Smashing Pumpkins-Tonight, Tomight
snippet of Fugees' "Family Business"
R. Kelly-Down Low
Live-Lightning Crashes
Jamiroquai-Cosmic Girl
snippet of Smashing Pumpkins' "Mayonnaise"

Side 2

Issac Hayes-Theme From Shaft
Sheryl Crow-All I Wanna Do (picks up after 1st verse)
Cake-The Distance
snippet of Pearl Jam's "Corduroy"
Green Day-Brain Stew
Nirvana-In Bloom
Rage Against The Machine-Bulls On Parade
Green Day-Basket Case
snippet of Seven Mary Three's "Cumbersome"
snippet of Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box"

After completely pillaging my sister's childhood cassette collection (which was very small and I couldn't dare to record over any of the Disney storybook stuff which I still fondly adored), I had to start looking to other sources to continue my adventures in radio. By this time the school year was getting ready to wind down and I was about to graduate from the 8th grade, but in typical behavior of me, I still held on to stuff you would think I'd have no use for. Even to this day, I still believe that random junk will come in handy, such as a broken umbrella, two pairs of 3-D glasses and a green lei I got from a party. My hoarding proved to be fruitful for once as I was able to use an America's Hit Parade cassette for the year 1932. I had it since the 4th grade. One time in class we were playing games and our teacher, Sister Charlene, gave away prizes for whoever won. I walked away with a miniature card set and this tape. I popped it in once in its original state for a few seconds and all I could recall was a jaunty sounding tune. To this day, I have no idea what songs used to be on it.

"Snow White" (Spring 1996)

Side 1

Dionne Farris-I Know
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-Tha Crossroads
The Simpsons-Do The Bartman (Bad Bart House Mix)

Side 2
The Verve-Bittersweet Symphony
snippets of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's "Days of Our Livez" and Stone Temple Pilots' "Big Empty"
Goodie Mob-Soul Food
snippet of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's "Flow Motion"


While listening to this tape for the first time in years, I had no idea that Bone had figured so much into it, but they were the biggest thing in rap at the time so it makes sense. I knew to expect "Tha Crossroads," but at one point I had recorded "Days of Our Livez" at the beginning of Side 2 and placed "Flow Motion," the leadoff track from their first release before they signed to Ruthless, at the end. There was only enough space left on the tape for the first verse, which featured Layzie Bone, and for years this was all I had known. Since I dubbed it from my neighbor's copy, I didn't have the luxury of listening to the entire song at my own convenience and hadn't heard it in full until today.

"It's Okay To Say No!" (Spring 1996)

Side 1

Seal-Fly Like An Eagle
Crucial Conflict-Hay
Pearl Jam-Jeremy
snippets of Tool's "Stinkfist" and Counting Crows-"...A Long December"

Side 2

Collective Soul-December
Tracy Bonham-Mother Mother
Aerosmith-Jamie's Got A Gun
Foo Fighters-This Is A Call
Sublime-Doin' Time

The picture above is indeed of the very first mixtape that I ever made in its current shape today. I was in 8th grade at the time and had long stopped receiving an allowance, due to a lackluster effort of my chores a few times the year before. Despite an improvement in my work ethic since, the topic of me getting money on a weekly basis somehow never came up again. This left me without many funds of my own, which I was content with at the time. I was properly cared for and I usually felt guilty about asking for anything unless it was my birthday or Christmas, but the fact still remained that I had no music that I owned for myself, except for a copy of Alanis Morrissette's Jagged Little Pill that my best friend at school dubbed for me.

Introduction

Just about anyone who has ever met me can vouch for how passionate I am about music. It's often one of the things I'm most commonly associated with whenever folks describe or mention me. I have another blog, Hectic But Eclectic, which delves into that passion along with other media, but this blog will serve an entirely different purpose. While I will still run Hectic But Eclectic and focus on more current developments, Mixed Reaction will take a look back.

Music video channels such as MTV, BET and The Box deserve a lot of credit for opening me up to different genres as a child and furthering a growing passion, but it wasn't until I got my own cassette radio that things were taken to a new level. The beauty of radio was not only the bounty of stations that I could switch between; it was also the exposure to songs that couldn't afford Spike Jonze as a video director or didn't even have a video, a world I had been ignorant to previously on the rock side of things. Since my parents enforced a strict bedtime curfew, my music addiction would end promptly at 9:00 PM, but now as I went to sIeep, I could let the radio softly fill my room with music at a volume just low enough to not disturb my family through the night. I had an alarm clock radio before my cassette player, but the fact that I could use my new device to play entire albums instilled a sense of independence and pride that I never had with my previous radio. I was no longer at the mercy of anyone's taste and I was well on my way to paving my own musical path.

Out of all the ways that my cassette player made life wonderful, there was nothing more magnificent than recording songs from the radio. My passion for music was already incredibly strong at this point. I had spent entire summer days watching nothing but MTV and BET and most moments home alone were spent with me rifling through my stepsister and stepmother's CD collections or sometimes staring at my father's vinyl library. I could only gaze at the album covers since I didn't know how to work the stereo to the record player and was much too afraid to tinker with something I didn't know how to operate. Recording songs off the radio allowed me to become more intimate with music in a way I wasn't able to before. No longer did I have to wait for my favorite song to come on: I could just pop in a tape and press play.

For Mixed Reaction, I'll start by returning to the makeshift mixtapes of my youth and follow the progress through the years as my methods became more sophisticated. I've managed to hold on to all of them and thought that such dedication would be a good insight into the origins of a passion. Expect weekly posts every Tuesday and feel free to share this with anyone who you'd think might find this interesting. Hope you'll enjoy!