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.