The Collection Vol. 12 (Winter 1999)

Side A

K.P. & Envyi-Swing My Way
Stone Temple Pilots-Sex Type Thing
snippet of Toni Basil's "Mickey"
TLC-Waterfalls
Metallica-Turn The Page
Zhane-Off My Mind
Lauryn Hill-Can't Take My Eyes Off You
The Offspring-Why Don't You Get A Job?
TLC-Silly Ho
Celine Dion-My Heart Will Go On
John Mellencamp-Not Running Anymore
Blues Traveler-But Anyway
Primus-Wynonna's Big Brown Beaver

Side B

Crucial Conflict-To The Left
Boyz II Men-Water Runs Dry
Tool-Sober
Dave Matthews Band-So Much To Say
Metallica-When It Sleeps
TLC feat. Outkast-Sumthin' Wicked This Way Comes
Redman-Whateva Man
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Soul To Squeeze
Stone Temple Pilots-Creep
Placebo-Pure Morning
Monifah-Touch It
Live-I Alone

One of the luxuries of having a CD player was that I now had more control over my mixtapes. If nothing good came on the radio for a while, there was no need to fret since I could select a number of tracks from the albums that my brother had. A lot of my earlier mixes had some filler due to me just being thrilled with being able to record and own songs. With the CD player, there was a higher probability that I would enjoy future volumes of The Collection.

As precise as I had become with recording songs in their entirety from the radio, I would still resort to snippets here and there, usually if they were older songs. My patience in waiting to capture a song from beginning to end paid off with a better quality of mixtapes, but whenever I heard something from the '80s or earlier, I became reckless and disregarded any caution by quickly hitting record. Back in 1999, you never knew the next time you would hear Toni Basil's "Mickey" on the air. Other than that, things kept rolling along smoothly for Vol. 12.

The Collection Vol. 11 (Early Winter 1999)

Side A

Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz-Deja Vu (Uptown Anthem)
Jay-Z feat. Amil & Ja Rule-Can I Get A...
Marvin Gaye-Sexual Healing
M. Doc feat. Cristina-Free
Citizen King-Better Days (And The Bottom Drops Out)
Nirvana-Rape Me
Bush-Machinehead
U2-Sweetest Thing
Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey-When You Believe
The Roots-Datskat
The Roots-Swept Away
Seal-Dreaming In Metaphors

Side B

Beastie Boys-She's Crafty
BLACKstreet feat. Mya, Mase and Blinky Blink-Take Me There
Sublime-Santeria
Lil' Kim feat. Puff Daddy-No Time
Seal-Fast Changes
The Offspring-Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) (Remix)
Soul Coughing-Circles
Cracker-Low
Lauryn Hill-To Zion
Neutral Milk Hotel-King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1
Led Zeppelin-Kashmir


Thanks to my brother's hip hop collection, I could pretty much have any song I wanted in its unedited form. I had yet to even consider buying my own CDs since it already took enough for me as a jobless kid to buy $1 blank cassettes. If he left his CD case laying around, I would try to record as many songs as I could because there was no telling when he would grab it for his own use, which explains why hip hop tracks will sometimes be bunched together for at least the next few volumes.

The Collection Vol. 10 (Winter 1998)

Side A

R.E.M.-Daysleeper
snippet of Labelle's "Lady Marmalade"
Aretha Franklin-Respect
Fastball-Fire Escape
Jewel-Hands
George Michael & Mary J. Blige-As
Toni Braxton-Breathe Again
Notorious B.I.G.-Hypnotize
Seal-Kiss From A Rose
Goodie Mob-Cell Therapy
Hootie & The Blowfish-Goodbye
Jay-Z-Lucky Me

Side B

Whitney Houston feat. Faith Evans & Kelly Price-Heartbreak Hotel
Donna Lewis-I Love You Always Forever
'N SYNC-God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You
Goodie Mob-Guess Who?
Bruce Springsteen-Secret Garden
U2-With Or Without You
snippet of Barenaked Ladies' "It's All Been Done"
The Proclaimers-500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be)
The Braids-Bohemian Rhapsody
The Cranberries-Linger
Dave Matthews Band-Crush
The Flys-Got You (Where I Want You)

If you take a good look at the tracklist, you'll notice that some of the songs on there were never radio hits. That's simply because Vol. 10 marked a new era for me in making mixes as I got a three-disc CD player that Christmas and I could now record songs beyond the dial. I'm not exactly sure how soon after I got the CD player that this mix was completed since stuff like the Jay-Z, Goodie Mob and Hootie CDs belonged to my brother and it would have taken time for me to develop my favorites when it came to non-singles. I do distinctly remember recording "Daysleeper" a day or two after Christmas, but for me to put a song like "Guess Who?" or "Goodbye" on The Collection would have taken a week or two of familiarity with those albums.

Untitled 60 Minute Mixtape (Fall 1998)

Side A

Melissa Etheridge-I'm The Only One
V.A.S.T.-Touched
Busta Rhymes-Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See
Outkast-Rosa Parks
Ecoline Crush-Surefire
Fatboy Slim-Praise You
Love Unlimited Orchestra-Love's Theme
Lenny Kravitz-Fly Away
Sugar Ray-Everymorning
snippet of Nirvana's "The Man Who Sold The World"

Side B

Chemical Brothers-Block Rockin' Beat
The Offspring-Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
Stevie Wonder-For Once In My Life
snippet of ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man"
Marilyn Manson-I Don't Like The Drugs But The Drugs Like Me
Busta Rhymes-Gimme Some More
Eminem-My Name Is


With there being more than a few random mixtapes that don't belong to The Collection, I often get confused with the chronology. I didn't realize that the introduction of Sony's red tapes could have possibly put this one before Vol. 9, but I can't honestly say that with any confidence. I don't exactly recall the reasoning behind me getting a 60 minute cassette, especially since I was obviously in love with the 90 minute ones, but it might have been one of those times when the hour tapes were the only ones available at Walgreens. I did not label this one or even bother to write down a tracklist, probably out of frustration at it not being 45 minutes on each side. To me, its feeble running time did not deem it worthy of being part of The Collection. Nonetheless, I still had some good times with this one, even if it did get the stepchild treatment.

The Collection Vol. 9 (Fall 1998)

Sorry for the long wait between posts. I was very busy with my best albums and singles of 2011 lists for Hectic But Eclectic.





Side A

Squeeze-Tempted
SWV-Can We
Eagle Eye Cherry-Save Tonight
Jackson 5-I'll Be There
Everlast-What It's Like
Beck-Tropicalia
snippet of Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing"
Garbage-Special
Barry White-Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe
Cake-Never There
Beastie Boys-Body Movin'
Foo Fighters-I'll Stick Around
Alanis Morrissette-Thank U
snippet of Bobby Hebb's "Sunny"

Side B

Al Green-I'm Still In Love With You
Stevie Wonder-Living For The City
EPMD-Crossover
Lauryn Hill feat. D'Angelo-Nothing Even Matters
Timbaland-Here We Come
Jay-Z-Hard Knock Life
snippet of Diana Ross' "I'm Comin' Out"
Queen & David Bowie-Under Pressure
Semisonic-Singing In My Sleep
Smashing Pumpkins-Cherub Rock
The Wallflowers-One Headlight
snippet of Steve Miller Band's "The Joker"
Smash Mouth-All Star

The most immediate thing you'll notice if you've been following this blog is the switch in color Sony made with their cassettes from blue to red. I'll gladly admit that such an ordinary change in hue is mundane, but it had an effect on me. Of course, there was the sense of betrayal that came with an unexpected new color. How dare they, I used to think. I was falling into a nice routine and they had to go and mess it up. I eventually got over it, maybe even within that same hour. Once I saw that they were now selling five-packs instead of three, I became accustomed to the red cassettes really quick. Anything that helped me indulge my music addiction further was welcome.

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.