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.