Ok, I'm a big TQ fan, so here's my review. Hopefully TQ reads this and never works this way again.
1. Intro
Why the echoing?
2. My Blood (Pro By The Dope Enemy)
Sounds like a good song with good production, but the quality of the audio, plus the DJ mess things up, so it’s hard to properly judge this.
3. Bad bit©h Feat T-Hud
Not really the type of song that I usually like, but I can imagine this to be a good album cut for that MidWest project. Incomplete song?
4. Christine
I didn’t really like this song when TQ first put this out with the NMT series, but this one grew on me like crazy. It would’ve been one of my favorite KoB joints if it had been on the album.
5. Blue Lites
6. Bye Bye Baby
7. By Your Side (Sade Tribute)
I’m not always in the mood for these type of tracks, but it’s a good song.
8. Sing My Blog
Nice mixtape cut. 3/5
9. Under The Bridge (Red Hot Chilli Peppers Tribute)
Sounds good, but again the mp3 quality and the DJ ruin it.
10. Interlude
11. Shizzio Feat TQ – Rock It Girl (Pro By The Dope Enemy)
It’s one of the few wack songs TQ has put out, but this must be the worst TQ song ever. The production sucks, TQ’s hook & bridge are not among his best and Shizzio is probably the worst rapper to have ever touched a mic. Out of curiosity I once downloaded a Shizzio mixtape and I can honestly say that Rockit Girl is not even Shizzio’s worst song! LOL!
12. Street Dreams Feat AtWill (Pro By Mr Klypso)
This is a good example of how messed up this mixtape is. You can barely understand the line “this is dedicated to the dreamers” due to the bad the audio quality combined with the DJ tag.
13. Capo & One Way Feat TQ – My Life
A bit old, but the hook sounds really good.
14. Gangsta Feat T-Hud (Snippet)
It’s too bad that MidWest project was never released. This song sounds great! Maybe it’ll come out one day though. Fingers crossed!
15. Garrick Rawls Feat TQ – Thin Line
Also a bit old, but still a great song! Hopefully we’ll hear more in the future of Garrick Rawls. He has really impressed me on this one. Great hook & beat too.
16. Gotta Make That Money Feat E-40 (Pro By Mike Mosley)
17. Lady Marga Feat TQ – To The Floor (Pro By White N3rd)
Song’s got hit potential. I could see me playing this a lot if a No DJ version would be released. Much better than that song with Danielle Senior.
18. Kind Of Blue
I’m a minority here, but I think I like the retail version better.
19. Break It Down (Pro By Steel Banglez)
Again the DJ ruins it for me. It sounds like a good song though.
20. The Letter (Pro By Mannie Fresh)
Good song. It would have fit well on that “S.E.X.Y.” album, but I’m waiting on a no DJ version. Why do I hear that DJ Drama/Aphiliates tag at the beginning and the end of the song? They should have given that fu©ker life when they arrested him. DJ Drama almost ruined the scene by himself after he got out.
21. Hollywood Remix (Pro By Vibe Beatz)
Just like the original (and like most of TQ’s best songs), this song had to grow on me. I didn’t like it much when I first heard it, but I believe it’s better than the original. In fact, it’s one of my favorite TQ songs of the last few years.
22. Outro
TQ says: “Me and Ames will be back real soon for another cla$sic mixtape”.
23. Westside (Bonus Throwback Joint)
The first time I heard this mixtape I was shocked how amateurish the blending is and I still am. Like I said before: Listen to how "The Floor" blends over to "Kind Of Blue" and how "Blue Lites" goes over to "Bye Bye Baby". The songs even skip when they go from one track to another, which makes the blending of the songs pointless. Where the hell did TQ find this guy?
All in all this mixtape is a big disappointment. That computerized lady voice saying “DJ Ames” is really annoying. The new songs are good, but the audio quality is really bad and the DJ is even worse. I can’t even add any of the new songs to my playlist.
On Facebook TQ has already said that there probably won’t be a No DJ version, so we can only hope No DJ versions of the previously unreleased songs will come out. If they don’t end up on the new album, there is no guarantee the songs will come out later, which is kind of messed up. I mean… don’t release them at all if you’re not gonna put them out the way they were supposed to come out… which leads me to the following question…
Why do artists give someone else the freedom to ruin their own music? The answer is that the DJ gives the artist some promo in exchange for some tagging/blending of the music. I understand that part. The thing is… Mixtape DJ’s are attention wh0res. A lot of times they won’t want their name to be taken off a track, which is why most mixtapes don’t have a No DJ version. This strategy only pisses people off, which is why the hate toward mixtape DJ’s is big. It’s not too much to ask to put out a No DJ version. You can either put it out for free or sell it on iTunes or whatever.
2Pac never gave a mixtape DJ the freedom to ruin his music.
Nate Dogg never gave a mixtape DJ the freedom to ruin his music.
The Game is an artist who knows how it works: Not long after he puts out his mixtapes with a DJ, he releases untagged versions. B.o.B doesn’t even always release DJ versions of his mixtapes and if he does, the No DJ version doesn’t come out much later than the DJ version. Tha Dogg Pound sold the untagged version of their latest mixtape a few days after the free download (with DJ) came out. That is how it should be done. Mixtapes like “The Legendary Mixtape” give the artist a bad look.
Besides this mixtape itself being messed up for all reasons mentioned above, I haven’t seen this mixtape on any other website than Datpiff.com. There has barely been any promotion for this project, which leaves the mixtape to be a complete failure.
P.S. That song “My Blood” by Young Capo featuring TQ from 2009(!) is still only available as a tagged snippet.
