At the same time, Drama, whose charges were dead-docketed, or postponed indefinitely, had all of his money seized and was left trying to figure out how the mixtape medium might survive the Internet age. Cole, he was blurring the lines between the two formats, just as mixtapes were starting to lose their viability as a release strategy-the Recording Industry Association of America was cracking down on piracy, and the arrival of streaming platforms hovered menacingly over the world of analog media. Tyler also self-released many of the early individual projects by Odd Future members, which were produced and mixed like studio albums, in the same way. Tyler founded the rap collective Odd Future, in 2007, and the group released its first tape, “The Odd Future Tape,” for free download online. One inheritor of the mixtape tradition is Tyler, the Creator. The raid seemed to be a bad omen for a cornerstone of the rap world: the mixtape. Instead they found and reportedly confiscated more than fifty thousand mixtapes, and both Drama and Cannon were arrested for bootlegging and racketeering under RICO laws. Things took a turn in 2007, when SWAT officers raided the Atlanta offices and the studio of Drama and his then-protégé and future partner Don Cannon, looking for drugs and guns. made a deal with an independent distributor that started selling his mixtapes in a major retail chain. In 2005, the rapper T.I., also part of the Gangsta Grillz coterie, signed Drama to his record label, and the d.j.

Childish Gambino) in its ranks, showcased the talents of mixtape vets like Lil Wayne and Jeezy.

The series, which would later include performers like Jeremih and Donald Glover (a.k.a. and narrator of sorts, prodding his guests to perform as the most confident, swaggering versions of themselves. A raconteur and prodigious trash-talker, Drama served as an m.c. Drama propelled the careers of countless rappers through his Gangsta Grillz mixtape series. In the early two-thousands, the Philadelphia d.j.

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