The Mix Tape

AMG Review of The Mix Tape

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

This is getting slightly ridiculous. 2004's The Mix Tape is the third compilation covering MC Breed's early-to-mid-'90s career on the Wrap label. However, after 1995's remix-heavy The Best of Breed and 2002's Chopped and Screwed (which was part of the short-lived fad, led by the late DJ Screw, of slowing down records until they had the woozy, disorienting feel of a cough-syrup high), The Mix Tape is really the first single-disc sampler that presents the rapper's best tracks in their original and best versions. MC Breed's gift is his musical dexterity as much as his lyrical skills: 1991's "Ain't No Future in Yo Frontin'" pointedly uses elements from both the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop styles of the time to comment on the uselessness of turf wars, and although later records find the Michigan native rebased in Atlanta and incorporating more of a Dirty South funk flair to his music, songs like the chilling, piano-based "Everyday Ho" and the P-Funk style of "This Is How We Do It, Pt. 1" show that MC Breed is never completely beholden to one style.