In 2013, the onslaught of mixtapes continued unabated. Though we developed a few more official channels to try and keep up with the barrage this year—namely, Mixdown—it's increasingly tough to give everything good its due shine at the appropriate time. Today we're collecting worthy mixtapes—from artists like Travi$ Scott, Young Dro, Rome Fortune, Cam'ron and more—that flew under the radar in 2013. The goal for next year? Build a bigger radar.

Audio Push

Come As You Are

[self-released]

Audio Push: "Shine"

Cali jerk music alumni Audio Push slayed over the downtempo soundscapes of All I’ve Ever Dreamed Of, the inaugural label compilation from Hit-Boy’s personal boutique imprint. The duo, Oktane and Pricetag, proceeded to tag along with Hit-Boy on Lil Wayne’s summer tour, where they cobbled together their latest mixtape, Come As You Are. They haven't fucked with the winning formula much: the trip-hop throwback title track sneakily lays a Kurt Cobain vocal over a Portishead sample, and early highlight “Shine” ramps down the pace even further as the pair churns out high-octane sex raps over a flip of Janet Jackson’s “I Get So Lonely”. Producers like Hit-Boy and Haze Banga keep the raps outfitted in lush, syrupy production, from the DeBarge tribute of “I Like It” to the gossamer “Turn Down”. Come As You Are plays like a visit from the ghosts of Cali rap past, present and future, as Oktane and Pricetag hold their own on g-funk throwbacks like “Club 380” and “Brown Bag” and service the ratchet scene on songs like “Smack”. It's a document of a group’s aesthetic snapping into place after linking up with the right producer. —Craig Jenkins

Cam'ron

*Ghetto Heaven Vol. 1

*[self-released]

Cam'ron: "Instagram Catfish" [ft. Sen City]

The Dipset reunion revue recently completed its third year with little more than a spattering of shows and even less in the way of actual music. Meanwhile, Cam's working partnership with Harlem protégé Vado soured very publicly. When Cam'ron announced a new solo mixtape and summarily pushed it back three months, a lot of us wondered if the jig wasn't nearing its conclusion. Ghetto Heaven Vol. 1 put all that to bed pretty quickly, bathing everyman bars from a newly rejuvenated Cam in the chipmunk soul of the Diplomats' mid-2000s heyday. He attacks these productions like an affable elder statesman, dropping some of the trademark flash of his younger years to dole out goofy stories about getting catfished by crafty girls on Instagram, having his electricity turned off after forgetting to pay a bill ("Saturday night, no NFL/ Tomorrow's Sunday, no NFL/ I go on Twitter, type 'FML'") and letting an overeager lady friend down easy. Ghetto Heaven Vol. 1 arrives with the expected array of internal rhyme alchemy ("I'm not a good confidant, but I'm a don/ Slice the pies like Papa John-- 'What Mama on?'"), laugh-out-loud skits (see: Tiff Da Gift's riotious "Instagram" riff), and batshit sample flips ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight", Jodeci's "Come and Talk to Me", a shockingly gritty chop of the "Golden Girls" theme song). It's easily the Dipset general's best release in years. Forgive us, Killa, we never should've doubted you. —CJ

__DJ Mustard

Ketchup

__[self-released]

Jeremih: "Fuck That Nigga" [ft. Ty Dolla $ign] (Produced by DJ Mustard)

A DJ Mustard beat might be the most recognizable sound in rap now, and this year found his signature—as logically simple as a puzzle—sweeping all the way from the Pacific Ocean to Atlanta, the defining city of contemporary rap. Ketchup, the debut mixtape from the 23-year-old L.A. native born Dijon MacFarlane, is both a massive freeway billboard advertising his brilliance and a reminder that he’s more versatile than his simple trademarks. He creates perpetual motion post-snap bangers like the sneering “Burn Rubber” and allows Ty Dolla $ign to flirt with house on a song like “Paranoid,” but he also harnesses DJ Quikness on “Nothin’ Like Me,” nods at The Chronic 2001 on “Take It to the Neck” or grazes baroque pop on “Fuck That Nigga". Mustard is at once the perfect succession of L.A.’s sound and something entirely new. —Jordan Sargent

Don Trip & Starlito

Step Brothers *2

*[RPM MSC]

Don Trip and Starlito: "Leash on Life" [ft. Kevin Gates] (via SoundCloud)

2011’s Step Brothers, the collaborative mixtape from Southern lifers Don Trip and Starlito, felt like a two-man relay race, with each rapper sprinting around a track and handing off the baton to his eager counterpart. Neither rapper is any closer to the spotlight than he was two years ago, but this year's sequel has a decidedly different feel: not more resigned, per se, but more placid. Of course, “placid” is relative here—there is anxiety across the tape, be it personal (“Caesar & Brutus,” “4x4”) or societal (“Leash on Life,” featuring a fantastic hook from Kevin Gates). But there is something comforting in Step Brothers 2—though the circumstantial subtext is a bit dispiriting, it's still two rappers who love making great rap together, making more great rap. —JS

Droop-E

*Hungry and Humble

*[Sick Wid It Records]

DJ Mustard might be the current face of ratchet music—a sound that can be traced back to the thick elastic snap of mid-00s hyphy music—but Droop-E's influence should not be overlooked. The son of Bay area legend E-40 has been producing for a decade now, experimenting with a range of styles from brittle post-hyphy bangers to lush Sade-sampling lounge rap. The characteristic thread that runs throughout? All of it will knock you on your seat if you're not prepared. And as talented a producer as Droop-E is, he can also rap. Hungry and Humble, his latest EP, proves Droop-E to be a nimble rapper with a strong enough presence to carry songs without assistance from others. Of course, friends are never far away—among stalwarts like J. Stalin and Cousin Fik, Kendrick Lamar pops up for an impressively slick verse on "Rossi Wine", a track that twists and throbs as pianos and strings float in the background. His signature hydraulic bounce is always present, even on the ambient-leaning interlude-ish "Intuition". The production on Hungry and Humble is never less than engaging, and Droop-E's reached the point where the same applies to his rapping. —Renato Pagnani

__Fat Trel

*SDMG

*____[self-released]

__

Fat Trel: "Love My Gang"

As local rap scenes go, Washington, D.C. gets overshadowed by every major metropolis in the U.S. except Boston or Philadelphia. But someone like D.C.'s Fat Trel deserves a moment of recognition from anyone who’s followed along with the evolution of Chicago’s drill scene or the micro-bursts of melodic left-field rap happening in Atlanta. In spite of his inherent gruffness, no one has an ear for sheer melody like Fat Trel does. A mixtape title that stands for Sex Drugs Money Guns almost seems like a purposeful distraction from Trel’s penchant for unexpected softness. This effect reaches its peak on “I Love My Gang”–sneakily placed at the end of the tape, it’s a gentle ode to male friendship that hinges on straight-up balladry. Easily one of the best mixtape tracks of the year, it’s truly liable to make you feel... some type of way. —Carrie Battan

__Gucci Mane

*Trap House 3

*[1017 BrickSquad]

__

Gucci Mane: "Hell Yes"

Amidst his most tumultuous personal year to date, the Atlanta trap icon Gucci Mane found a way to release music that fortified his lofty reputation. World War 3, a three-volume collection Gucci dropped in August, found Gucci comfortably operating with collaborators new and old in different temperatures. Trap House 3 isn’t as impressive a collection as whatever Greatest Hits playlist you could comb out of World War 3, but it’s notable nonetheless. It’s a tape that finds Gucci deploying his signature skill set—maybe a shade lower, but LOUDER!—but frequently ceding the mic to proteges like Rich Homie Quan, PeeWee Longway and Young Thug. Gucci also drifts outside of his comfort zone—take the AutoTuned warble of “Hell Yes”—which is something worth witnessing from a musician who tends to stick closely to the center of his lane. —Corban Goble__

__

__GrandeMarshall

Mugga Man

__[Fool's Gold]

Embed is unavailable.

If there's one Philadelphia rapper who won't be needing blood pressure medication by the time he's 30, it's GrandeMarshall. Over the last decade, his city has become known for the bulging-vein yelp popularized by the likes of Freeway and Meek Mill, who sounds like he's perpetually on the verge of popping a blood vessel. GrandeMarshall, on the other hand, raps like he's been stuck in his recliner for days because the weed his friend brought over was stronger than either had predicted. On Mugga Man, his second mixtape, the 20-year-old raps with an easy charm and the confidence of a rapper ten years his senior. He also produces his own beats, the kind of thick puffs of smoke that allow his languid flow to soak deep into the surfaces of his surroundings. Perhaps most impressively, the tape is smooth without being narcoleptic in the way much of this type of lush, blunted rap can be. Marshall's more of a technician than most will give him credit for at first glance—he only sounds like he's not trying. —RP

__Lil Durk

*Signed to the Streets

*[self-released]

__

Lil Durk: "Dis Ain't What U Want" (via SoundCloud)

The drill scene has a rep for being made up of shriveled-hearted nihilists, but the music that's come out of Chicago has never been as unrelentingly dark as it's advertised. Chief Keef's debut, Finally Rich, was more celebratory than cynical, his "no tomorrow" M.O. less of a fatalist doctrine and more of a reminder to soak up the good times while they're around. Drill compatriot Lil Durk, on the other hand, sounds like he's never cracked a smile, let alone ever had a birthday party thrown for him. You might never feel the urge to get up and dance to Durk's music, but you'll often find yourself pounding your chest along to it.

Durk's Signed to the Streets is his best mixtape yet. He continues to straddle the blurry line between singing and rapping, and his songwriting has grown tighter and more evocative with time. Before, his use of Auto-Tune felt a bit gratuitous, but now it's woven into his style more organically. The anthems are bigger ("Dis Ain't What U Want"), the bangers cause more damage ("Oh My God"), and the potential crossovers are even catchier ("Bang Bros"). There's more color in his production, along with some legitimately pretty moments ("Bang Bros" is so vaporous it sounds like it might completely disperse at any moment) that work well with Durk's melody-first style of rapping. His Def Jam debut is slated for 2014 release, but Signed to the Streets would've been a valiant major-label entrance. —RP

Rich Kidz

*A Westside Story

*[self-released]

Rich Kidz: "More"

Among Atlanta’s sing-rappers, the young duo Rich Kidz are the most underrated. Where Future sings to sound bruised and broken or Rich Homie Quan croons to add dark streaks of gravitas to his muttered threats, Rich Kidz sing to exult. They turn the evolved sound of ringtone rap into something suitable for the TV singing show "The Voice", if not in technical ability than in belief in the evocative power of melisma. But as perpetual underdogs, the tension in their music is in how that belting is applied to the everyday dreamer. “When I was young I dreamed about having a Porsche whip/ Didn’t have a lot that’s why I still want it more than now,” goes the chorus of “More,” and you can feel the hustle even as the hook pivots: “My shoes cost more than your outfit… now.” But the centerpiece is “Trayvon,” a song that reminds us that even in their come-up (“I feel like Trayvon with a bank roll”) they can’t escape society's narrow glare: “Sorry sir, we don’t look alike/ Sorry sir, we don’t feel alike/ And I look like a killer, right?/ That means you gonna kill me, right?” —JS

Roc Marciano

*The Pimpire Strikes Back

*[Man Bites Dog Records]

Roc Marciano: "The Sacrifice"

The second act of one-time Flipmode squaddie Roc Marciano has been nothing less than astounding. He’s settled on an outlandish character in rhyme, a composite sketch of all the great pimps and dealers of the blaxploitation era not unlike a deliberately absurdist rap-game Dolemite. Roc's the only rapper working who could attempt the Star Wars-referencing kingpin snark of calling a mixtape The Pimpire Strikes Back and also the only one who could pull off the expected cocktail of ghoulish threats and madcap laughs required to live the name down. Pimpire is packed with hilariously bored put downs (“Your mixtape’s done in poor taste/ I’m watching horses race”) and ruthlessly deadpanned displays of wealth and power (opener “The Sacrifice”’s savage chorus of “She wanna sacrifice her body/ She wanna buy me that Bugatti”). Marciano shows off his penchant for making origami out of rare soul grooves and outré rock 'n roll throughout, with help from street rap Super Friends like Madlib and Alchemist. The Pimpire Strikes Back continues the Long Island native's quest to revive the cold debauchery of 90s New York street rap, clip by fully-loaded clip. —CJ

Rockie Fresh

*Electric Highway

*[Maybach Music Group]

Rockie Fresh: "Roll Up Right Now" [ft. Curren$y]

Chicago native Rockie Fresh is the workmanlike singer-slash-hook-man in Rick Ross’ pan-regional Maybach Music Group arsenal. Rockie released three mixtapes this year and still found time to walk off with one of the best cuts on MMG’s Self Made Vol. 3 compilation, the spectral, druggy closer “God Is Great”. The best of the batch is the first, January’s Electric Highway, wherein Rockie and right-hand producer the Gift power through a slick set of ephemeral aspirational anthems. Electric Highway largely eschews major-label mixtape tropes like outside producers and big--name guests—besides brief appearances from Ross, Boi-1da, and Wiz Khalifa’s ID Labs production squad—instead edging Rockie’s sound closer to the mainstream by whittling it down. Verses never meander, hooks are bright but economic, and just about every song starts packing its things around the three-minute mark.

Electric Highway loosens up for the exquisitely sequenced dark night of the soul on its back end, where Rockie and Gift slow down and work through the shipwrecked, despairing “Roll Up Right Now” and “Father Forgive ‘Em” into the searching “Lights Glow” and the resolute I-got-next perseverance of “I’m Ready”. The obvious analog is Drake, whose breakthrough So Far Gone owed as much to the MC’s ease modulating between fleet rhymes and hooks as producer 40’s pillowy subterranean synth textures, but Rockie works hard at escaping the association. He brings a cocky grit to these songs, the kind young Aubrey tried to bluff his way into with this year’s blustery Nothing Was the Same. The hooks here feel like natural melodic extensions of the sneering braggadocio in the verses rather than dueling rap and R&B aspirations vying for air time. —CJ

__Rome Fortune

__*Beautiful Pimp

*[self-released]

Rome Fortune: "Lights I've Seen"

Atlanta rapper Rome Fortune's Beautiful Pimp was dropped in the ill-timed winter deadzone and didn't make much of an impact upon release. But over the course of the year, word-of-mouth buzz started building around the debut tape, and a small-but-vocal number of supporters starting asking why no one else was talking about it. It features some of the trippiest slow-mo production that could be heard on a rap mixtape this year, the sort of gorgeous beats that float along but also pack one hell of a right hook. Rome Fortune spends the tape simply luxuriating in these surroundings, letting the tendrils of his voice curl and take root in the corners of each beat, which are supplied mostly by the likes of "U.O.E.N.O" producer Childish Major and Brick Squad stalwart C4. With a molasses-thick flow and an effortless charm, Fortune doesn't strangle these beats as much as caress them with a gentle touch, coaxing them in whatever direction he desires. Beautiful Pimp has a similar way of sneaking up on you. —RP

__Travis Porter

Mr. Porter

__[self-released]

Travis Porter: "Err Damn Day" [ft. Jeremih]

Atlanta's Travis Porter is a trio, but they're often mistaken for single individuals. It's a forgiveble error: they sound like they're pulling hooks and one-liners from the same party-obsessed hive-mind to create songs that play like catchiness contests. Mr. Porter is the group's most polished release to date and one that best showcases their florid, fun mindset. Songs like “Err Damn Day” and “Goin’ Deep” incorporate guests like Jeremih and Tyga memorably, and production from the likes of DJ Mustard and London on the Track keep the trio bouncing. Mr. Porter is a perfect encapsulation of 2013’s trend toward melody and energy. Travis Porter: See them at your local Smithsonian. —CG

Travi$ Scott

*Owl Pharaoh

*[Grand Hustle / Epic]

Travi$ Scott: "Quintana"

Like so many artists who’d previously languished in the background, Houston producer/rapper Travi$ Scott achieved brand-name recognition this year by way of his association with GOOD Music and through his work on Yeezus. Listen to his solo mixtape, Owl Pharaoh, and you’ll begin to see the Travi$-Kanye relationship as an ouroboros. It sounds as if a young Scott picked up on the bruised, Auto-Tuned gloom of late-era Kanye and infused it with his own love of dancehall; Kanye, in turn, was perhaps entranced by those haunting patois echoes and upped the ante with tracks like “Guilt Trip”. But Owl Pharoah stands on its own as a testament to Scott’s talent and undeniable nowness—he’s a workmanlike rapper with an ear for mood, a guy who can make trendy internet-nerdisms sound sincerely tough, and he’s got the production chops to pull it all together into a single pulverizing piece of work. —CB

__Vince Staples

*Stolen Youth

*[Blacksmith / A.G.]

__

Vince Staples: "Guns & Roses"

Odd Future affiliate Vince Staples is probably best known for his guest spots on Earl Sweatshirt's Doris: there's his scene-stealing, streetwise verse on the transcendent "Hive" and the snide goading he gives Earl on the Neptunes-produced "Burgundy". But this summer he released Stolen Youth in collaboration with Mac Miller, who provided beats under his Larry Fisherman pseudonym. Mac shows up with a spate of wonky, hypnotic sample chops, and Vince goes off. "Guns & Roses" loops up an ominous choir over rollicking drums as Vince details the plight of "another young boy lost, another fallen soldier." Vince's cold, direct fatalism is flanked by Cali rap friends Mac, ScHooolboy Q and Ab-Soul, but even in the company of his better-known peers, Stolen Youth is Vince's show. Vicious bars like "Back Sellin' Crack"'s "Try to run, you Steven Hawking/ You see I mean the shit I'm talking" and "Heaven"'s fried but optimistic "I got too much on my plate/ I think a better tomorrow's what I'm trying to make" collide to paint a picture of violence as both a last resort and a warped source of power for the inner city disenfranchised. Nobody wants to hustle, Vince seems to say here, but since we have to, you're gonna get this work. —CJ

Young Dro

*Day Two

*[Grand Hustle]

Young Dro: "Kilt" [ft. Mac Boney]

At one point in the not-so-distant past, Young Dro was the most inventive lyricist in rap, with more ways to describe the colors of his cars than Crayola has crayons. He is not that rapper anymore, but Day 2 retains the unpredictable zaniness of his debut studio album Best Thang Smokin’ as well as any of his full-lengths since. There is a handful of typically skittering, off-axis beats from ATL producers FKi. There is a track called “Walk” that sees Dro singing a pocket-sized gospel song over a starry-eyed club beat. There is another called “Mucho” in which he raps over drunken mariachi horns, and there is one called “Kilt” where he spits over a spurting synth tuned to approximate bagpipes, which he introduces by saying that it “goes out to my Irish cats.” (If you know anything about Young Dro’s music, you know it’s likely that he once made friends in Ireland.) There are also glimmers of the old Dro, whose mind spews acid in all shades of the rainbow: “You should’ve known this shit was sour cuz the whip Amaretto.” —JS

Zebra Katz

*DRKLNG

*self-released

Zebra Katz: "DRKLNG" (via SoundCloud)

Zebra Katz is the inclusive sort— he just wants to create a mix of people to make, in his own words, a "bad-ass party." DRKLNG, his latest mixtape, is the kind of shindig with floor-to-ceiling fog and people rocking masks right out of Eyes Wide Shut. The location, an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town, makes the stomach-churning bass hit even harder—or maybe that's the drugs you took an hour ago finally kicking in. In less than 30 minutes, Katz constructs a menacing and debaucherous world in which rapping is most useful for putting fakes, suckers, and haters in their place; this is battle rap as world-building. Paced like a good DJ set, it lets Katz stunt all over intoxicating club tracks, which even include a dark-timeline cover of Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now". "I don't why I do it/ Why I do the things I do," he poses at one point, but I call bullshit. DRKLNG is the sound of an artist with a singular, direct aim to thrill. —RP