J-Zone still owns and operates a cassette walkman. He also tried to have a tape player installed in his car, but he was laughed out of the dealership. I’m also still pretty fond of music on tape. Tape hiss > mp3 compression via Dante Ross
Tapes also hold a high level of significance in the landscape of hip-hop history, and that’s beyond capturing defunct radio shows and park jams. Cassettes took over as the primary medium for bonus cuts, like the “12 b-side did for vinyl. Albums like Stetsasonic’s Blood, Sweat & No Tears , Nas’ It Was Written , Digital Underground’s Sex Packets and Lord Finesse’s Return Of The Funky Man were all creatively marketed with tape only bonus cuts, which gave you an incentive to hunt down the album in each format. There were even albums that only came out on cassette (the elusive Baritone Tip Love Livin Foul album from ‘91 and numerous regional gangsta rap albums) or cassette with a limited dose of wax, but no CD (half of the Warlock/ Idlers Records catalog or AZ’s Streetwise and my debut album, Music For Tu Madre , before the reissues). If nothing else, I miss buying tapes and seeing the order forms for merchandise from the group and record label inside of the fold out liner notes.
