With so many artists now being discovered thanks to their mixtapes (many of which have become the equivalent of free albums), it's hard to see how you can't. Where would Lil Wayne be without Dedication, J. Cole without Warm Up, Big Krit without Return Of 4eva? The list can go on and on. With the exception of Lil Wayne, the artists named above, and most of the artists people might name as having established a career thanks to mixtapes, are relatively new comers. It would seem like their future is bright if they continue making music that matches the quality of music produced on those free projects. However, maintaining a healthy career can't be done solely on mixtapes. You also have to drop a few albums along the way and here's where the discussion really begins.

In sports, most of the greatest athletes are known not only for their superior skill set, but also, what they're able to do in crunch time. When we look at the legacy of many athletes (particularly basketball and football), we usually put them in two categories: the ones that were great but never won it all or those that were great and led their team to the promised land. In layman's terms, even some of the greatest athletes have "tainted" legacies because they could not deliver in the playoffs/championship games. The problem is, hip hop doesn't have a regular season and playoff season. There is no championship. There are no two distinguishing elements to a career. Perhaps that is exactly what the mixtape represents.

Before mixtapes, the majority of an MCs career was based on the albums they produced. You could have as much skill on the mic as anybody, but some artists just have a hard time creating quality albums. Historically, battle rappers and true freestylers tend to have the most difficulty with this. For example, there is absolutely no denying how good Canibus is on the mic and his battle with LL Cool J has definitely helped add to his reputation, but few have been very impressed by his overall catalog, which some could argue hurts his overall legacy in hip hop. There are many artists like this that, whether due to label pressures or just trying to conform to pop culture, aren't able to create whole bodies of work that capture the masses. However, maybe mixtapes will change how we view artists overall. 

Perhaps, even in some lackluster album performances, we will look back on careers and say "His/Her albums weren't that good, but those mixtapes..." Maybe having another body of work to point to can help establish an artist's career and their legacy. Not only do mixtapes prevent them from going off the grid - so to speak - after an official album release, but it's also another body of work to point to, that can really help showcase how talented an artist really is. Even free projects, if constructed right, can penetrate the culture in much of the same manner that an album release would. And if so, then maybe the question isn't if we should factor mixtapes into an artist's legacy, but how much do they count towards and artist's legacy? We'll tackle that in Part 2.

What are your thoughts? Should mixtapes factor into an artist's legacy? Is it even possible to talk about legacy without mentioning mixtapes? Look out for Part 2 when we discuss how much mixtapes should count toward an artists legacy. Leave all comments below.

Peace.