Source: Redsummer TV / Tale of the Tape
HipHopWired spoke exclusively with the director and his producer Tale Of The Tapea new documentary detailing the creation and history of mixtapes in Hip-Hop culture.
The mixtape is a vital component of Hip-Hop culture, and as Hip-Hop recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, the story of how mixtapes came to be is in the spotlight thanks to a new documentary. Tale of The Tape is a new film that shows the rise of mixtapes and their impact, with Royce Da 5″9′ chronicling the journey.
The film features DJ Drama, DJ Clue, the late Combat Jack, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole along with DJ Envy, who is producing. Tale of The Tape is directed by Malik K. Buie, the CEO of the film's production company Red Summer TV. Veteran Hip-Hop journalist Kim Osorio is also the film's producer and Red Summer's content manager. The hour-long film gives viewers a look at these artists' views on mixtapes and how much it affected their careers and prospects.
Hip0Hop Wired had the opportunity to speak exclusively with Buie and Osorio about their passion for making the film and the journey it took to complete and become part of the culture's ever-growing archives.
HHW: So, to start, I wanted to ask right off the bat, how did the process of putting together this definitive documentary begin?
Malik K. Buie: This started many years ago, over 10 years ago to be honest. I produced for Rap City and other platforms. Like any Hip-Hop head, mixtapes were an integral part of my youth. As I did a lot of interviews and traveled and documented things, I always found that mixtapes were kind of the common thread for DJs, artists, everybody who was able to get to any kind of success. Or to be able to reach any kind of crowd. Everyone had a story, “This mixtape inspired me, this mixtape influenced me, etc.”
And it's funny because I remember thinking, “Well, I really want to do something based on mixtapes.” We posted about it the other day, a designer I was working with told me, I remember, we designed the logo on a napkin, at work, for 'Tale of The Tape'. Again, over 10 years. before. That was a big reason why I wanted to do the movie, I wanted to honor DJ, I wanted to tell the story—we see all these really big artists, whether it's Drake, or Kendrick, or Nicki, or it's Cole, they all achieved their success based on their mixtape. But no one really knew the story of how these Mixtapes started with Brucie B and these guys. And of course, Hip-Hip lover Kim Osorio. He knows a lot about the subject and it just made sense for us to work together and do what we do.
Kim Osorio: I'm glad it gave you some context as to when it started because I can't remember. It was such a labor of love and a work in progress. We had a column when I worked at The Source it's called Hip Hop One-on-One. And this was a column where we felt it was our responsibility to educate as best as you know, entertain. And so I think with this one, what we wanted to do was make sure—it was our responsibility, right?
Especially with where mixtapes are now, to be able to say, “Wait, we love the culture, we love the mixtape culture, we want to reference it.” But more importantly, we want to make sure people understand the story. And we want to document that because these days, you see how quickly everyone is changing the narrative. So for us there, we were just grouped together as fans. Mixtapes, because I collected them. I used to think I was a DJ. You know, I'm not going to talk about my turntables and the mixtapes I made. (Laughs) That was a shameless plug.
To this day, right, one of my favorite things to do is DJ, like making playlists. And if you really know me, a lot of people don't notice me. I think I'm a DJ, I had [Technics]1200s. Everything. If you really know me, you know I love making playlists. And I send playlists to people close to me. It's like a love language my love. Everything with me comes from Hip-Hop, everything. That's how I was taught to consume music, through a mixtape. I wanted to pick the songs I wanted to pick. Even to the point where blend cassettes were big, right? We want to take those vocals and put them over that instrumental, we want to hear it the way we want to hear it, in the order we want to hear it. This kind of music curation is something that has always fascinated me. So to do that was wrong because a lot of people, a lot of kids that come in informed even listening to Hip-Hop, they just don't have the same experience. It's a whole different game. We need to document ours.
HHW: What were the challenges in making the documentary? I noted what the process was like, but what were the challenges that stood out the most with documenting and telling the story?
Kim Osorio: Are you trying to be a perfectionist? (laughs)
Malik: (Laughs) Well, one, we're both perfectionists. Look, this is a Red Summer TV production, Buffalo Eight, we're pretty much self-funded for a lot of it. And, you know, that's probably the main challenge. I want to have three cameras, I want to have jibs that float when we do these interviews, etc, etc. and the resources said otherwise. We'd like to talk to a few more people. But sometimes it's just like that. The plan is, of course, to make this an ongoing series. Me and Kim used to joke a lot, because there were some things like I'll write, she's like, “Oh, I don't like this, just throw it in the trash.” And she would do her own version. So I have to agree because that's what it is. But if there is a certain look, a certain way. I'll say, “Nah, Kim, that's what I want.” And so yeah, when I started it years ago, I honestly thought it would take maybe a year, and we'd be done with it any day now. And as the story kept changing for the mixtape DJ, that's fine. We continued as you can see, with what D'-Nice did with Club Quarantine. It's part of mixtape culture and history.
Kim: I think when I talk about perfectionism, I feel like anything we approach, we always try to do our best. But really, the challenge for us is just letting it go. Because running the production of that, that's the hard part. We can think about it all day. We can talk about the things we left out in the story, like the interviews we couldn't get, that was something that even Malik and I went back and forth on for a while. I feel, for years. We wanted to open up the doctor and say, “Okay, let's do more interviews,” and at a certain point, you just have to say, “No, we've got to do it and get it out.”
So creating and assembling when you know the story is a lot more than an hour. Correctly? You can't cram it all into one hour. So for us, I think we could stop and just say no, like, it's time to let it go. And we can, you know, do more. Do the second part and continue.
HHW: And so, that brings me to my last question. And that is, how do you both feel about being able to have this documentary available as Hip-Hop celebrates 50 years?
Kim: I think we have a duty, now that we've reached the Hip-Hop 50 to continue to do more of this kind of content in these pockets of all these different aspects of Hip-Hop. I keep jokingly saying it's “Hip-Hop 51” because I don't want to lose the celebratory feeling we had last year with everything we did for Hip-Hop 50. We can't stop telling these stories just because they haven't arrived to a milestone number. And I think we saw that with Hip-Hop 50 because we saw how great it was to be able to celebrate culture in that way and celebrate history because you don't understand a lot of it. You know, when you said the last question, I said, “if he asked about Kendrick and Drake, I'm going to hang up on that.” (Laughter) But seriously, when you asked the question about the Hip-Hop 50, I felt like it was something that we talked about with Tale of The Tape. We've talked about how, 'Is that something that we've considered as part of the Hip-Hop 50 content? And that's when I say it's Hip-Hop 51.
Malik: I am ecstatic that this project is available to the masses. As Kim said, we have a duty to tell our stories and dictate the right narrative. I had an OG-slash-mentor tell me years ago about filmmaking. He says, “Look, you want to leave a legacy with what you've created.” And that's part of it for us. 100 years from now, I'd like a student of Hip-Hop to be able to watch it in any format, right? To see my name, see Kim's name and the people who were part of it. So they can say, “Okay, that's what I learned.” This is super, super important. I feel extremely blessed to be able to have this in the universe, extremely lucky to be able to work with Kim to tell his story. And it's here forever, period. I'm good with that.
Tale of The Tape is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and the Verizon and Spectrum networks.
