Over the last half-decade, Trackstar has established a level of consistency and quality in the mixtape game that would’ve made made him a legend if he screamed more and we lived in the days when we thrived off DJ compilations copped on Melrose and Venice Beach, and Canal Street. He is a friend, so bias is evident, but he is one of those friends who has never led me astray. When he drops a tape, it is meticulously curated, drops are thoughtfully laced, and the flow is fluid. They are things that you throw on your iPod and leave there. He doesn’t just make an Organized Noize mixtape, he gets Big Rube to narrate. His Ghostface and Rick Rubin anthologies are similarly essential. Scroll through the archives here.
His latest culls the work of No I.D., the greatest producer to come from the Chi who has never told a lawyer in deposition that his residence was “Earth.” It spans everything from his early beats with Common to “Control.” Songs with Vince Staples, Bump J, and Nas and Jay. You can read the tracklist below, without this superfluous summary. Out of every producer from the 90s, No ID might be the only never to fall off. He alludes to it in the intro, about how he always wanted to stay a background dude and let stars be stars. He is the unselfish point guard dropping dimes and quietly getting back on defense. The type that they seemingly no longer produce. So sit back and stream or download. You can also get a physical copy if you order something from Track’s Rap Fan website.
He also DJs for Run the Jewels, whose Killer Mike just dropped a verse for T.I. and Young Thug’s “All About the Money.” It’s below the jump too and is predictably metallic and unalloyed.
Download — Trackstar The DJ – ‘Prime Time: A Rap Fan’s Guide To No I.D.’ Mixtape
Tracklist:
1. Intro/First Day of School
2. Common – Resurrection
3. Jay-Z/Nas – Success
4. Kendrick Lamar – Control
5. Jay-Z – D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)
6. Kanye West/Swizz Beats – So Appalled
7. Nas/Large Professor – Loco-Motive
8. Common – Kingdom
9. Twista/Raekwon – The Heat
10. No I.D./Dug Infinite – State to State
11. Jay-Z – All Around the World
12. Common Sense – Soul by the Pound
13. Common – Communism
14. Common/Canibus – Makin a Name for Ourselves
15. Common – Sweet
16. Kanye West – Dark Fantasy
17. Jay-Z/Kanye West – Primetime
18. Killer Mike/T.I./Big Boi – Ready Set Go Remix
19. Nas/Rick Ross – Accidental Murderers
20. Ghostface Killah – Metal Lungies
21. Bump J – Letter to My Competition
22. Beanie Sigel – Man’s World
23. Nas – Daughters
24. Common – Invocation
25. Mikkey Halsted/BJ The Chicago Kid/Freddie Gibbs – Field N**** Blues
26. Common/Nas – Ghetto Dreams
27. Jay-Z – Fallin’
28. Rick Ross/Cee-Lo – Tears of Joy
29. Pac Div – The Greatness
30. Rhymefest – Stolen
31. Mikkey Halsted – Karma
32. No I.D./Dug Infinite – The Real Weight
33. Pusha T/Future – Pain
34. Rhymefest – Chica Go Rillas
35. Common – Hungry
36. Kanye West/Kid Cudi – Gorgeous
37. Naledge – Broke Diaries
38. Big Sean – 10 2 10
39. Kanye West/Charlie Wilson – Bound 2
40. Killer Mike – God in the Building
41. Infamous Syndicate – Here I Go
42. Big Sean – I Do It
43. GLC/Really Doe – Success
44. Jay-Z – Thank You
45. Vince Staples – Turn
46. Slaughterhouse – Get Up
47. Common/No ID – In My Own World
48. Common Sense – Breaker 1/9
49. G-Unit – Smile
50. Cocaine 80s/Common – Six Ft. Over
51. Common – Rewind That
52. Common/Lauryn Hill – Retrospect For Life
53. Common – I Used to Love H.E.R.
