Here's how the "illegal" release of new song via record companies in America is used to build it's hype. The Boston Globe has the story. Clinton Sparks is explaining how the music industry helps him concoct mixtapes, the CDs stuffed with freestyle raps, remixes, and future R&B or hip-hop hits. "This is the perfect example," he says, ripping open an envelope in his basement home studio in Norwood. In his hand is a CD submission from Elektra's rap promotions department: two new songs by Fabolous. Too bad Sparks doesn't have permission to use the copyrighted material. But the record executives, producers, and artists who send him and other DJs the contraband will blithely ignore the infraction. After all, they depend on mixtapes to create "a buzz on the single before a single goes to radio," says Courtney Powell, Elektra's director of rap promotions and street marketing. To achieve that buzz, Powell will pass one song to 100 mixtape DJs nationally. Here's how it works: The CDs introduce new music to "the streets," the mythical term used to describe the hard-core fans who make or break careers. If the streets pronounce a mixtape song hot, it begins a months-long journey that continues with club exposure and ends with radio airplay that can help an artist grab the ultimate brass ring: a mainstream hit. See 50 Cent's "Wanksta" and Joe Budden's "Pump It Up" for two recent examples of the mixtape-to-chart-topper phenomenon. The music compilations have been around since hip-hop's birth in New York in the 1970s, when DJs recorded street parties showcasing their skills on the steel wheels and sold the cassettes in stores for $20 apiece. The name stuck even as CDs replaced cassettes and the record industry insinuated itself into the scene. These days, they're hip-hop's dirty little "secret." Illegal, yes, but integral as well. The genre launched the careers of rappers Fabolous, Biggie Smalls, DMX, Ma$e, and 50 Cent, whose appearances on mixtapes translated into a multiplatinum major-label debut with this year's "Get Rich or Die Tryin.' " DJs who are kings of the field -- Kay Slay, Envy, Green Lantern, Whoo Kid, Clue -- have become celebrities with record deals at Epic and Columbia. Even P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes dabble in mixtapes to stay relevant. "When you become a multiplatinum artist you want to make sure that you don't lose step with the people who made you a star," says Elliott Wilson, editor in chief of the hip-hop magazine XXL. "Giving them this material definitely is a way to get that respect from that community." Full article here.