When you think of DJ Ideal, you'll probably remember him best for his wide takeover in the mixtape scene a couple of years ago. His Lil Jon tinged "Bottom Bitch" sound byte was just about as show stopping as Don Canon's "Canon" sample.
From about 2003-2007, DJ Ideal made incredible strides toward becoming one of the South's (and Miami's) top mixtape DJs. He had highly sought after artists host his mixtapes, and even went on to spearhead some of Pitbull's earlier mixtape work, including most of the Unleashed mixtapes that Pitbull put together.
Ideal also put together the now-classic Da Bottom series, which till this day has people searching for download links and years-old hard copies -- some of which were actually sold in retail stores like Best Buy, despite being just mixtapes.
After the arrests of DJ Drama and Don Canon back in January of 2007 over
piracy charges, the entire mixtape scene changed, and a lot of the more
prominent mixtape DJs decided to lay low and change their take on
releasing mixtapes. DJ Ideal was definitely among those DJs, because
since early 2007, he has seldom released mixtapes and has been very
selective with all the projects he has done since. But with that
approach, every mixtape DJ Ideal has released has been critically
acclaimed and has garnered tremendous positive feedback.
In 2008, DJ Ideal released a collaboration mixtape with Yelawolf entitled Stereo
fusing hip-hop and rock, that introduced a lot of people to the sounds
of Yela. That same year Ideal collaborated with DJ Konflict and Airtime
to release their Mos Def inspired Audio 3
mixtape that featured a collective of Mos Def's best songs and
appearances throughout the course of his career, as well as unreleased
and rare selections. Both the Yelawolf and Mos Def projects are just
small examples of the quality projects that Ideal has taken on in recent
years.
Just a couple days ago, DJ Ideal decided resurface again with another
quality project along the lines of the Audio 3 release. He partnered
with Hometeam to release an Andre 3000 tribute mixtape of sorts entitled
Andre Benjamin Is...
This 42-track mammoth of a mixtape chronicles the best in verses by the
one and only Andre 3000 of legendary Atlanta based hip-hop group
Outkast. Not only are the more mainstream cuts intertwined in the
mixtape, but rare verses and verses we forgot existed are sprinkled all
over the compilation. Here and there interview clips and other extras
are added to complete the package. For the true Outkast and Andre 3000
fans, this mixtape will take you down memory lane many times over.
Download it below.
Download: DJ Ideal & Hometeam - Andre Benjamin Is...
