Pitchfork's 50 Best Rap Mixtapes of the Millennium

So there was only one hard-and-fast rule to make our cut: a "mixtape" was a free release, offered directly to rap fans. Other than that, everything else–whether it consisted of beats taken from other rappers' albums or contained all original music, whether it was offered as promotion for a retail album or a standalone release–was up for grabs. The context of a release, both within an artist's own career and within rap at large, mattered to us, as did replayability: The best mixtapes of the millennium double as some of the era's best long-playing rap albums, because the distinction between the two has all but been erased. We hope you enjoy reading and debating as much as we did.