i like both, mixtapes and albums
but mixtapes are 100% supposed to be for the streets, no commecial obligations in the sense of doing commercial pop tunes to cater to mainstream radio unless they cross over to you and play your shit from the mixtapes, you see what i'm saying
mixtapes is sometimes better than the albums because of the commercial pop rap era that we live in now, so mixtapes are usually for us heads that love that hardcore, raw, gutta shit over cook, coke, crack beats, you see what i'm saying
the best type of mixtapes i like is the ones that are like street albums, wit like two 8 bar verses over original beats, or two 16's(i'm a greedy customer, ha ha), maybe sumthin like 12 to 16 tracks, wit one or two tracks over other peoples beats to show how that said artist style can fit on a next sicktrumental and merk it, you get what i'm saying
like 50's 'guess who's back' classic mixtape from 2002/2003, thats the type of shit that i like best, yes surr