It's hard to make a logical case for the continued existence of the Various Artist DJ mixtape in the digital era. Today we, the listeners could quite easily construct our own playlists of new records (in much the same way that we, the listeners, can shout a bunch of nonsequitors about how great we are at the top of our lungs while the Gucci Mane song plays) but logic is overrated. Sometimes it's best to sit back and and put our trust in the taste of strangers. To let a famous DJ handle the heavy lifting of opinion for once. DJ Holiday, for example.
The fourth entry in his Holiday Season series was first announced in June and then followed by months of silence, making the "We Working" flag that he waves in a blaze of glory read like more of a stopgap apology than a proclamation. At last it dropped yesterday. While the anticipation has fizzled some and a few of the tracks have been sitting on hard drives and YouTube playlists for months now, Holiday does finally deliver exactly what you'd expect him to. The tracklisting reads like a who's who of Atlanta street rappers—Waka, Gucci, Jeezy, 2 Chainz, Future, Alley Boy, Trouble, Shawty Lo, Rocko —and often lines them up in a posse cut formation. It's a regular cornucopia of threats and Lex Luger sample sets. And right in the middle of all this goondom and goonery is a months old B.O.B./Wale/Big Sean posse cut that's not surprisingly devoid of goonishness. Even amongst tastemakers, there's no accounting for taste.
Download: DJ Holiday's Holiday Season Vol. 4 mixtape
