#MixtapeMemory: Automatic Gunfire!

In 2002, I worked in the Universal Building, doing promotions for Roc-A-Fella Records. In Promotions , you had to know what was poppin’ off all the time, so I always had my ear to the streets. Promotions and DJ’s worked hand in hand. I gave them the heat, they pushed my singles in the clubs and on mixtapes. Before the internet, the mixtape was the first viral music medium.

Around this time, DJ Whoo Kid was just building steam. Everyone in the building knew he was cooking up something with G Unit and 50 Cent. Murder Inc. was down a floor, Def Jam on the 17th. The Jay Z, 50 Cent beef was irrelevant to us at the Roc and then Yo! DJ Whoo Kid and G-Unit dropped the mixtape Automatic Gunfire with the diss record You Remind Me of My Bitch, and The Universal building went bananas. Everybody was like “Ohhhh shit!”

DJ Whoo Kid set the streets on fire with this release. I have to give credit where credit is due, he took 50 Cent to the next level. Back then, if the streets messed with you, you were winning. In 2015 terms, the shit went viral. Hot 97 jumped on it heavy. Murder Inc. went into panic mode. Whoo Kid was 50’s Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat… all that! Word spread overnight. Ain’t nothing like a mixtape!