The first thing you noticed about Gangsta Grillz tapes was how Drama architected them to make you feel closer to the artist. Authenticity was the calling card of the series.
DJ Drama: I'M REALLY LIKE THAT
Gangsta Grillz was more than a mixtape series. It was an idea. An abstraction. The last bastion of a time when curation was driven by taste more than algorithms.
It was the mid-2000s. A hip-hop golden era of its own when you look back at it. The perfect time and place for a well-connected DJ to make sense of all the changes happening in the game.