Back before mixtapes sounded like albums, artists jacked for beats and enlisted the likes of local and well known DJ’s to assist with their projects. Mixtapes show the development and growth of an artist and nowadays, we often find ourselves in a nostalgic state, wishing that the artist would return to his or her old lyrical flow. For the most part though, we like where the artist is headed lyrically and welcome their newest projects. While some artist today throw projects together for the sake of it, we’ve found that the most interesting projects are those that tell a story or have some type of theme. The series approach is always captivating too. So with that said, we listed the top 10 mixtape series from some of our favorite rappers.

 

 If you’re looking for Tip’s classic flow and true trap music that ran the sound of the rap genre back in the early 2000’s, take a trip back and listen to the In Da Streetz series pt. 1-3 with P$C.

 

 Young Jeezy prophesied that when the DJ Drama assisted Gangsta Grillz Trap or Die mixtape dropped he was going to change the game. He later dropped Trap or Die 2 with hits “Lose My Mind” featuring Plies. Needless to say, he was right and the Snowman is still going strong with his recent release of Seen It All: The Autobiography.

 

8. Meek Mill Dreamchasers Series

 Meek gained a loyal following with his Dreamchasers mixtape trilogy, which placed his stamp as a champ in the game. He came through with the first Dreamchasers upon signing to Maybach Music Group in 2011.

 

 Pilot Talk is by far the smoothes mixtape of them all. The production and Spitta Andretti’s laid back flow gained him a loyal following and to this day are waiting on the release of another in the series, Pilot Talk III.

 

  TDE‘s Ab-Soul dropped above average knowledge back on his first Long Term installment, beginning in 2009.

 

 Fab let his soul glow on The S.O.U.L. Tape series beginning in 2011. This much anticipated series of mixtapes displayed Fab’s lyrical ability if one was to ever question. A live instrumentation version would be greatly appreciated.

 

 Let K.R.I.T. tell it and this how he really branded himself in the beginning.He must be doing something right because he just added a fourth installment, See Me On Top Vol. 4,  just weeks before the release of his 2nd studio album, Cadillactica.

 

 Wale has been impressing us with his run of the Seinfeld influenced About Nothing mixtapes. His clever poetic wordplay and flow of production on these installments led to the creation of his next studio album, The Album About Nothing, which he says is A&R’d by his fans.

 

 Outside of the Hot Boyz, Wayne took the world by storm with his Dedication series, going 5 mixtapes strong. Fans to this day still argue that Dedication 2 is by far the best.

 Fans are still riding around with this one and the title says it all. Also, the first installment reigns as the biggest selling mixtape in Texas history. Need we say more?