As I contemplated what mixtape to post up for this week’s Mixtape Mondays column, I figured that it’s time to show some love to Drake (after all, he’s been in the Heavy Rotation section for a good while now). His mixtapes have been out for about 2 years now, but these days, it seems like everyone is head over heels for the Canadian actor/rapper/singer. He’s been slowly but surely building a huge underground fan base.

Although he’s most famous for playing the handicapped Jimmy Brooks on HBO’s Degrassi, he has been doing big things in the hip-hop world. Many critics have been comparing his burgeoning career to the likes of Cleveland’s Kid Cudi and DC’s Wale. As far as his musical style goes, he is extremely versatile. When he sings, he does it softly and gently like Trey Songz or even R. Kelly. When he raps, he brings it hard like Lil’ Wayne. The difference is like night and day. He’s also a talented ghostwriter and has written for people like Jazz Cartier, Bishop Brigante, Lil Wayne, Keshia Chante and Dr. Dre. I definitely prefer to listen to his harder tracks such as “Comeback Season,” “City is Mine,” or “Barry Bonds Freestyle.” At the moment, Drake is working on his debut album, Thank Me Later, which is set to drop sometime around Christmas 2009.

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Maxwell Drummey and D.A. Wallach, better known together as Chester French, are two of the most promising names in music today. The boys of Chester French actually first met while studying at Harvard back in 2003. It was during their 4 years at Harvard that they learned how to sound engineer and record music. During their senior year, they went on to send their finished demo CD to a few famous producers like Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, & Jermaine Dupri. Pharrell eventually signed them to his label, Star Trak. Today, you can see them touring with Matisyahu, Common, N.E.R.D., or Lady GaGa. You might also catch them performing their hit single “She Loves Everybody” on an MTV spot. They are on the verge of making it huge.

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[caption id=”attachment_1708” align=”aligncenter” width=”400” caption=”Emilio Rojas | DJ Noodles | Legend: RECESSION PROOF”][/caption]

Emilio Rojas drops his highly anticipated mixtape, “Recession Proof“ which includes appearances by Stat Quo, Donny Goines, Fashawn and the production of Illmind, M-Phazes, Khrysis and more.

Emilio has been grinding consistently; rocking live performances, dropping in on radio shows and providing quality singles for your listening pleasure. His music video for “That Time” is currently on rotation on mtvU. Download this, which is his first official mixtape, below.

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Dick Flink and Nick Fenmore - or the Super Mash Bros - describe their group as “Girl Talk’s Hot Cousin.” Despite the abundance of family terminology, they manage to put together some extremely danceable stuff, with samples ranging from MGMT to Death Cab for Cutie to Nelly. With a few of these samples, it’s tempting to write off the group as a Girl Talk knockoff, but once you begin going through the album, listening to tracks like “Meet Me at Fantasy Island” (which samples Blink 182), or “Stop that Booty” (sampling Modest Mouse and Bubba Sparxx) you begin to understand that the Super Mash Bros sample sources much more diverse than Girl Talk. Spanning the spectrum from indie rock to Top 40 to european electronica,_ Fuck Bitches, Get Euros _should be the next mixtape you download.

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