DatPiff transfers “world’s largest” collection of rap mixtapes to The Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is said to have the world’s biggest collection of rap mixtapes, thanks to audio platform DatPiff.

According to Rolling Stone, last month DatPiff began uploading the entirety of its over 366,420 rap mixtape collection to the Internet Archive.

In Spring 2023, rumours spread that the mixtape app and website had closed down however, Rolling Stone details that DatPiff had suffered a hard drive crash putting its archive at risk — therefore it has been moving its expansive collection across to The Internet Archive.

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Since then, DatPiff’s site has read: “EMBRACE THE NEXT GENERATION OF DATPIFF!”

The site adds: “We’re evolving beyond our website and app to take Datpiff to the next generation! While we’re working away on the next iteration of Datpiff, we’ve partnered with Archive.org to continue to make the Library accessible!”

DatPiff was prominently used in the 2012s with rap artists such as Meek Mill and Lil Wayne making their name on the site.

You can now find work from the likes of MF DOOM, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and many more streamable on The Internet Archive.

Last year however, major record labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music and CMG filed a copyright lawsuit against the Internet Archive claiming that the community-run project was in “ongoing, massive violation” of distributing protected sound recordings to the public without authorisation from rights holders.

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Free-Range Archivist at the Internet Archive, Jason Scott, told Rolling Stone that he was “glad” that DatPiff moved its collection across to the archive “instead of just deleting the music.”

According to Scott, no one at DatPiff had told the Internet Archive before uploading the mammoth collection but the 50 terabytes of music amounted to “half of a day’s worth of data”.

Check out The Internet Archive’s collection of rap mixtapes via DatPiff here.

[Via: Rolling Stone]

Becky Buckle is Mixmag’s Multimedia Editor, follow her on Twitter