"Eminem came out, obviously, with the 8 Mile soundtrack," DJ Babe says. "So when that soundtrack came out, we were supposed to release a 7 Mile mixtape that was really based on Obie Trice. Obie Trice was gonna be the feature artist after the 8 Mile movie. So you got the 8 Mile soundtrack, and then you come with a 7 Mile mixtape."

"Featuring new music from Eminem, 50 Cent, Royce da 5'9", Jimmie Hoffa, Benzino." Volume three is hosted by Cristal Bubblin of HOT 92.7 FM in Charlotte, North Carolina, and its track list reads as a snapshot of exactly where rap stood at that moment — "In Da Club," "What Happened To That Boy," "Invasion," "Get Busy," "X Gone Give It To You," "I Know What You Want" — sequenced alongside Detroit's own: Obie Trice, Proof freestyling, Street Lordz, Snype Da General. Later volumes carry their own editions and hosts, including volume five's "Technitions Edition," volume seven's "The Take Over Edition," and volume eight, hosted by the Ruff Ryders' Fa-Red and Cross.

Asked to name who is on the series, Babe starts at home and keeps going. "Obviously my Detroit people — Obie Trice, Proof, my girl Miz Korona, she's on volume one, she was in the movie 8 Mile… and then we also had Birdman, and the Clipse, and Lil Jon was on there." D12 runs through it too. "That era of D12 and Obie — all my guys and stuff — that was hot."

Some of it came through labels, some of it came straight from the artist, and some of it was recorded for the tape. "Yeah, definitely a mix of both. I would reach out to either the labels and be like, 'Yo, let me get some music' — or sometimes directly with the artist. And if it wasn't the tracks itself, a lot of times they would send me drops and all kind of stuff. I even had Jay-Z shouting me out. So it's got definitely some classic stuff on there, for sure."

Babe had been making cassettes for people in the neighbourhood to play in their cars before he ever put one in a shop; his first tape for retail, around 1995–96, was called Old School Hip Hop — "and it's like, tracks is like four or five years old, and you call it old school." 

"I started actually doing a distribution where I was putting it in gas stations and liquor stores. We would actually have full displays up, and I turned it into a real business. At my peak I had over fifty stores." That meant a route. "I was going out every single week. It was an actual job. You had to go out, do inventory, restock them with the mixtapes." He began carrying other DJs' tapes too — Clue, Gangsta Grillz, Green Lantern, DJ Warrior, DJ Stretch, original 50 Cent tapes before he signed to Shady, Migos and Drake before either was signed — and then built a website, mixtaped.net, that sold them wholesale to distributors in the UK, Australia and Japan.

The series bills itself, on the inserts, as "The World's Shortest Mixtape Series," mixed and produced by DJ Babe for Illegal Entertainment — "the world's first mixtape label" — with artwork by Skinny Boys Graphix in Detroit.

Key details & collectability

• A run of DJ Babe's The 7 Mile Album mixtape series on cassette, consigned as volumes one through nine
• Conceived as Detroit's answer to the 8 Mile soundtrack, originally built around Obie Trice
• Mixed and produced by DJ Babe for Illegal Entertainment, with No Tyme Entertainment; Detroit-produced and Detroit-distributed
• Carries pre-release and exclusive material from Eminem, 50 Cent, Royce da 5'9", Obie Trice, Proof, Benzino and Jimmie Hoffa, plus Miz Korona, D12, Birdman, the Clipse and Lil Jon
• Mixes label-serviced tracks with material and drops sent directly by artists, including a Jay-Z shout-out
• Volume three hosted by Cristal Bubblin, HOT 92.7 FM, Charlotte, North Carolina; volume eight hosted by the Ruff Ryders' Fa-Red and Cross
• Cover and insert artwork by Skinny Boys Graphix, Detroit
• From the producer's own retained archive, not the secondary market
• Primary-source documentation of the mixtape economy that carried Detroit rap into the mainstream