in the process of making my DiStape i'm having a bit of a crisis of confidence. I wouldn't normally care if it was for myself or some other shlub, but yes_ is a notoriously harsh mistress.

Here's are my queries:

-should i be filling this motherfucka up to its 80 minute limit. I mean, is that too long for anybody to keep their attention on one cd? and if not, how short is too short. I like albums which are about 40 minutes in length, but that seems a bit, y'know... lazy

-is putting very long tracks on a mixtape acceptable? At the moment i've got a 16 minute one which is looking like a strong possibility, plus quite a few more around the 10 minute mark. Would you want to listen to lots of long songs close to each other (particularly if they're of the 'jazz-funk odyssey' genre)?

-should i keep some sort of emotional or musical theme running through it, or just cram on whatever i feel like? And if there's a lot of different stuff am i allowed to mix them all up together, or do i have to do have some sort of model, e.g. the start strong & powerful, then chill out in the midsection, then bring back the power at the end. Do all the rules of good album sequencing go out of the window for mixtapes?

-What's to be done with tracks which fade in or out of the surrounding tracks on the album they're from? They sound a bit messy on a mixtape, but does this make them out of bounds?

-how the hell do you fit hip hop on a mixtape which contains a lot of other, non hip hop songs? It never ever sounds right when i try to do it.

and here's a message to anyone who pipes up with something like "there's no formula for a mixtape, you just gotta feel it man":

Piss off

I know this. I'm just asking for some input you bloody chode. OK?