Tracks 8, 9 and 10 from I Promise I Will Never Stop Going In (2013)

Track 11 from I Promise I Will Never Stop Going In (Deluxe Edition) (2014)

Track 12 from Hustle Gang Presents: G.D.O.D. 2 (2014)

Tracks 13 and 14 from Back To The Basics (2017)

Track 21 from Family & Mula (2022)

Track 22 from Gangsta Art 2 (2023)

Rich Homie Quan was a quintessential mixtape rapper in the sense that nearly all of his music was released on mixtapes. His only official album, Rich As In Spirit, arrived a bit after his commercial peak, although it was still pretty good (I particularly like the Zaytoven-produced "Long Enough"). Really, he was very consistent throughout his career, the "I go in on every song" theme of the titles of a lot of his mixtapes was appropriate. 

Given that a lot of 2010s rap mixtapes lived primarily on download sites and never made it to streaming services, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of Quan's catalog is on Spotify. It's perennially frustrating that the masterpiece Rich Gang: Tha Tour Part 1 isn't on streaming services, and neither are a couple of Quan solo tapes I liked, If You Ever Think I Will Stop Goin' In Ask RR and DT Spacely Made This. Still, though, more than enough music for me to be happy with how this playlist came out. And there are a few unauthorized mixtapes on Spotify that contain a lot of those leaks and mixtape songs if you look for those. "Bigger Jeans" has a sweet little sample and interpolation of James Bay's "Let It Go," which I liked as possibly the the only person who had both Quan and Bay on their list of the best albums of the 2010s. 

I've always felt like Rich Homie Quan was underrated and underestimated in far too many ways, far too often. When he first rose to fame, some called him a Future soundalike, which seemed even more off-base a couple years later when real Future soundalike, Desiigner, cruised to the top of the charts. Drake said it was a "toss-up" between remixing Quan's "Type of Way" or "Versace" by Migos in the summer of 2013, and when he went with the latter, it set helped set Migos on a rapid upward trajectory. Quan reached his career peak as a duo with Young Thug, but too many people saw their teamup as Thug and a sidekick rather than two excellent rappers who made each other better. And "Hit The Quan" by ILoveMemphis, a viral hit inspired by RHQ's dance moves in the "Flex" video, charted higher on the Hot 100 than any song Quan ever made. It's sad that sometimes it takes death for people to really appreciate someone's talent.