Who Was Justo Faison and What Were the Mixtape Awards?

Justo Faison was the DJ, promoter and tastemaker who created the Mixtape Awards — the first ceremony to honor mixtape DJs — and ran it from 1995 until his death in 2005. He took a hand-to-hand underground that the record industry ignored and gave it a stage, a name and respect.

Before streaming, before even the street-DVD boom, the mixtape DJ was the gatekeeper of hip-hop. Justo is the man who made the rest of the world admit it. Here's who he was and why the Mixtape Awards mattered.

Who Justo Faison was

Justo came up in the New York mixtape scene, where DJs like Clue, Kay Slay and Drama were breaking records out of the trunk long before radio would touch them. He understood that these DJs weren't bootleggers — they were the real A&Rs of the streets. So he built something to honor them.

What the Mixtape Awards were

Starting in 1995, the Mixtape Awards gave trophies to the best mixtape DJs, hosts and street tastemakers — the people breaking the next artist before the labels knew the name. For a scene that operated entirely outside the industry, it was the first time the culture crowned its own.

• Honored mixtape DJs, hosts and street promoters the mainstream ignored.

• Ran annually from 1995 until Justo's death in 2005.

• Gave legitimacy to a hand-to-hand economy that broke major careers.

The audio twin of the street DVD

The mixtape scene Justo celebrated was the audio side of the exact same culture the street DVD captured on video: DJ-driven, sold hand-to-hand, controlled by the streets instead of the labels. If you've read our Mixtape Era: The Street DVD Connection or the Street DVD Brands Guide, Justo is the figure who tied the whole underground economy together.

His death and legacy

Justo Faison died in a car accident in 2005. The Mixtape Awards effectively ended with him, right as the mixtape itself was giving way to free online uploads. His legacy is the proof that the streets always built their own media machine — and deserved the credit for it. Preserving that record is exactly what this archive exists to do.

More on Justo: the Hood DVD Era Justo Faison memorial.

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FAQ

Q: Who was Justo Faison?

Justo Faison was a DJ, promoter and tastemaker who founded the Mixtape Awards, the first awards show dedicated to mixtape DJs. He championed the street-DJ economy that broke countless rappers before radio or labels caught on.

Q: What were the Mixtape Awards?

An annual ceremony Justo started in 1995 to honor the best mixtape DJs and the culture around them. It ran until around 2005 and gave legitimacy to a scene the mainstream industry ignored.

Q: When did Justo Faison die?

Justo Faison died in May 2005, in a crash near Richmond, Virginia. The Mixtape Awards and the broader mixtape-DJ scene lost their central figure, and the ceremony effectively ended with him.

Q: Why does Justo matter to the street DVD era?

The mixtape economy Justo celebrated was the audio twin of the street DVD economy — the same hand-to-hand, DJ-driven culture that broke artists before the labels did. Both were how the streets controlled their own media.