Fans of Lil Wayne or Ludacris may be interested in grabbing a copy of Justin McDowell’s new mixtape when it is released on Saturday.

Commonly known as Young Mak from the popular Ball State University rap group, Tha Paper Boiz, McDowell, a junior, is using what he’s learning in his classes to help create and promote his new mixtape.

“My major is marketing and my minor is graphic arts and technology,” McDowell said. “It’s really helped me out because in my classes, especially for my marketing major, we learned about targeting your market. I’m taking information and knowledge that

I’m learning in the classroom and applying it to the real world.”

Majoring in marketing helped McDowell set up his three-week promotion strategy, which consisted of three advertising strategies that focused on promoting his mixtape: creation of an online introductory video teaser of the album the first week, posting snippets of select songs a week later and the release of his promo video during the week before the mixtape release.

McDowell originally got into rapping in the third grade when one of his class assignments was to write in a poetry notebook. Even after the assignment was over, McDowell kept writing rhymes until he filled several notebooks. Since then, his dream has been to make it as a rapper.

“For me, it’s just the excitement of seeing what you wrote on the last line match up with what you rhyme on the next line,” McDowell said. “At the same time, it had to be clever; stuff you’ve never heard of before.”

Along with using what he’s learned in his classes, McDowell has collaborated with many other Ball State students in the creation of his mixtape. Gerald Bailey, known as G-Scott, is another rapper featured on the CD. Bailey recently released his own mixtape,“The Billionaire Block Boy,” on Jan. 26.

“I came to Ball State, and initially I thought it was just me doing music, but I was pretty sure there were more artists out here,” Bailey said. “Somebody told me about Tha Paper Boiz, so I e-mailed them to introduce myself and network. Then I met up with Mak and we just started making music.”

Other artists on the album include McDowell’s girlfriend and publicist, Tiffany Shivers, a sophomore business major who debuts her rapping skills on the album.

After the release of his mixtape, McDowell plans to dive into the next one. Tha Paper Boiz were recently invited to participate in Digital College Networks’s Battle of the Bands, where the eight winning groups get to perform in Panama City Beach, Fla. Voting is open until Friday, and Tha Paper Boiz are currently in third place.

Follow Tha Paper Boiz on MySpace at www.myspace.com/thapaperboiz.

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Slade Kepler | Staff Reporter