Put out on Illegal Arts, Girl Talk’s third album, Night Ripper, may seem like your typical mashup mixtape. It takes familar pop, hip-hop, rap, rock tracks and throws them all into the mashup blender. Perfectly executed, in many ways, it sounds and works like an album… though it never totally sheds that mixtape aesthetic. It seems so fresh that’ll forget you’re listening to a mix. Just in time for Memorial Day Weeked, Night Ripper could quickly become the Summer jamm mix… the ultimate party disc of 06. Maybe.

None of the tracks used on Night Ripper were cleared by the labels… Illegal Arts is defending the disc by saying it is all used under Fair Use. Considering some of the songs are very recognizable and some big name artists were used, it will be interesting to see how (if) this disc plays out in court. Sure, this is nothing new… hip-hop artists have been releasing mix tapes for ages now. But there seems to be a pretty big marketing push behind Night Ripper so it’ll be interesting to see if Girl Talk gets some (wanted?) attention from the law.

For the casual listener, Girl Talk will hopefully raise some questions. Or at least one question. At what point does a song become something new?

Girl Talk - “Bounce That” (mp3)

Purchase: Illegal Art

Related posts:

• Kitsune Maison
• Vin Sol
• Classixx
• Ghosts on Tape
• Treasure Fingers introduces Ludachrist