Rihanna Breaks VEVO Record [Pop Crush]
Megaupload Founder Kim Dotcom, By The Numbers [Time]
Video Game Stings Takes Down East St. Louis Police Chief [Plugged In] Read the rest of this entry »
Ms. Bianca x Balls = Sports Sunday
A Hierarchy of Date-Rape Jams [Washington City Paper]
The Recession is Over! How We Celebrating? [Gawker]
Canon Employees Are Forbidden To Sit Down, Walk At Normal Pace [Gizmodo]
Battle Of The Bad Suits: Don Cherry Vs. Craig Sager [Complex]
Mistaken Identity: Black Off-Duty Cop Shot Dead By White Officer in NYC [Black Voices]
2 Live Crew Still As Nasty As They Wanna Be [TRU]
PSP Go Images Leaked Online [The Koalition]
Nike Blazer x Air Force 1 Hybrid Sneakers [Hypebeast]
What Does Google Wave Mean For The Music Biz? [Music Ally]
Leaders1354 Michigan Logo New Era [LDRS]
Have you ever been in a situation where a pending issue has been driving you crazy, but the topic is risque and you don’t want to embarrass yourself by asking anyone? Well, obviously, I have. And since I’m way past the point where I care what you bootleggers think, I’m asking y’all a question that’s been pestering me since I began listening to female-degrading raps more than ten years ago.
Why is it that I’ve heard numerous male rappers use the term “cock” when referencing a girl’s nanner? Read the rest of this entry »
A few things happened to led us here to this point.
1. Some how, me & Suave (actually Suave & I but fuck formalities) got into a spirited discussion about how smooth & heavily sampled this Aaron Neville track is. In the end, I started doing digging & listening on my own, checking other Allen Toussaint productions. Read the rest of this entry »
Words By DJ Sorce-1
Graphics By P.
Girl Talk, real name Gregg Gillis, is one of the more refreshing grass roots stories to happen in the modern music industry. Originally a noise musician who toured around the country to play in dingy basements for 20 people, he has since turned into a sample based superstar with his critically applauded Night Ripper album. In the years following its release, he has shared the stage with the likes of Kayne West amongst many others.
The road to success has not been easy as many might assume, but has instead been a labor of love. An endless tour schedule, constant experimentation with different music, and a focus on sharing his music instead of paying attention to sales have helped make Girl Talk a household name. We at TSS were able to catch up with the Pittsburgh native to reflect on his recent summer release, Feed the Animals, as well as future projects with Trey Told ‘Em. Read on as Girl Talk talks the talk about DJ’s, album sales, Pimp C, and a whole mess of other topics.
Photo Credit – Andrew Strasser
TSS: Did you start your new album with a Pimp C verse as a dedication to him after his recent passing?
Girl Talk: To some degree. I was using that verse before he passed away, right around the time “International Players Anthem” hit. It just seemed right. It had become a staple with my live set and it started the album off with the intensity I was looking for. I knew that I wanted to begin and end the album on the same tempo and make the whole album circular. It jumped out at me that I could start the album with Pimp C’s verse and then finish it with the Andre 3000 verse. It made perfect sense and made the album whole by beginning and ending in the same place.
TSS: When I last interviewed you, you said that Night Ripper was essentially bits and pieces of your live show condensed into album form. Does your new album Feed the Animals have more of an intentional structure than Night Ripper?
Girl Talk: A lot of the elements and cooler ideas for Feed the Animals were brought in from the live show. When I was making Night Ripper I was doing one show a month at most. After Night Ripper I started playing pretty much every weekend. In order to play that often I had to generate more material to keep it fresh for me and the audience. Going into Feed the Animals I had more stuff to choose from and I had performed the material a lot more than on Night Ripper. I think I had a better understanding of where I wanted to go with the new album.
TSS: Was this a more artistically satisfying album to make?
Girl Talk: Yeah. I’m very proud of Night Ripper, but in the two years since it I feel like I’ve fine tuned my process. This one feels more accomplished to me. I wanted to make it more dynamic, denser, increase the production value, and make the source material more diverse. I wanted to take everything to the extreme on this one.
TSS: Your first album, Secret Diary, is nothing like Night Ripper and Feed the Animals. Your second album, Unstoppable, is sort of like a cross between Secret Diary and Night Ripper. When did you start making music in the style of Night Ripper and Feed the Animals?
Girl Talk: The initial idea for Secret Diary was to juxtapose noise and pop music. I wanted to make experimental music out of pop. The general idea has stayed the same. I want to make new and interesting music out of pop music in a way that isn’t ironic. I want to stay sincere to the source material but at the same time manipulate it and take it to a new world.
When I was playing shows around Secret Diary I was always pushing a fun party feel, even though the music was experimental. I would get in peoples faces and try to get them to loosen up and party a little bit. Around 2002 and 2003 I started playing more house parties. While the Secret Diary material was fun and interesting, it wasn’t really stuff you could dance to. I started to move into more beat oriented material around the time Unstoppable came out. I was doing a lot of experimenting with different ways of handling percussion and samples. I’d occasionally drop the obvious, blatant sample. Whenever I did that, it seemed to be the highlight of the show.
By the time Unstoppable came out in 2004 I was already doing sets that were a lot more like Night Ripper and were made up mostly of blatant samples. That’s when I started to do a lot more house parties. It kind of made sense for what I wanted to do with the live show. Since then it’s been a slow evolution of refining that style.
TSS: Based on “Touch 2 Feel” video and the Unstoppable album artwork, it looks like in the early days you were doing house parties with 20 people. How did you make the transition from house parties to sold out arenas? Read the rest of this entry »
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/global/images/default-avatar.jpg){kind=avatar}
