When it comes down to it, a mashup artist is like a readymade or collage artist. He or she takes pre-produced commercial products and twists it to his or her own artistic ends. On Feed The Animals, Pittsburg based artist Greg Gillis, under the nom de tune Girl Talk, layers one song on top of another, almost like an orgy involving every song on your iPod and mine, too.
Example: on "No Pause" Jimi Hendrix asks us to "excuse me while I kiss the sky" before Yael Naim tickles the ivories under Eminiem's rap from "Shake That Ass" turning a misogynistic rap about vomiting in a strip club into an almost religious experience. Later MIMS asks us if we "want it like this" while Karen Carpenter reminds us "you told me you loved me baby" before Metallica's guitars grind under Lil' Mama's ode to beauty products.
It sounds frenetic, but that's because it is. It's beautifully rapid-fire, stopping from time to time to slow it down, like when Radiohead backs Jay-Z on "Set It Off" or when the album ends with Journey's "Faithfully" propping up Andre 3000's pro-commitment rhymes from "International Player's Anthem" or Trina telling us "I Gotta Thang For You" over Fleetwood Mac guitars. I could go on, but why don't you just download it already? It's insanity of the highest degree, but what's wrong with that?
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