Let My Tape Rock ‘Til My Tape Pop
It’s official: Good Weather for Airstrikes showed up late to the party. No lie, we’ve been sitting on this for a while now, and my lazy ass hasn’t gotten around to posting it yet. I know it’s a cop-out, but let me drop a little reality on you: no matter how late you are to a party, if you show up with Girl Talk’s Night Ripper you’re in no danger of missing the fun, ’cause you had the fun with you the whole time.
Girl Talk has been everywhere. Night Ripper made it to the Holy Grail: Pitchfork’s Best New Music list. The blogosphere is blowing up about Girl Talk, with good reason. This album is genre-defying. There aren’t many genre-defying albums any more; most genres have been pretty well defined in the past half-century. I’m not saying there aren’t countless groups that walk the line between genres Man In Black-style, but if you go so far as to consider the mash-up a genre, consider the genre defined. Night Ripper takes mash-ups not just to a whole new level, but to a whole new dimension. There are at least 200 different samples on the 16-track, 42-minute opus, and Girl Talk, some working better than others but all of them equally thought-inspiring. There are a handful of moments in every song where you’ve no choice but to sit back and think “how the hell did he do that?” Even if you don’t like this album (and, as a result, are an effectively soulless being), there’s no way you can’t appreciate Girl Talk’s complete mastery of mash-ups.
Though this album is undoubtedly best digested as a whole meal in one sitting, I can’t just post all 16 tracks. I highly recommend you buy this album (click here to do so), because Night Ripper is easily the best mash-up album ever crafted. Considering The Grey Album launched Danger Mouse to the Gorillaz-producing half-man half-Gnarls that he is, it’s impossible to fathom where Girl Talk is headed after this masterpiece.
“Too Deep” is probably my favorite song on the album. Dem Franchise Boyz club banger “Oh I Think Dey Like Me” provides the vocals over an ever-changing backdrop, but the highlight is probably halfway through when the instrumental from “Come Together” comes in, segueing perfectly in to some Smashing Pumpkins. The song closes out on the high-point of Houston-slick rhymes over The O.C.-theming boys of Phantom Planet’s “California” piano part.
“Smash Your Head” is officially Pitchfork’s favorite jam, with good reason. Lil’ Wayne and Nirvana is seemingly a match made in purgatory, but when it breaks out in to Jeezy’s “Soul Survivor” verse it’s a breath of fresh air. That drops out to what is hands down the best moment on the album: Biggie + Elton. Biggie’s opening verse from “Juicy” plays over “Tiny Dancer”’s memorable piano, leading in to a sped-up version of “Tiny Dancer”’s chorus, as sung by the love child of Elton John and Alvin and the Chipmunks (yeah, they all got in on the action).
The Purple Ribbon All-Stars’ “Kryptonite” gets chopped and screwed to start off “Bounce That”, before the memorable guitar intro to the Breeder’s “Cannonball” comes in. Out of nowhere come the Pointer Sisters, with smooth jazz not far off the horizon. By this point, you’re probably asking yourself how the hell this all works. The answer? Night Ripper is genius. I can’t explain it. It’s something you need to hear for yourself. Ludacris leads the song to its slow-riding close.
The Smashing Pumpkins show up again to open penultimate track “Overtime”, and it makes perfect sense to everyone now that Girl Talk has done it to lay Three 6 Mafia’s “Stay Fly” on top of the Pumpkins guitar heroics. The middle of the song goes straight middle school on your ass, ordering you to “make that tootsie roll…” to the front, to the left, and even to the right.
Night Ripper is something you need to hear to believe; no words can do it justice because sitting at home or at work reading all the insane combinations Girl Talk throws out you there is simply no way to fathom that it could actually work. The reason the album is genius is because it does. The whole album is a risk, and it’s the risky albums that stand the test of time. As long as the mash-up genre remains, Night Ripper will be a classic.
“Too Deep” - Girl Talk ((highly recommended))
“Smash Your Head” - Girl Talk ((highly recommended))
“Bounce That”- Girl Talk
“Overtime”- Girl Talk