Girl Talk, All Day (2010)

As I'm guessing you've surmised, I don't listen to a whole lot of rap.  But I'll make an exception for Girl Talk, the alter ego of DJ Gregg Gillis, who has released three underground albums of mash-ups, merging clips drawn from decades of rap, R&B, and rock into a joyous sonic party.  His encyclopedic knowledge of music history and deft interweaving make each of these albums endlessly surprising and engaging.

Within the first couple minutes of All Day you're grooving to Black Sabbath, Ludacris, Jane's Addiction,  N.W.A. and Missy Elliott, barreling towards the Ramones.  Apparently there are over 350 different samples on this album alone.  I'm not familiar with a lot of the hip-hop and R&B artists he plays (and a lot of the rap is definitely of the NSFW variety), but the rock history buff in me can't help but love how the raps are given new life by pairing them with the likes of everyone from the Electric Light Orchestra to Peter Gabriel to the Dead.

As if the playfulness of the audio mash-ups alone wasn't enough, some creative types out there have managed to pull together videos for the whole album, which really need to be seen to be believed.  

Here's the first 40 or so minutes of All Day, with video.  (I'm particularly partial to the clip beginning at around the 20:30 marker, where he weaves in some of Radiohead's "Creep," Prince's "Delirious," Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life," the Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies," winding on through Lady Gaga, Bananarama, the Jackson 5, and Simon & Garfunkel.)


And if you're more partial to modern dance, here are some dances set to All Day:



(And even more dances for your listening pleasure.)

If you're curious about the samples used on the album, here's a helpful by-the-second guide.


All Day was released for download only, but the label is now defunct so it's a little hard to track down, and it is no longer on Spotify.  But you can listen to the 2 prior mash-up albums, 2006's Night Ripper and 2008's Feed the Animals, on Spotify.

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