IM A LITTLE FAKLEMPT, TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES

I”ll give you a topic. Girl talk is neither a girl… nor a talk. Discuss…Girl Talk is actually 28 year old engineer Gregg Gillis, a solo DJ project from the city of champions who effortlessly produces dozens of hip-hop, pop and rock mashup-style remixes, using dozens of unauthorized samples from different songs to create new songs. While you might think there’s little novelty in one bearded yinzer in front of his computer playing songs that you’ve heard hundreds of times before, you might want to listen to what he has to say about his craft and give another listen. Gillis has been on the hot seat in the media for copywrite infringement but cites fair use as a legal backbone for his sampling practices and attributes most criticism to mainstream media who want to “create controversy where it doesn’t really exist.” Is remix culture a new direction in music or have artists always recycled from their predecessors? Check out the interview below for some foreplay and then move onto RiP: A remix manifesto, a documentary film about remixing culture, playing this month for free on Hulu.com.