One day I may write something longer on the topic, but it seems like the mainstream (webstream?) media does golden era rap (see what I did there?) a disservice– by generally implying that the “mashup” is an invention of the Web 2.0 generation by folks like Girl Talk. No disrespect, but hip-hop DJs were doing them well before that, and arguably in a fashion that required much more skill. We called them “blends,” and they weren’t done with the help of music chopping software like AudioMulch or Ableton — strictly with vinyl, an acapella track on one turntable, an instrumental on the other. Still, the new guys do some very good stuff as well. I’d suppose the only problem is equivalent to the problem of music online generally — there’s so much available and it’s still pretty difficult to filter out the rubbish. Especially when it’s now extremely easy to match up two song parts with roughly equivalent bpms. I always appreciate when you’ve got some interesting level of thematic as well as sonic synchronicity — such as the joint I stumbled on today: the great Johnny Cash + the great Eazy-E. Apparently this one is by a guy named DJ...
