Chris DeLine

“R.I.P. Mash-ups, we’ll miss your forced titular ironies.” So began yesterday’s “Mash-up Genre Raises Hell in Heaven” article on Idolator. Not long ago I was invited to help out as an infrequent guest editor over at Mashuptown, one of the web’s leading bootleg sites, and I feel that I’ve been able to keep at least a casual understanding of what is going on within the genre. As such I suppose I was a little taken back at the unexpected state of emergency. Idolator continues, “In The last few months, friends and family claim the genre had grown sick from uninspiration.” But not even in the indie elite population have these sentiments appeared as popular opinion in recent months as innovative mashers such as ABX and DJ STV SLV of The Hood Internet and Girl Talk have been hyped royally.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]

An interesting set of comments followed, some agreeing wholeheartidly and some disputing the claim altogether. One of the most informed replies came from established masher Dunproofin who responded, “Give a monkey a copy of Pro-Tools and most of them think they can make a masterpiece. Give Kanye West a copy and you get his new single – if you listen to it (go on, I dare you to listen to it all the way through) just ask yourself afterwards has he really put any more effort into putting a new rap over an old Daft Punk song than any monkey would have put in by putting an existing rap over the same Daft Punk song?”

I believe the point is absolutely valid. While personally I believe Kanye’s “Stronger” to be a fantastic track with inspired rhymes it wouldn’t have been the same without the Daft Punk sample; a fairly general sample at that when listened to critically. Dunproofin continues, “There is a mash up (or bootleg as us Brits call it) ’scene’ out there still, some people admittedly making a better bootleg than others. Saturation of poor tracks has really driven the scene back to ground however as most of the bootleggers don’t want to be associated with the (general) lack of creativity at best, or fundamental lack of understanding of music that is exhibited within the bootleg scene as a whole.”

With that I invite you to check out ten of the best mashups (or as Dun would have, bootlegs) that I have come across during the first half of 2007. If you were to check out a single track or two may I suggest Copycat’s “Knowing the Rhythm is Right” and DJ Morgoth’s “Stars on the Boogie.”

• ABX “Wouldn’t Grip Far (The Game vs. The Go! Team)”
• Arty Fufkin “Liar in a Brainstorm (Arctic Monkeys vs. Beyonce & Shakira)”
• Brat “Big Shot Pimpin’ (Jay-Z vs. Billy Joel)”
• Copycat “Knowing the Rhythm is Right (Nelly Furtado vs. ABBA vs. Sagi Rei)”
• DJ Erb “Ecstasy of Gold (Ennio Morricone vs. Nas)”
• DJ Lobsterdust “Skyline Operator (Notorious B.I.G. vs. The The)”
• DJ Morgoth “Stars on the Boogie (Just Jack vs Jay-Kid)”
• DJ STV SLV “What You Know About Transparent Things (T.I. vs. Fujiya & Miyagi)”
• Lenlow “Bjorn Slippy (Peter, Bjorn & John vs. Underworld)”
• Pheugoo “I Was Signed For Loving You (Snoop Dogg feat. C. Wilson & Justin Timberlake vs. Kiss)”