I was too busy with the Countdown to comment on the new Girl Talk album when it came out back in November. The consensus seems to be overwhelmingly positive, and I think All Day is his best work yet. The mash-up genre is a tricky one. When it goes well, it can throw a whole new light on some already beloved songs. It’s like hearing them for the first time all over again. But when it doesn’t come off right, it just sounds like I have one song playing in my bedroom and another in the kitchen while I’m standing in the hallway.
There are a lot of inspired moments of mash-up synergy on All Day. The combination of Nicki Minaj and the music from “Don’t Fear The Reaper” on “Steady Shock” is almost awesome enough to make Nicki Minaj tolerable. Notorious B.I.G. and Cream mashed up on “On and On” is pretty priceless too, and Big Boi’s verse from “Shutterbug," featured on "Jump On Stage," would sound good over just about anything.
My favorite moment on the album comes courtesy of Lukasz Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke. Whether you realize it or not, you are very familiar with Dr. Luke’s body of work. He is the evil genius responsible for some of the biggest stuck-in-your-head-and-can’t-get-them-out hits of the last five years. Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite,” Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone,” and Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.” are all his handiwork, among many other huge hits.
In a less civilized time, a seducer like Dr. Luke might have been burned at the stake as a warlock. But there’s more to the good doctor than the ability to surgically implant pop hooks into the deepest reaches of your amygdalae. Before selling his soul to the devil in exchange for the power to make teenage girls dance, Dr. Luke was involved in the production some of the best underground hip-hop of the last 15 years. He was connected with Rawkus Records during that label’s golden age, and had a hand in some pretty groundbreaking work by Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and KRS-One.
KRS One, Zack De La Rocha, and the Last Emperor - C. Ia. (2000)
Dr. Luke’s hip-hop sensibility is in full effect on "That's Right." On the track, Girl Talk takes the two elements of Luke’s professional persona - the pop and the rap - and unites them in a moment of sublime syzygy. At the 4:00 mark, the unmistakably infectious opening to “Party in the U.S.A.” rings out – accompanied by the full-speed-ahead stylings of Brooklyn rappers M.O.P. The high energy and all-around sweetness of the mash-up makes you wish Dr. Luke would go back into private practice with a more discriminating set of clients, and let Britney and Kelly Clarkson seek treatment elsewhere.
It says a lot about the trajectory of pop music over the last decade or so that the undisputed god of pop music is, fundamentally, a hip-hop producer. And while Kelly Clarkson isn't really my cup of tea, I certainly think there is a healthy space in the world of music for a song like Taio Cruz's "Dynamite," scientifically proven to get the party jumping. Like it or not, Dr. Luke’s two spoonfuls of sugar help his medicine go down smooth every time.
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