Girl Talk: Feed The Animals : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Big ups to the fair-use principle of United States copyright law: Pittsburgh DJ Gregg Gillis says that's what allows him to use hundreds of unlicensed samples in his music. On 2006's breakthrough, Night Ripper, Gillis proved he was a true party-starter, effortlessly combining dozens of hip-hop, pop and rock hits in every song. Feed the Animals ups the ante, implementing more than 300 samples to make an utterly virtuosic mash-up record. On "Like This," one 90-second sequence alone works in Beyoncé, Rick Astley, Nine Inch Nails and Yo La Tengo, among others. But the album is more than just a gimmick: Gillis makes some samples sound like brand-new music with a more complicated message: One striking sequence on "Play Your Part (Pt. One)" pairs "Hunger Strike," Temple of the Dog's shout-out to poor folks, with Ludacris' cash-celebrating "What's Your Fantasy." And when Gillis sets Jay-Z's "Roc Boys" over Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" on "Set It Off," Hova's words take on darkness not apparent in the original. Rarely is postmodern art such bloody good fun.