We recently stumbled on a compilation disc of really old school mashup artist
Steinski. Literally, he was the original
Girl Talk. He was sampling really old stuff and mashing up tracks in the 80's before anyone knew what "mash-up" meant.
In 1983, for a remix competition for
Tommy Boy Records, Steinski (just a simple copy supervisor) worked with
Double Dee, a studio engineer, and mashed up a bunch of different tracks to create "Lesson One - The Payoff Mix." Both were much older than the hip-hop community at the time, but each had a good working knowledge of the genre. The mix is now track one on his retrospective album, approprietly titled
Steinski, What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective. It also contains his follow up "Lessons," more mash-ups that were later imitated by
Cut Chemist. The two even collaborated in the mid ninties. The retrospective is available now, despite the mixes running into perpetual copyright issues.
"The Payoff Mix" is kind of dated, simply because many of the references aren't as fresh in our ears as the easily recognizable
Girl Talk tracks. However, it's kind of cool to hear a really early mash-up and see it's influence on today's remix community. Head to the Myspace and check out the first three "lessons." You might learn something. -
joe puglisi
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Steinski on Myspace
Girl Talk on Myspace