That vibe continues through much of the record, characterized by heavy, bouncy beats and melodic production that lends a wide-open sound to tunes like “How the Story Goes,” “No Singles” and “ Put You On,” which is anchored by a Nile Rodgers’ Chic sample. It kicks off with the heavy, stuttering beat and airy synthesizers and vocals “aahs” of “Mind Blown.” The pace on “Full Court Press” is much more laid-back than the dance-floor-ready sounds of Girl Talk’s solo catalog. “With these sessions, they liked almost all the beats that I wanted to play for them.” “Normally when I go into a session, I come in with hundreds of ideas ready, and maybe they pick one,” Gillis said. Blige’s early-‘90s hit “Real Love” with 1969’s “These Eyes” by the Guess Who.Īnd while that sense of sonic experimentation is alive and well in “Full Court Press,” the surprise of hearing two disparate records blending perfectly takes a back seat to music balancing each MC’s lyrical style. Girl Talk’s mash-up records stacked hundreds of samples atop one another, stitching together a musical pop-culture quilt that not only kept dance floors moving, but also discovered quirky, interesting song combinations, like blending Mary J. He worked in bioengineering before turning full-time to music in the late 2000s. Gillis is a Chartiers Valley High School graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.

“I feel like it bridges the gap between that, and what I’ve done in the past.” “It’s closer to traditional rap production,” Gillis said. The result is “Full Court Press,” which will be released April 8, and it represents a new direction for Girl Talk. With my background mashing things up, it seemed like it could be a version of that.” “And as I was listening to it, I thought it could work really well as a group project. “I was able to get them to all collaborate on each others’ projects, because I was doing work with all three artists,” said Gillis, 40. On April 8, Gillis - better known as Girl Talk - will debut his latest effort, but this time it’s a full-length record mashing up his production with a trio of rappers from all over the country - Pittsburgh’s Wiz Khalifa, New York’s Smoke DZA and Mississippi’s’s Big K.R.I.T. Pittsburgh music producer Gregg Gillis made an international name for himself mashing things together - the Spencer Davis Group and Texas rappers Underground Kingz.

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