Mix It Up

There aren't many officially released mix tapes. Copyright hassles are the big problem, but you can find many online. I listened to 3 of these this week. Two by Girls Talk and the compilation What Does It All Mean by Steinski. Steve Stein wasn't the first DJ to create mixes. Grandmaster Flash and other early DJ's beat him to it. But he was one of the first to cut and paste samples into a coherent piece. His compilation's legacy are the "The Payoff Mix" and "Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix)". These revolutionary pieces set the stage for down the road mixes that hip-hoppers took and ran with. So, when you hear DJ Shadow or a Girls Talk mix tape, you'll hear Steinski's influence. What he did back in the day may sound primitive to what these guys are doing now, but mad respect to one of the first.