| Night Ripper | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | May 9, 2006 | |||
| Genre | Mashup | |||
| Length | 42:05 | |||
| Label | Illegal Art | |||
| Producer | Gregg Gillis | |||
| Girl Talk chronology | ||||
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Night Ripper is the third studio album by American musician Gregg Gillis, released under his stage name Girl Talk on May 9, 2006 by Illegal Art. It is a mashup album primarily composed of samples taken from other artists' music, while also incorporating minor amounts of original instrumentation recorded by Gillis himself. Produced as one seamless piece of music before subsequently being broken into individual tracks, Night Ripper was composed by Gillis in a period of around eight months, during which he divided time between production of the album and his work as a biomedical engineer.
Illegal Art initially released Night Ripper as a digital download on their website, later making the album available on other sites and shipping the album to select record stores due to strong demand. None of the samples used on the album was cleared prior to release, causing several online retailers to pull the album from their listings. Night Ripper was later re-released for download on the Illegal Art website through a new "pay what you want" pricing system.
Night Ripper received generally positive reviews from critics, who commended Gillis' choice of samples and his efficiency at layering them together to create new tracks. It appeared in numerous publications' year-end lists of the best albums of 2006. The album has been described as Gillis' breakthrough album, helping boost his reputation and leading several artists to commission him for remix work.