It's cheap sort of imitation (8)
I believe the answer is:
pastiche
'imitation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'it's cheap sort' is the wordplay.
'sort' indicates an anagram.
'its'+'cheap'='itscheap'
'itscheap' is an anagram of 'PASTICHE'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for pastiche that I've seen before include "Combination" , "Unoriginal work" , "Work of art that imitates the style of a previous work" , "Mix-up" , "Smorgasbord" .)