Jimi Hendrix of sampling. A turntablist whose beathead sensibility, and crate-digging affinities revolutionized hip hop. DJ Shadow is an important figure in sampling. The Bay Area native’s first solo work for Mo’ Wax in the U.K. culminated with Endtroducing ….. (1996). This hip-hop masterpiece incorporated obscure recordings from jazz, soul, funk and prog to great effect. Shadow has exceeded expectations every step of the way, from his co-piloting UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction (1998), with James Lavelle, Mo’ Wax founder, to moving further out with The Private Press (2002). Shadow avoided using recordings from cramped records stores that could be dangerous to his breathing, as he produced The Outsider (2006), The Less You Know The Better (2011), and The Mountain Will Fall (2016). He collaborated with singers, rappers and other musicians, including Tom Vek, E-40, Nils Frahm and Tom Vek. He also embraced the local hippie movement and integrated limpid folk and gnashing metal. With Our Pathetic Age (2019), which is a double album that includes separate vocal and instrumental sections, his scope expanded even further. The man who is known as DJ Shadow, Josh Davis, was born in California’s Hayward and Davis. In the early 1980s suburbia of California, Davis was a rare hip-hop fan. He preferred the mixer/turntable setup of the hip hop DJ to the instruments, bass and drums of his peers. Through hip-hop’s early days, he reached the peak of crews such as Eric B.
