DJ Shadow

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

DJ Shadow is the stage name of Joshua Paul Davis, an American DJ and producer, born in 1972. As a schoolboy in Davis, California, he experimented with a four-track recorder and began as a DJ at the university's student radio station KDVS. He became involved with the British label Mo' Wax, which was known for experimental hip hop. In early 1993 he helped found the underground hip hop label Solesides, together with Blackalicious and Lyrics Born. His first singles, such as In/Flux and Lost and Found (S.F.L.), appeared on Mo' Wax.

Music and breakthrough

His first album, Endtroducing....., came out at the end of 1996 and was very well received. In 2001 it was included in the Guinness World Records book as the first album made entirely from samples. Davis used only an AKAI MPC60 II, a sampling drum machine, two turntables and a borrowed Pro Tools setup. In 1998 he produced Psyence Fiction, the debut of UNKLE, with guests such as Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft and Mike D. Around 2000 he wrote the music for the documentary Dark Days, about homeless people living in a subway tunnel. Later came albums such as The Private Press in 2002, The Outsider in 2006 and The Mountain Will Fall in 2016.

Influence

DJ Shadow shows that an album made only of samples can tell a story of its own.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1996Endtroducing.....
• 2002The Private Press
• 2006The Outsider
• 2011The Less You Know, the Better
• 2016The Mountain Will Fall
• 2019Our Pathetic Age
• 2023Action Adventure

See also

• The Less You Know, the Better
• Our Pathetic Age
• Action Adventure