DJ Shadow Biography

Born Josh Davis in Davis, CA, DJ and mixtape master DJ Shadow has proven that confidence and luck bring the most rewarding success.The artist first heard hip-hop from UC Davis's radio station and from there began to experiment with remixing material and instruments. When he entered his hometown university he was already creating an instrumentally based hip-hop sound that continued into his first record Lesson 4 on the Hollywood Basic label. He continued to pursue his own ideals of the hip-hop/rap genre, mixing for the San Francisco radio station KMEL and scratching on Paris's Sleeping with the Enemy track.Working with Jeff Zen Chang, Shadow co-founded the rap-oriented label Solesides, with artists The Invisible Scratch Pickles and Mixmaster Mix on the label. Shadow continued to work on his own sounds and found that this individualism lead to interest with more mainstream success. Mo' Wax signed the NorCal artist, helping to create his first full length album, Endtroducing... The album went on to make Billboard's Heatseekers chart at number 37, and DJ Shadow followed that with his sophomore effort, Preemptive Strike, just a year later in 1998. This album made the number one spot on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and featured singles the DJ had created earlier in his career.Shortly thereafter he worked with English DJ U.N.K.L.E., producing tracks for the Mo' Wax production team and transformed Solesides into the new label, Quannum Projects. 2002 saw the release of his second full length album The Private Press, the mix album Diminishing Returns, followed by the live 2004 album Live! In Tune and on Time. His most recent album, 2006's The Oustider, combines hypy, the Bay Area's hip hop hybrid, with folk to alt-dance music and hardcore rock, to represent the remodeled DJ Shadow. The album is aptly titled, as this hip-hop artist is unlike most - white, from the suburbs and popular in England.