DJ Shadow

A hip-hop convert since first hearing Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" at the age of 10, DJ Shadow, born Josh Davis, has gone on to become a distinctive voice in the realm of hip-hop. He gained notoriety with a series of mixes in the early 1990s before recording his 17-minute epic "Entropy" in 1991. He signed to James Lavelle's Britain-based Mo Wax Records shortly afterwards and recorded the classic single "In/Flux" in 1993, followed by the epic 4-part EP "What Does Your Soul Look Like" in 1995. It was 1997's "Endtroducing..." that gave Shadow considerable exposure. The album, a series of sample-driven melodic compositions, illustrated hip-hop sampling at its finest, a style that is at odds with such performers as 'Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs' and M.C. Hammer. The album was a critical favorite, making several end-of-the-year best-of lists. Shortly thereafter, the "Preemptive Strike" album was released, which featured "In/Flux" and "What Does Your Soul Look Like?" which had been previously unavailable in the states, as well as two new singles. He also produced the ambitious "Psyence Fiction" album, a project devised by Lavelle and recorded under the moniker Unkle, which was released in September 1998. Currently, Shadow is overseeing projects for Quannum Projects, his Northern California-based legion of producers and MCs, which features Blackilicious, Latryx, and Shadow himself.