DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow (2006), with an Akai MPC on the shirt

DJ Shadow 2006

DJ Shadow (born Joshua Paul Davis ; * 29. June 1972 in San Jose , California ) is an American hip-hop - DJ , vinyl collectors and music producer .

Career

Davis was born in San José in 1972 and grew up in Hayward, California .

From the early 1990s he established himself as one of the pioneers of turntablism under the pseudonym DJ Shadow . He is considered a major figure in developing the experimental hip-hop, which commonly with the London label Mo 'Wax of James Lavelle is connected. He contributed significantly to this with his single In / Flux and the piece Duality, which was created in collaboration with DJ Krush .

Shadow began his musical career as a DJ on college radio . The idea of ​​staying in the background as a DJ appealed to him, which is why he chose the name DJ Shadow. Together with musicians such as Blackalicious and Lyrics Born , he produced his first mixtapes from 1991 and founded the underground label Solesides in 1993 . The label's first release was the single Entropy in 1993 .

His first album Endtroducing ..... from 1996 represents a milestone in the hip-hop scene and was the first album that was put together exclusively from samples . Until 1998 he worked with James Lavelle's project UNKLE and released the album Psyence Fiction with him (guest artists: Thom Yorke , Beastie Boys , Richard Ashcroft ).

His older productions consist of 100 percent samples from all directions. Record player and mixer are understood and used as instruments. Most of his productions were made on a single Akai MPC 60 . In the meantime, however, he also uses synthesizers .

In 2006 he appeared in support of the British trip hop band Massive Attack .

Davis produced the soundtrack of the 2013 published video game Grand Theft Auto V from Rockstar Games , the music of Tangerine Dream , The Alchemist , Woody Jackson and Oh No was composed.

In June 2016 his fifth studio album The Mountain Will Fall was released , for which Davis collaborated with the rap duo Run the Jewels and the German composer Nils Frahm , among others . The EP The Mountain Has Fallen followed in July 2017 with guest contributions by Nas , Danny Brown and Oscar winner Steven Price .

On November 15, 2019, his double album Our Pathetic Age was released ( 11 tracks instrumentals and 15 tracks collaborations with, among others, De La Soul , Nas and Run The Jewels ).

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1996	End troducing .....	-	-	-	UK17th gold (10 weeks)UK	-
2002	The Private Press	DE75 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK8th gold (4 weeks)UK	US44 (6 weeks) US
2006	The Outsider	-	-	-	UK24 (3 weeks) UK	US77 (2 weeks) US
2011	The Less You Know, the Better	-	-	-	UK34 (1 week) UK	US149 (1 week) US
2016	The Mountain Will Fall	DE57 (1 week) DE	AT41 (1 week) AT	CH23 (1 week) CH	UK19 (2 weeks) UK	US77 (1 week) US
2019	Our Pathetic Age	-	-	-	UK53 (1 week) UK	-

Mix albums

• 1997: Camel Bobsled Race - mixed by DJ QBert
• 1999: Brainfreeze - with Cut Chemist
• 2000: Schoolhouse Funk
• 2001: Product Placement - with Cut Chemist
• 2003: Diminishing Returns
• 2005: Schoolhouse Funk II
• 2005: Funky Skunk - with Shepard Fairey
• 2007: The Hard Sell - with Cut Chemist
• 2008: The Hard Sell (Encore) - with Cut Chemist

Remix albums

• 2003: The Private Repress
• 2005: Endtroducing ..... Excessive Ephemera
• 2010: The DJ Shadow Remix Project

Live albums

• 2004: In Tune and on Time - Live
• 2006: Live at Brixton Academy

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1998	Preemptive Strike	-	-	-	-	US118 (4 weeks) US

More compilations

• 2007: The 4-Track Era Volume 1 - Best of the KMEL Mixes 1991
• 2007: The 4-Track Era Volume 2 - Best of the Remixes and Megamixes 1990–1992
• 2008: The 4-Track Era Volume 3 - Best of the Original Productions 1990–1992
• 2012: Total Breakdown - Hidden Transmissions from the MPC Era 1992–1996
• 2012: Reconstructed - The Best of DJ Shadow

EPs

• 2006: Bay Area EP
• 2011: I Gotta Rokk
• 2011: I'm Excited
• 2014: The Liquid Amber EP
• 2017: The Mountain Has Fallen

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		UK
1993	In / Flux	UK89 (1 week) UK	with Groove Robbers chart entry only 1995
1994	Lost And Found - SFL	UK82 (1 week) UK	with DJ Krush
1995	What Does Your Soul Look Like Endtroducing .....	UK54 (4 weeks) UK	Highest ranking only after re-entry in 1998
1996	Midnight in a Perfect World Endtroducing .....	UK54 (2 weeks) UK
	Stem end troducing .....	UK74 (2 weeks) UK
1997	High noon	UK22 (2 weeks) UK
	Camel Bobsled Race	UK62 (3 weeks) UK
2002	You Can't Go Home Again The Private Press	UK30 (2 weeks) UK
	Six Days The Private Press	UK28 (2 weeks) UK
2007	This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way) The Outsider	UK54 (1 week) UK

More singles

• 1993: Entropy
• 1998: The Number Song
• 2002: Monosylabik
• 2002: Mashin 'on the Motorway
• 2005: 3 freaks
• 2006: Enuff
• 2007: Gabracadabra
• 2010: Def Surrounds Us
• 2016: Nobody Speak (feat. Run the Jewels )
• 2017: Systematic (feat. Nas )

Cooperations

• 1998: UNKLE : Psyence Fiction
• 1999: Quannum: Quannum Spectrum

Soundtracks

• 2000: Dark Days , documentary film; composition
• 2013: Grand Theft Auto V , computer game; production

Web links

Commons : DJ Shadow  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)
• DJ Shadow at MusicBrainz (English)
• DJ Shadow at Discogs (English)
• Works by and about DJ Shadow in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ r / IAmA - I am DJ Shadow (DJ, producer, podcaster)… Ask Me Anything! In: Reddit. Retrieved August 3, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK