DJ Shadow is the professional name of Joshua Paul Davis, an American DJ, record producer and instrumentalist from San Jose, California. Born in 1972, he works in hip hop, electronic music, downtempo, electronica, experimental and experimental hip hop.

Career

DJ Shadow begins experimenting with a four-track recorder while still at high school in Davis, California, and starts out as a disc jockey at the University of California, Davis radio station KDVS. He first draws wider attention with Endtroducing..... in 1996, an album built largely from samples and layered production. It later enters the Guinness World Records as the first completely sampled album.

His early singles, including “In/Flux” and “Lost and Found (S.F.L.),” combine funk, rock, hip hop, ambient, jazz and soul, and are associated with the Mo’ Wax label’s experimental approach. During 1991 and 1992, he releases remixes on Hollywood BASIC and contributes scratching and production to Paris’ album Sleeping with the Enemy. In 1993, he co-founds the Solesides underground hip-hop label with Blackalicious and Lyrics Born, with the first release being the 12-inch “Entropy,” which includes his track “Count and Estimate”.

He also works with Mo’ Wax and, in 1995, contributes scratches to a mix of Massive Attack’s “Karmacoma.” In 1996, he is a member of UNKLE, continuing with the project until 1999. He produces UNKLE’s debut album Psyence Fiction, which includes guest appearances from Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft, Mike D, Kool G. Rap and Jason Newsted.

Releases and collaborations

In 1998, DJ Shadow releases Preemptive Strike, a singles compilation. Around 2000, he composes the score for the documentary Dark Days and appears in the film Scratch in 2001. His second album, The Private Press (2002), includes “Six Days,” later remixed for the soundtrack to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

In 2003, he collaborates with Zack de la Rocha on “March of Death.” He releases the live performance DVD Live! In Tune and on Time in 2004. In 2006, The Outsider appears through Universal Records and features artists linked to the San Francisco Bay Area hyphy scene. His work continues with The Hard Sell mixtape with Cut Chemist in 2007, followed by The Hard Sell (Encore).

His BBC Radio 1 mix Diminishing Returns first broadcasts in 2003 and is reissued in 2009. Between 2010 and 2013, he releases the EP I Gotta Rokk and the album The Less You Know, the Better, with promotional singles including “Def Surrounds Us,” “I’ve Been Trying,” “I’m Excited” and “Warning Call.”

Later work and label activity

In 2014, DJ Shadow launches Liquid Amber and issues the Liquid Amber EP, signing artists including Bleep Bloop, Noer the Boy, Mophono and Ruckazoid. The Mountain Will Fall follows in 2016 and includes “Nobody Speak” with Run the Jewels. He then releases The Mountain Has Fallen in 2017 and the live album Live in Manchester: The Mountain Has Fallen in 2018.

Our Pathetic Age arrives in 2019 as a double album split between instrumental and vocal sections, with collaborations featuring Run the Jewels, Nas, Ghostface Killah, De La Soul and Raekwon. He also contributes a remix of Deftones’ “Digital Bath” for Black Stallion and a reinterpretation of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s “Black Hot Soup” for Butterfly 3001.

His seventh studio album, Action Adventure, appears in 2023 and features no guest artists. DJ Shadow’s studio, Reconstruction, is in a San Francisco suburb and contains more than 60,000 records.

Style and influences

DJ Shadow is known for extensive sampling across many genres. He often uses short vocal fragments rather than full lyrics. He cites Kurtis Mantronik, Steinski and Prince Paul as influences, and his productions include samples from David Axelrod on “Duality,” Pekka Pohjola on “Midnight in a Perfect World,” and Ron Geesin on “Outsider Intro.”

He is also associated with Quannum MCs, UNKLE, Nite School Klik, Winterkill Productions, The Solesides Crew and the label AllPoints France.