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DJ vinyl turntable system

Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.^[1]

The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu^[2] to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer to manipulate sound. The new term coincided with a resurgence of the art of hip hop style DJ-ing in the 1990s.

John Oswald described the art: "A phonograph in the hands of a 'hiphop/scratch' artist who plays a record like an electronic washboard with a phonographic needle as a plectrum, produces sounds which are unique and not reproduced—the record player becomes a musical instrument."^[3]

Some turntablist DJs use turntable techniques like beat mixing/matching, scratching, and beat juggling. Some turntablists seek to have themselves recognized as traditional musicians capable of interacting and improvising with other performers.

History[link]

This is the history of turntablism, a term most often used for contemporary DJs. The passages on their old school hip hop predecessors only focus on the relevant artistic contributions.

Precursors[link]

The history of the turntable being used as a musical instrument has its roots dating back to the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s when musique concrète and other experimental composers (such as John Cage, Halim El-Dabh, and Pierre Schaeffer), used them in a manner similar to that of today's producers and DJs, by essentially sampling and creating music that was entirely produced by the turntable. Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) is composed for 2 variable speed turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano & cymbal.

Even earlier, Edgard Varèse experimented with turntables in 1930, though he never formally produced any works using them. This school of thought and practice is not directly linked to the current definition of hip hop-related turntablism, though it has had an influence on modern experimental sound artists such as Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Philip Jeck and Janek Schaefer. These artists are the direct descendants of people like John Cage and Pierre Schaeffer and are often credited as a variant to the modern turntablist DJ and producer.

Examples of turntable effects can also be found on popular records produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1968 self-titled debut album features a backspin effect in the song "Walk on the Water". However, turntablism as we know it now did not surface until the introduction of hip hop in the late 1970s.

Hip hop[link]

Turntablism as a modern art form and musical practice has its roots within hip hop and hip hop culture of the early 1970s. Scratching was already widespread within hip hop by DJs and producers by the time turntablists started to appear.

Kool DJ Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash are widely credited for having cemented the now established role of DJ as hip hop's foremost instrumentalist.^[4] Kool Herc's invention of break-beat DJing is generally regarded as the foundational development in hip hop history, as it gave rise to all other elements of the genre. His influence on the concept of "DJ as turntablist" is equally profound. To understand the significance of this achievement, it is important to first define the "break." Briefly, the "break" of a song is a musical fragment only seconds in length, which typically takes the form of an "interlude" in which all or most of the music stops except for the percussion. The break is roughly equivalent to the song's "climax," as it is meant to be the most exciting part of a song before returning once more to its finale (usually a return to the main chorus). In addition to raising the audience's adrenaline level, the percussion-heavy nature of the break makes it the most danceable as well, if only for seconds at a time. Kool Herc introduces the break-beat technique as a way of extending the break indefinitely. This is done by buying two of the same record and switching from one to the other on the DJ mixer: e.g., as record A plays, the DJ quickly backtracks to the same break on record B, which will again take the place of A at a specific moment in which the audience will not notice that the DJ has switched records.

Kool Herc's revolutionary technique set the course for the development of turntablism as an art form in significant ways. Most important, however, he developed a new form of DJing that did not consist of playing and mixing records one after the other. The type of DJ that specializes in mixing is well respected for his own set of unique skills, but playlist mixing is still DJing in the traditional sense. Kool Herc instead originated the idea of creating a sequence for his own purposes, introducing the idea of the DJ as the "feature" of parties, whose performance on any given night would be examined critically by the crowd on both a technical and entertainment level.

However it was Grand Wizzard Theodore, an apprentice of Flash, who accidentally isolated the most recognizable technique of turntablism: scratching. He put his hand on a record one day, to silence the music on the turntable while his mother was calling out to him and thus accidentally discovered the sound of scratching by moving the record back and forth under the stylus. Though Theodore discovered scratching, it was Flash who helped push the early concept and showcase it to the public, in his live shows and on recordings.

DJ Grand Mixer DXT is also credited with furthering the concept of scratching by practicing the rhythmic scratching of a record on one or more turntables (often two), using different velocities to alter the pitch of the note or sound on the recording (Alberts 2002). DXT appeared (as DST) on Herbie Hancock's hit song "Rockit".^[4]

These early pioneers cemented the fundamental practice that would later become the emerging turntablist art form. Scratching would during the 1980s become a staple of hip hop music, being used by producers and DJs on records and in live shows. By the end of the 1980s it was very common to hear scratching on a record, generally as part of the chorus of a track or within its production. On stage the DJ would provide the music for the MCs to rhyme to, scratching records during the performance and showcasing his skills alongside the verbal skills of the MC. The most well known example of this 'equation' of MCs and DJ is probably Run DMC who were composed of two MCs and one DJ. The DJ, Jam Master Jay, was an integral part of the group since his turntablism was critical to Run DMC's productions and performances.

While Flash and Bambaataa were using the turntable to explore repetition, alter rhythm and create the instrumental stabs and punch phrasing that would come to characterize the sound of hip hop, Grandmaster DST was busy cutting "real" musicians on their own turf. His scratching on Herbie Hancock's 1983 single, "Rockit", makes it perhaps the most influential DJ track of them all - even more than (Grandmaster Flash's) "Wheels of Steel", it established the DJ as the star of the record, even if he wasn't the frontman. Compared to "Rockit", West Street Mob's "Break Dancin' - Electric Boogie" (1983) was punk negation. Only DJ Code Money's brutal mangling of Schooly D's early records can match the cheese-grater note-shredding of "Break Dancin'".^{[citation needed]} As great as Break Dancin' was, though, it highlighted the limited tonal range of scratching, which was in danger of becoming a short-lived fad like human beat-boxing until the emergence of Code Money's DJ Brethren from Philadelphia in the mid-'80s.

Despite New York's continued pre-eminence in the hip hop world, scratch DJing was modernized less than 100 miles down the road in Philadelphia. Denizens of the City of Brotherly Love were creating the climate for the return of the DJ by inventing transformer scratching. Developed by DJs Spinbad, DJ Cash Money and DJ Jazzy Jeff, transforming was basically clicking the fader on and off while moving a block of sound (a riff or a short verbal phrase) across the stylus. Expanding the tonal as well as rhythmic possibilities of scratching, the transformer scratch epitomized the chopped-up aesthetic of hip hop culture. Hip hop was starting to become big money and the cult of personality started to take over. Hip hop became very much at the service of the rapper and Cash Money and DJ Jazzy Jeff, saddled with B-list rappers like Marvelous and the Fresh Prince, were accorded maybe one track on an album. For example, tracks like DJ Jazzy Jeff's "A Touch of Jazz" (1987) and "Jazzy's in the House" (1988) and Cash Money's "The Music Maker" (1988). Other crucial DJ tracks from this period include Tuff Crew's DJ Too Tuff's "Behold the Detonator" "Soul Food" (both 1989)," and Gang Starrs "Dj Premier in Deep Concentration" (1990).

"Turntablism"[link]

The appearance of turntablists and the birth of turntablism was prompted by one major factor - the disappearance of the DJ in hip hop groups, on records and in live shows at the turn of the 1990s. This disappearance has been widely documented in books and documentaries (such as Black Noise and Scratch The Movie), and was linked to the increased use of DAT tapes and other studio techniques that would ultimately push the DJ further away from the original hip hop equation of the MC as the vocalist and the DJ as the music provider alongside the producer. This push and disappearance of the DJ meant that the practices of the DJ, such as scratching, went back underground and were cultivated and built upon by a generation of people who grew up with hip hop, DJs and scratching. By the mid-90s the disappearance of the DJ in hip hop had created a sub-culture which would come to be known as turntablism and which focused entirely on the DJ utilising his turntables and a mixer to manipulate sounds and create music. By pushing the practice of DJing away, hip hop created the grounds for this sub-culture to evolve.

The origin of the terms turntablist and turntablism are widely contested and argued about, though over the years some facts have been established by various documentaries (Battlesounds, Doug Pray's Scratch), books (DJ Culture), conferences (Skratchcon 2000) and interviews in online and printed magazines. These facts are that the origins of the words most likely lay with practitioners on the US West Coast, centered around the San Francisco Bay Area. Some claim that DJ Disk, a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, was the first to coin the term, others claim that DJ Babu, a member of the Beat Junkies, was responsible for coining and spreading the term turntablist after inscribing it on his mixtapes and passing them around. Another claim credits DJ Supreme, 1991 World Supremacy Champion and DJ for Lauryn Hill. The truth most likely lies somewhere in between all these facts.

In an interview with the Spin Science online resource in 2005, DJ Babu added the following comments about the birth and spread of the term:

It was around 95, I was heavily into the whole battling thing, working on the tables constantly, mastering new techniques and scratches, and all the while working in a gas station and spending my spare time concentrating on all these things. One day I made this mixtape called 'Comprehension', and on there was a track called 'Turntablism' which featured Melo-D and D-Styles. And this is part of where this whole thing about turntablist came from. This was a time where all these new techniques were coming out, like flares and stuff, and there were probably 20 people or so, in around California between Frisco and LA, who knew about these. So we worked on them, talked about it and kicked about the ideas that these techniques and new ways of scratching gave us. And what I would do is write 'Babu the Turntablist' on tapes I was making at the time, and somehow it got out a bit, the media got hold of it and it blew into this whole thing we now know. But it was really nothing to start with. We'd all talk about these new scratches and how they really started to allow us to use the turntable in a more musical way, how it allowed us to do more musical compositions, tracks, etc. and then we'd think about how people who play the piano are pianists, and so we thought "we're turntablists in a way, because we play the turntable like these people do the piano or any other instrument". Beyond that, it was just me writing 'Babu the Turntablist', because it was something I did to make my tapes stand out. I'd just get my marker pen out and write it on there.^{[citation needed]}

So by the mid to late 1990s the terms turntablism and turntablist had become established and accepted to define the practice and practitioner of using turntables and a mixer to create or manipulate sounds and music. This could be done by scratching a record or manipulating the rhythms on the record either by drumming, looping or beat juggling.

The decade of the 1990s is also important in shaping the turntablist art form and culture as it saw the emergence of pioneering artists (Mix Master Mike, DJ Q-Bert, DJ Quest, DJ Krush, A-Trak, Ricci Rucker, Mike Boo, Pumpin' Pete, Prime Cuts) and crews (Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies, The Allies, X-Ecutioners), record labels (Asphodel), DJ Battles (DMC) and the evolution of scratching and other turntablism practices.

More sophisticated methods of scratching were developed during that decade, with crews and individual DJs concentrating on the manipulation of the record in time with the manipulation of the cross fader on the mixer to create new rhythms and sonic artefacts with a variety of sounds. The evolution of scratching from a fairly simple sound and simple rhythmic cadences to more complicated sounds and more intricate rhythmical patterns allowed the practitioners to further evolve what could be done with scratching musically. These new ways of scratching were all given names, from flare to crab or orbit, and spread as DJs taught each other, practiced together or just showed off their new techniques to other DJs.

Alongside the evolution of scratching, other practices such as drumming (or scratch drumming) and beat juggling were also evolved significantly during the 1990s.

Beat Juggling was invented by Steve Dee, a member of the X-Men (later renamed X-Ecutioners) crew. Beat Juggling essentially involves the manipulation of two identical or different drum patterns on two different turntables via the mixer to create a new pattern. A simple example would be to use two copies of the same drum pattern to evolve the pattern by doubling the snares, syncopating the drum kick, adding rhythm and variation to the existing pattern. From this concept, which Steve Dee showcased in the early 90s at DJ battles, Beat Juggling evolved throughout the decade to the point where by the end of it, it had become an intricate technique to create entirely new 'beats' and rhythms out of existing, pre-recorded ones. These were now not just limited to using drum patterns, but could also consist of other sounds - the ultimate aim being to create a new rhythm out of the pre-recorded existing ones. While Beat Juggling is not as popular as scratching due to the more demanding rhythmical knowledge it requires, it has proved popular within DJ Battles and in certain compositional situations.

One of the earliest academic studies of turntablism (White 1996) argued for its designation as a legitimate electronic musical instrument—a manual analog sampler—and described turntable techniques such as backspinning, cutting, scratching and blending as basic tools for most hip hop DJs. White's study suggests the proficient hip hop DJ must possess similar kinds of skills as those required by trained musicians, not limited to a sense of timing, hand-eye coordination, technical competence and musical creativity.

By the year 2000, turntablism and turntablists had become widely publicised and accepted in the mainstream and within hip hop as valid artists. Through this recognition came further evolution.

This evolution took many shapes and forms: some continued to concentrate on the foundations of the art form and its original links to hip hop culture, some became producers utilising the skills they'd learnt as turntablists and incorporating those into their productions, some concentrated more on the DJing aspect of the art form by combining turntablist skills with the trademark skills of club DJs, while others explored alternative routes in utilising the turntable as an instrument or production tool solely for the purpose of making music - either by using solely the turntable or by incorporating it into the production process alongside tools such as drum machines, samplers, computer software, and so on.

New DJs, turntablists and crews owe a distinct debt to old-school DJs like Kool DJ Herc, Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Afrika Bambaataa and other DJs of the golden age of hip hop, who originally developed many of the concepts and techniques that evolved into modern turntablism.

Within the realm of hip hop, notable modern turntablists are the cinematic DJ Shadow, who influenced Diplo and RJD2, among others, and the experimental DJ Spooky, whose Optometry albums showed that the turntablist can perfectly fit within a jazz setting. Mix Master Mike was a founding member of the influential turntablist group Invisibl Skratch Piklz and currently DJs for the Beastie Boys. Cut Chemist, DJ Nu-Mark, Kid Koala are also known as virtuosi of the turntables.

"Chopped and screwed"[link]

Starting in the 1990s in the Southern United States and burgeoning in the 2000s, a meta-genre of hip hop called "chopped and screwed" became a significant and popular form of turntablism. Often utilizing a greater variety of vinyl emulation software rather than normal turntables, "chopped and screwed" stood out from previous standards of turntablism in its slowing of the pitch and tempo ("screwing") and syncopated beat skipping ("chopping"), among other added effects of sound manipulation.

This form of turntablism, which is usually applied to prior studio recordings (in the form of custom mixtapes) and is not prominent as a feature of live performances, de-emphasizes the role of the rapper, singer or other vocalist by distorting the vocalist's voice along with the rest of the recording. Arguably, this combination of distortion and audial effects against the original recording grants greater freedom of improvisation to the DJ than did the previous forms of turntablism. "Chopped and screwed" has also been applied to other genres of music such as R&B and rock music, thus transcending its roots within the hip-hop genre.

Visual Turntablism[link]

Visual turntablism is a more recent phenomenon in which "visual turntablists", or "VJs", incorporate pictures, video, and computer generated effects into their live performances utilizing a separate video mixer in combination with their turntablist equipment. It can contain visuals without the audio being necessarily directly associated or synchronized. Since video mixing became incorporated into DJ hardware from Pioneer, and dj software such as Scratch Live, visual turtablism have moved from being a DJ with a "VJ", to being solely the DJ mixing music videos much the same way as music was mixed before.

Turntablist contests[link]

Like many other musical instrumentalists, turntablists compete to see who can develop the fastest, most innovative and most creative approaches to their instrument. The selection of a champion comes from the culmination of battles between turntablists.

Battling involves each turntablist performing a routine (A combination of various technical scratches, beat juggles, and other elements, including body tricks) within a limited time period, after which the routine is judged by a panel of experts. The winner is selected based upon score. These organized competitions evolved from actual old school "battles" where DJs challenged each other at parties, and the "judge" was usually the audience, who would indicate their collective will by cheering louder for the DJ they thought performed better. Often, the winner kept the loser's equipment and/or records.^{[citation needed]}

The DMC World DJ Championships has been hosted since 1985. There are separate competitions for solo DJs and DJ teams, the title of World Champion being bestowed on the winners of each. They also maintain a turntablism hall of fame.^[5]

See also[link]

• Phonograph
• List of turntablists
• Beatmatching
• Battle records
• Scratching
• Audio effect
• Vinyl Emulation Software
• Wave Twisters
• SL-1200
• Plunderphonics
• Controllerism
• DJ software

References[link]

• Scratch and the Hip-Hop Book of Grand Mixer DXT by Randy Alberts, Oct. 2002
• The Phonograph Turntable and Performance Practice in Hip Hop Music by Miles White, EOL, Vol.2, 1996.
• Rough Guide to Hip-Hop (Penguin Books, First Edition, 2001) Pg. 96.

Further reading[link]

• Eshun, Kodwo More Brilliant than the Sun. Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998. ISBN 0-7043-8025-0
• Katz, Mark. “The Turntable as Weapon: Understanding the DJ Battle.” Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, pp. 124–45. ISBN 978-0-520-26105-1
• Pray, Doug. Scratch. A documentary about the History and Culture of Turntablism.
• Poschardt, Ulf: DJ Culture. London: Quartet Books, 1998. ISBN 0-7043-8098-6
• Toop, David. “Hip Hop: Iron Needles of Death And A Piece of Wax.” Modulations, Chapter 6.

External links[link]

Background and general information[link]

• BBC Blast video downloads - Learn to scratch with DJ Cooper
• Spin Science: Online Turntable Music Resource
• Tablist.net Tablist news & information
• What is New York Rap? Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A 1979 radio report on the “new” phenomenon of turntablism.

Projects using turntables[link]

• Hansen, Mike. “The Turntable is Dead, Long Live the Record Player.” eContact! 12.3 — Instrument—Interface (June 2010). Montréal: CEC.
• Schick, Ignaz. The International Turntable Orchestra.

DJ Craze
Background information
Birth name	Aristh Delgado
Born	(1977-11-19) November 19, 1977 (age 34) Managua, Nicaragua
Origin	Miami, Florida, United States
Genres	Hip hop, Miami bass, Dubstep, drum n bass
Occupations	Record producer, DJ
Instruments	Sampler Turntable
Years active	1997 – present
Labels	Slumerican Records, Cartel Records, Slow Roast Records
Associated acts	Yelawolf, A-Trak, DJ Shiftee
Website	Craze

DJ Craze (November 19, 1977-), born Aristh Delgado, is a Nicaraguan American DJ who plays hip hop, Miami bass, breaks, Dubstep, drum n bass, and practices turntablism.^[1] He is the only solo DJ in history to claim the DMC World DJ Championships trophy three times consecutively (1998–2000).^[2]

Biography[link]

DJ Craze was born in Managua, Nicaragua. At the age of 3, in 1980,^[1] he fled the country with his family during the war which lasted throughout the 1980s.^[2] Craze and his family moved to San Francisco, California, where they lived for a short while, before moving to Miami, Florida, where he currently resides.^[3]

The style of his music carries many of his past musical influences. Initially influenced by the Miami Bass movement when he was younger, Craze has gone on to incorporate elements of hip-hop, drum n bass, and breaks in his turntable routines. Recently, Craze has shifted his emphasis to DJ'ing and producing drum n bass with his own record label "Cartel".

Craze released his first album in 1999, Crazee Musick, and a second in 2002, Scratch nerds. He also released an album called D-Day in 2002 with his turntable crew, The Allies.^[4]

Craze has released two of the most popular battle records ever, "Bully Breaks" and "Bully Breaks 2".

Craze was Kanye West's DJ for his Glow in the Dark tour in 2008 while A-Trak worked on his Fool's Gold record label and tour.

Craze was featured on the Native-Instruments website demonstrating the Traktor X1 Controller.

Recently, Craze created his own record label with fellow DJ & friend Kill The Noise, Slow Roast Records. Slow Roast is distributed by Fool's Gold, the record label shared by A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs. Other than Craze and Kill The Noise, Klever and Senor Stereo also release material under the Slow Roast label.^[5]

In February 2011 DJ Craze and DJ Shiftee worked together, spinning on-stage with controllerist and Traktor S4 consultant Ean Golden at Club EVE in downtown Miami for the Midi Fight Club event. Between the two of them, DJ Craze and DJ Shiftee had 7 DMC world championships behind them. The event highlighted the use of Native Instruments controllers, such as the X1, S4 and Maschine.^[6]

In September 2011, DJ Craze became Yelawolf's DJ, and signed a deal to his label Slumerican Records. He was featured on Yelawolf "Hard White Tour", along with Rittz.

Championship titles and recognition[link]

Albums[link]

• Crazee Musick (1999)
• United DJs of America, Vol. 16: The Nexxsound (2000)
• Scratch Nerds (2002)
• D-Day (with The Allies) (2002)
• Adam F: Drum and Bass Warfare (CD2 mixed by DJ Craze) (2002)^[8]
• Live in Puerto Rico: Hip Hop Drum N Bass Turntablism (2003)
• Rugged Radio Saturday (2003)
• Miami Heat (2005)^[9]
• FabricLive.38 (February 2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview with DJ Times, 2000
• Official Site
• DJ Craze interview with HHC Digital

Videos

• DJ Craze - Murder @ Butterfactory - Kanye West Concert Afterparty ~ Bring it Back
• DJ Craze - Murder @ Butterfactory - Kanye West Concert Afterparty - That Gal is Poison
• DJ Craze - Murder @ Butterfactory - Kanye West Concert Afterparty - Annie Lennox
• DJ Craze - Murder @ Butterfactory - Kanye West Concert Afterparty ~ Hold It

DJ Kayper is the stage name for Kaajal Bakrania, a DJ and Radio Presenter from the UK born in 1983. She is of Gujarati Indian descent^{[citation needed]}. She blends classic and current Hip-Hop, R&B, Reggae/Dancehall, 80's and Soul with Bhangra and Bollywood tracks.

Kayper began playing in bars and clubs around South London in 1998 at the young age of 15. She has worked as a DJ all over Europe and in London, and hosts her own hip hop and R&B night called Ebonics at the Fez Club every Tuesday in Cambridge.

Kayper was the first ever female winner of The Daily Telegraph Student DJ of the Year (2003).^[1] The same year Kayper won national recognition by becoming the first ever female to win the Vestax Juice DJ competition.

DJ Kayper on the BBC[link]

Since 17 May 2006, Kayper presents a weekly show on BBC Asian Network. Originally the show was called "The Hype Show", and was broadcast on Wednesday from 22:00 to 01:00.^{[citation needed]} It has since been renamed as "DJ Kayper" and is now broadcast on Friday, at the same hours. Kayper plays a mix of "hip hop, bhangra, dubstep, mashups and R'n'B".^[2]

Club DJ[link]

As a club DJ, Kayper has headlined at some of the worlds most renowned nightclubs including London’s Ministry of Sound and Bar Rumba, New York City’s famed SOB’s, The Knitting Factory and Joe’s Pub. She has also performed at Space Club Firenze, Malaysia’s Zouk Club, Johannesburg’s Coca Cola Dome, Ibiza’s El Divino and Mumbai’s largest Prive.

In 2010, Kayper toured Australia visiting Adelaide, Melbourne and then Perth.

In 2011 DJ Kayper won Best Club DJ at the UK Asian Music Awards.^[3]

Promoter[link]

Kayper launched her own club night called Ebonics in 2004 at the Cambridge Fez Club.

In 2003, DJ Kayper broke a record by becoming the first ever female to win the Vestax Juice DJ Competition which prompted Vestax to snap her up and officially sponsored her as a DJ^{[citation needed]}.

In 2009, she visited Houston, Texas, USA and spun records at House of Blues and also at a private engagement party.

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC Asian Network Biography

DJ Shadow
Background information
Birth name	Joshua Paul Davis
Also known as	Josh Davis
Born	(1972-06-29) June 29, 1972 (age 39) San Jose, California, U.S.
Origin	Davis, California, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop, Hyphy, Plunderphonics, instrumental hip hop, trip hop, turntablism, electronic
Occupations	Producer, DJ
Instruments	Keyboards, turntables, sampler, synthesizer
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Mo'Wax Quannum Projects Solesides MCA Universal Verve
Associated acts	UNKLE The Quannum Collective Cut Chemist
Website	djshadow.com

Joshua Paul "Josh" Davis (born June 29, 1972)^[1][2] better known as DJ Shadow is an American music producer, DJ and songwriter. He is considered a prominent figure in the development of instrumental hip hop and first gained notice with the release of his highly acclaimed debut album Endtroducing....., which was the first album to be recorded using only sampled sounds.^[3] He has an exceptionally large personal record collection, with over 60,000 records.^[4] He is the cousin of singer and guitarist Richie Kotzen.

History[link]

Early years[link]

DJ Shadow was experimenting with a four-track recorder while in high school in Davis, California, and began his music career as a disc jockey for the University of California, Davis campus radio station KDVS. During this period he was significant in developing the experimental hip hop style associated with the London-based Mo' Wax record label. His early singles, including "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found (S.F.L.)", were genre-bending works of art merging elements of funk, rock, hip hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin found records. Andy Pemberton, a music journalist writing for Mixmag, coined the term "trip hop" in June 1994 to describe Shadow's "In/Flux" single and similar tracks being spun in London clubs at the time.^[5] Though his music is hard to categorize, his early contributions were certainly important for alternative hip hop. He cited groups such as Kurtis Mantronik, Steinski, and Prince Paul as influences on his sample-based sound, further claiming that "lyrics (...) were confining, too specific". His music rarely features more than short clips of voices or vocal work.^[6]

During 1991-1992, DJ Shadow remixes were released on Hollywood BASIC, a short-lived rap/hip-hop subsidiary label of Hollywood Records. Notable amongst these is a 1992 compilation release titled "BASIC Beats Sampler",^[7] which features a remix of The Real Deal, a song by Lifers' Group, as well as a 12-plus-minute "Mega Mix" of the rest of the album, including tracks by west-coast underground hip-hop act, Raw Fusion and east-coast acts, Organized Konfusion and Zimbabwe Legit. Also in 1992, Shadow contributed scratching and production work to Sleeping with the Enemy, the controversial second release by rapper Paris.

Early in 1993, Shadow was a part of the creation of the Solesides underground hip-hop label, in conjunction with Blackalicious and Lyrics Born (whose stage name at the time was Asia Born). The first 12" release on this new imprint was titled "Entropy",^[8] with the A-side containing the Asia Born track "Send Them" and a dub rendition of the DJ Shadow track "Count and Estimate", and the entire B-side consisting of the 17-plus-minute title track. Rapper Gift of Gab is featured in the version of "Count and Estimate" that appears in Entropy. Shadow continued to participate in releases on the Solesides label for years to come, until the label was disbanded in 1996 in favour of Quannum Projects.

Also in 1993, Mo' Wax's James Lavelle contacted Shadow about releasing "In/Flux" on the fledgling imprint. The association with Mo' Wax was a productive one; his tracks "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found" made their way onto a number of releases over the next few years. Shadow also worked with DJ Krush during this period. On a 1995 visit to the Mo' Wax studios in London, England, Shadow was recruited to perform scratches on a James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy mix of the Massive Attack song Karmacoma.^[9]

[edit] Endtroducing.....

Shadow's first full-length work, Endtroducing....., was released in late 1996 to critical acclaim. Endtroducing would go on to make the Guinness World Records book for "First Completely Sampled Album" in 2001.^[10] The only pieces of equipment Shadow used to produce the album were the AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine, a pair of turntables and a borrowed-by-visiting Pro Tools setup from an early adopter of the technology, Dan "The Automator" Nakamura. In November 2006 Time magazine named it one of its "All-Time" 100 best albums.^[11]

[edit] Preemptive Strike

In 1998 Shadow released Preemptive Strike, a compilation of early singles. Later that year, he produced Psyence Fiction, the debut album by Unkle, a long-time Mo' Wax production team that featured guest appearances including Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft (The Verve), Mike D (Beastie Boys), Kool G. Rap, Jason Newsted (Metallica) among others.

[edit] Dark Days

Around 2000 he produced the score for the documentary Dark Days filmed by British director Marc Singer. This film is about a community of transients who live underground in a subway tunnel. It has six award wins in various competitions.^[12]

[edit] The Private Press

Nearly six years after his debut production album, his second album, The Private Press, was released in June 2002. In the same year^{[clarification needed]}, the movie Scratch (2001, Doug Pray) was released to DVD with DJ Shadow appearing several times throughout the movie. A video for his track "Six Days" was also released in 2002, directed by Wong Kar-wai. The album was mixed by Jim Abbiss.

[edit] In Tune and on Time

In 2004, Shadow's first feature-length DVD, In Tune and on Time, was released. It features a live performance in London that emphasizes visuals.

[edit] The Outsider

The Outsider album was released on 18 September 2006. A special edition CD box set was also released containing The Outsider, the album on CD and a DVD entitled Tour Visuals. The Outsider, which prominently featured several artists from the local San Francisco Bay Area hyphy hip hop movement, got a mixed welcome among Shadow's fans. Responding to criticisms, the DJ/producer explained on his blog why he made no apologies: "Repeat Endtroducing over and over again? That was never, ever in the game plan. Fuck that. So I think it's time for certain fans to decide if they are fans of the album, or the artist."^[13][14] DJ Shadow has also collaborated with fellow DJ Cut Chemist. Together they have created three popular mixtapes entitled Brainfreeze, Product Placement, and the recent The Hard Sell. These mixes fuse jazz, funk, and soul in the framework of a cohesive concept. He has also collaborated with several other artists, including Blackalicious, Zack de la Rocha, Keak Da Sneak, Mos Def, David Banner, and Dr. Octagon, an alter ego of Kool Keith.

In 2006, he signed a deal with Universal Records. DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist toured in 2008 in support of their mixtape The Hard Sell with Kid Koala opening for them.

[edit] Diminishing Returns

Diminishing Returns was a 2-hour DJ Mix originally broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on March 29, 2003. It was released in 2003 on CD in a pressing limited to 1000 copies on the Reconstruction Productions label.^[15] Reconstruction Productions reissued the album in 2009 with a sticker stating "official, last chance limited edition, re-release".^[16]

[edit] The Less You Know, the Better

During Shadow's Outsider 2007 tour, he was spotted filming with Dean Fernando (aka "DINO") as reported on Shadow/Quannum fansite Solesides. On April 1, 2009, DJ Shadow announced on his Facebook page that he was working on a Diminishing Returns re-release.

On March 7, 2009, Shadow announced that he was working on new music. Though no release date was given, he assured, "It will sound different from the last one."^[17] DJ Shadow released a track from the new album called "Def Surrounds Us" as a preview. During his gig in Antwerp in August 2010, he played some tracks from the new album, although he stated that it was not yet ready and that he would continue working toward having it ready in time for his 2011 tour.

On May 10, 2011, Shadow confirmed via his Facebook page and official website that his new album, titled The Less You Know, the Better, was finished and that it would be released the following September on Verve/Universal.^[18] The same day, he also released a EP called I Gotta Rokk featuring remixed tracks from the forthcoming album. A second single "I'm Excited" was also released, featuring Afrikan Boy, on July 29, 2011. However the single was pulled because of copyright infringement.^[19] The infringement also delayed the album's release. Another song from the album, titled "Warning Call," featuring Tom Vek, was released on 7 September 2011, and was featured as a free download on the official DJ Shadow Facebook page. Shadow announced on September 30, 2011 via Twitter that The Less You Know, the Better would be released on a 3xUSB format.

The artwork for this album, the associated singles and promotional material was done by Tony Papesh, an artist from San Francisco, California.^[20] The album was mixed by Jim Abbiss

Studio and equipment[link]

The book Behind the Beat documents Shadow's home studio (named "Reconstruction") through photos and a brief description (as of 2005).^[21] It is "nestled within a leafy San Francisco suburb"^[21] and Shadow apparently moved to the area "to be closer to the local record store".^[21] It also states that "Shadow only keeps a small selection of vinyl at home with the rest occupying storage units around town".^[21] His equipment as of 2005, according to Behind the Beat, consists of two Akai MPC 3000s and a Korg Triton.^[21] His album Endtroducing was "created on an AKAI MPC60 and an ADAT".^[21]

Sampling[link]

DJ Shadow's reputation is largely built on the skill with which he manipulates samples, taking rare and unheard pieces of music and reworking them into parts and phrases for his songs. Many of his tracks feature dozens of samples from a wide array of styles and influences including rock, soul, funk, experimental, electronic and jazz. Shadow famously sampled American composer David Axelrod twice: the piano in "Midnight In A Perfect World" from 1996's Endtroducing was originally recorded for Axelrod's "The Human Abstract"; and on his collaboration with DJ Krush, "Duality", sampling Axelrod's "The Warnings" (Part 1). Although Shadow currently uses fewer samples than on his earlier albums, several examples feature on 2006 album, The Outsider. His collaboration with David Banner, "Seein' Thangs", features a synthesizer and vocals from Cecilia's "Crimson Red" and "Outsider Intro" includes an excerpt from Ron Geesin's "Concrete Line Up" from the 1973 album, As He Stands.^[22]

Discography[link]

• Endtroducing..... (1996)
• Preemptive Strike (1998)
• The Private Press (2002)
• The Outsider (2006)
• The Less You Know, the Better (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: DJ Shadow

• Official website
• Quannum Projects
• Solesides
• DJ Shadow discography at Discogs