Quote

Cutting and pasting is the essence of what hip-hop culture is all about for me. It's about drawing from what's around you, and subverting it and decontextualizing it.

DJ Shadow

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

DJ Shadow
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: June 29
Club Dj
Composer
Disc Jockey
Record Producer
Hayward
California
Joshua Paul Davis
Josh Davis
Joshua Davis
Cutting
Culture
Around
Pasting
Subverting
Hops
Hips
Drawing
Essence

More quotes by DJ Shadow

Image
Like a lot of other DJs, I've been wondering when the first DJ game was going to happen. Somebody even pitched me on their own idea and I thought, I'm not a video game startup I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this.
DJ Shadow
Image
When I think about the stuff I turned down it's kind of insane.
DJ Shadow
Image
If I wanted to contribute to the hyphy movement, what good is it making a hyphy record that isn't embraced by that community?
DJ Shadow
Image
My problem with iTunes is that I don't have any say in how I'm represented on the site.
DJ Shadow
Image
My core values are still the same about music, and my work ethic, and what I want to represent to people.
DJ Shadow
Image
I couldn't make a real drum'n'bass or dubstep record to save my life. But I can be influenced by them in small ways.
DJ Shadow
Image
To be honest, I didn't really get into making music to be an album artist.
DJ Shadow
Image
When I'm looking for DJ sets and stuff to drop, I look for music that I feel is gonna get the reaction I want from the crowd.
DJ Shadow
Image
It's about respecting what I think people like about the original music. I'm not gonna ever take it to the extent that I'm kinda George Lucas-ing moments of the album over and over again, trying to get them right over the next 30 years - I don't wanna do anything like that. But, yeah - it's a... fascinating conundrum through the years.
DJ Shadow
Image
I've tried to tell people that the reason I don't really get excited over good press is that I don't want to get agitated over bad press. I don't wanna get too high on good press, too low on bad press. It's just not a healthy way to engage with my own feelings about my music.
DJ Shadow
Image
As for my store, most artists' sites send you to a third-party storefront like iTunes, whereas we're disseminating it ourselves. I was always uncomfortable with the thought of sending somebody who came to my site to buy something to some other store. It just occurred to me, Why can't we do this?
DJ Shadow
Image
I would agree with you that there's 90% imitation and 10% innovation. That's true of any genre.
DJ Shadow
Image
I always consider every album to be a snapshot.
DJ Shadow
Image
I got asked to remix a lot of movie themes, like Mission Impossible, which other people ended up doing quite well. But it was just never my thing.
DJ Shadow
Image
Anything that sparks some eight-year-old's interest in music or DJing is great.
DJ Shadow
Image
I would rather have 10 people working on a record that are really committed and believe in it and love it, than 50 people who have no idea who I am or what I'm for.
DJ Shadow
Image
I saw. I wanted to start my own store so people would know that what they were buying was real. There were bootlegs around at the time that had my name on the cover, but the music had nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to compare myself to [Jimmie] Hendrix, but back in the '70s, there were some Hendrix bootlegs.
DJ Shadow
Image
Frequently, when I'm compared to someone, I'm like, Is that really what people think I sound like?
DJ Shadow
Image
There are a lot of music startups that don't have anything to do with anyone's love for music. It has to do with them having a glorious IPO and then retiring to the Bahamas somewhere. It's important to keep that in mind.
DJ Shadow
Image
It's satisfying to put out new music. And I think that's the context in which I'm comfortable revisiting things from the past.
DJ Shadow