"85-86 that's when you start hearing samples in rap records so it went from DJs playing those records to people putting it in the sampler."

This is the first part of a series of interviews with Josh Davis about what influenced and shaped him to become the artist that we know as DJ Shadow. Let's go back to when it all began... Jon You were born on the 29th of June 1972 in San Jose, California to Larry and Penni. Can you tell me where your family came from originally? Josh Most of my early memories were from a town we lived in called Middletown, California, just with my mom because they separated when I was about t

"There was no Oakland rap in 1979 when Sugar Hill Gang came in, it did not exist. I thought it was so cool that people could do that..."

Oras is regarded by Shadow as being his first mentor. The two met in 1986 as Oras was the top DJ at KDVS, the UC Davis college radio.