The London-based Mo' Wax label's experimental instrumental hip-hop style is largely regarded as having been pioneered by DJ Shadow (born Josh Davis). He first absorbed the heyday of teams like Eric B. and Rakim, Ultramagnetic MCs, and Public Enemy—groups that notably utilized DJs in their ranks—after being inspired by the genre's formative years. In Davis, a NorCal cow-town, Shadow had already been experimenting with recording beats and breaks on a four-track recorder while he was a high school student, but it wasn't until later in college that he co-founded his own Solesides label to release his own music. Through the student radio station, Shadow made connections with Davis' few b-boys, including future Solesides musicians Blackalicious and Lyrics Born, and in 1991 he started distributing the Hip-Hop Reconstruction mix tapes. In 1993, he released his 17-minute beat-head symphony Entropy. His songs gained a lot of traction in the DJ-heavy hip-hop underground before being noticed by Mo' Wax. Endtroducing..., Shadow's debut album, received overwhelmingly positive reviews in both Britain and America when it was released in late 1996. Early in 1998, Preemptive Strike, a collection of debut singles, was released. Later that year, U.N.K.L.E., a long-running Mo' Wax production company, recruited superstar guests including Thom Yorke (of Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft (of the Verve), Mike D (of the Beastie Boys), and others, and Shadow produced tunes for the debut album..

How to hire DJ Shadow for an event