White Shadow

DJ White Shadow (born Paul Blair) is a producer, disc jockey and sound engineer based out of Chicago, Illinois. He produced songs on Lady Gaga's third album, 'Born This Way', including the Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers 'Born This Way' and 'The Edge Of Glory'. Most recently, White Shadow has released 'I'm Killing Me', a mixtape of original material. The White Shadow started as a DJ in 1978 at the age of eight playing at home, and at parties in his local school, and started playing at kids-disco’s and youthclubs in his hometown of Geilo / Norway in 1980 at the age of ten, where he spun mostly Disco, Funk, and early Rap records. He advanced to playing regular clubs all over Norway, and at the same time developing his mixing and scratching skills resulting in him winning the Norwegian DMC DJ battle in 1988, and he also won the same title in 1989. He competed in the DMC world championships both years, securing a number ten spot for Norway in ' 89, and then The White Shadow got into beatmaking, and production as well. That was in 1990, and in ‘ 91 The White Shadow went to New York to get into the Hiphop scene. That worked really well, and in no time he found himself DJ' ing at New York top spots such as Giant Step, Limelight, Nells, Redzone, Sound Factory, Wetlands, The Ritz, The Muse, S.O.B.'s, and lots of house parties, and was also the opening act for artists and DJ' s such as Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, KRS 1, Ultramagnetic MC's, Das EFX, UMC's, Fu-Schnikens, Show & AG, Lord Finesse, Gangstarr, Masta Ace, Funkmaster Flex, Roy Ayers, Gil Scott Heron, Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers, and many more. On the production tip he got involved with Boogie Down Productions, and became a member of BDP’s extended fam, and also scratched on BDP member Jamalski's ' 93 Ruffhouse / Sony music album release "Roughneck Reality" on a track called "Hangin' Tree" that The White Shadow also co-produced and mixed. That track was later featured in the movie "Last Action Hero" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. After a couple of years in New York The White Shadow took all the inspiration back with him to Norway to create and develop a unique DJ and production style combining the styles of the mean streets of New York with sounds inspired by the beautiful nature of Norway. He stayed in the lab until 1996 and perfected his skills until he was ready to bring them out in public once again. Then he came back on the Norwegian Hiphop-scene releasing several classic mixtapes in Scandinavia, and was also the opening act for artists such as Rahzell, Alkaholiks, Arsonists, Peanut Butter Wolf, Artifacts, DJ Noize, Supernatural, DJ Shine, Looptroop, and many more in Scandinavia from 1996 - 2000. In Scandinavia The White Shadow has done production and cuts for artists like Frednukes (DK), Mr. Malchau (DK), Nat Ill (DK), Darkside Of The Force (N), Mindstate(Kizzo) (N) working on tracks together with legendary producer Easy Moe Bee, Paperboys (N), Mad Con (N), Kleencut (N), El Axel (N), Bad Spit (N), Soul Theory (N), MC Cey (N), and more. The White Shadow is also mentioned in the Norwegian Hiphop history book titled "Hip Hop Hoder" (Hip Hop Heads) where he has his own chapter in the section about Hiphop pioneers in Norway, and he also helped write the chapter on Hiphop in the book "Wow" that's used for music classes in the Norwegian universities. On the production side of things The White Shadow has aproximately forty releases in his Discography. In 2001 he produced D-Stroy, formerly of the group Arsonists', first solo single "Roll Out" on Matador records that was number one on the CMJ chart, which is American college and online-radio, and beat well established artists such as Redman and Hi-Tek on that chart, and it was also number one on the Undergroundhiphop.com top forty for months, and recieved out of this world reviews. White Shadow followed that with another underground classic in 2002 by producing a 12" called "Leisure" for Philly MC Maylay Sparks featuring Grand Agent, Louis Logic, and Malik B from The Roots. "Leisure" was released on the label B9000 in Belgium, and distributed by Grooveattack in Germany. The White Shadow released his solo- 12" EP "Back To The True School" in 2003 on his own label Uncut Productions that reached number nine on the top album sellers for September - 2003 on ughh.com, and consisted of four bangin' Hiphop joints featuring Celph Titled, Majik Most, Guttamouf, Grand Agent, Maylay Sparks, Gr8 Skot, D-Stroy, and Strange Brew, plus the B-side was a battletool for DJ's and Turntablists titled "Retarded Loonatick Brakez". After the EP The White Shadow took some time out to produce and scratch on other artists releases, and in 2003 - 2005 he produced tracks for three Maylay Sparks albums: "A Legend In My Own Mind" (City Connections - Norway), "Greymatter" (BBE/Rapster - Germany), and "The Ill Collabo" (Sony / BMG - Germany), two albums for the local Milwaukee / Minneapolis acts Strange Brew, and The Pizdamen, as well as tracks for Infinito 2017 from Chicago, the Tampa / Florida MC Majik Most's album and DVD "Molesting Hip Hop", and did cuts and co production with producer Illmind, now signed to G-Unit, on North Carolina MC Supastition's "Chain Letters" album on Soulspazm / Rawkus records. On December first 2005 The White Shadow's official debut album "Renegades" was released on Uncut Productions with fifteen tracks featuring twenty five of the best independent MC's from the USA including Supastition, J-Zone, Celph Titled, Majik Most, Mic Stylz, Raks One,The Longshots, Grand Agent, and many more. The album has been praised by fans and the underground Hiphop press worldwide. In 2006 The White Shadow did work for Tash from The Alkaholiks laying down cuts for tracks on his upcoming album, and produced the song "Narrow Grave" on the Jedi Mind Tricks presents Army Of The Pharaohs album "The Torture Papers" on Babygrande Records that was the best selling independent Hiphop album that year. AOTP's members include Apathy, Vinnie Paz, Celph Titled, Chief Kamachi, Outerspace and Reef The Lost Cauze. In 2006 The White Shadow also produced the track "Extra Thug Sauce" for Celph Titled's "The Gatalog", that is the best selling of all time album on ughh.com. The Remix album "Remixed & Rarities" dropped in February 2007 on Boston's award winning number one Hiphop label Commonwealth Records / Amalgam Digital, and most of the remixes on that album were done by The White Shadow, and featured artists such as Krumbsnatcha, Slaine, Esoteric, Ripshop, Clokworx, Mic Stylz, and more. In late 2007 The White Shadow produced tracks for Supastition, Majik Most, and Matlock's latest albums, that all came out in October/ November that year, did the new and final intro for the legendary Hiphop radio show Late Night Hype in Milwaukee, and started his own radioshow called "Timewarp" on Cyberjamz.com playing classic and obscure Disco, Boogie, Funk, and everything else Dance related, sharing air time with legends such as Jellybean Benitez and Hippie Torales for the one year term that the show lasted. May 2008 was the release of The White Shadow's second album "Untouchable" featuring more MC's from the US on the mic. On that album the featured artists were among others Reef The Lost Cauze (AOTP), Tash (The Alkaholiks / The Liks), Krumbsnatcha, Esoteric, Slaine (known from the blockbuster movie "Gone Baby Gone"), and many more. White Shadow also continued to produce and do scratches for other Hiphop artists. Supastition's new EP "Leave Of Absence" released in July 2008 featured The White Shadow on the turntables and beats, as did Chicago Rapper Matlock's album "Matlock Hates You" that featured production from Kanye West among others, and was released in October 2008, and D-Stroy's long awaited October '08 release of his Cataclysm album featuring R. Kelly, Busta Rhymes, and two songs produced by The White Shadow. In June 2008 The White Shadow signed two record deals. One with Foundation Media in New York for his latest Instrumental album simply titled "Instrumentals"..released in September 2008, and another with 4lux/Amplified Records in Holland for extended 12" versions of the vocoder Boogie tracks "Funk Strutt" and "Boogie F.R.E.A.K." slated for a March 13th. release, with that heavy electronic Funk sound from the early 80's in the style of Zapp, Maggabrain, etc... The tracks are already getting club and airplay in Europe, and Japan in it's 7" edit versions, and some mistake them to actually have been made in the early 80's. With 4lux The White Shadow has gone back to his roots of Disco and Funk as he's working with them to release reissues of some of the most rare 80's Funk tracks too. White Shadow is currently working on his next Hiphop album featuring various MC's, drops Oct. 26 2009. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.