DJ Spooky

DJ Spooky (That Subliminal Kid) emerged as one of the most noted proponents of turntablism, an approach to hip-hop and DJ'ing whose philosophy merges avant-garde theories of musique concrète with the increased devotion paid to mixing techniques beginning at the turn of the millennium. Influenced equally by John Cage and Sun Ra as well as Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, few artists have done more to mainstream the DJ-as-artist concept than him. His first album, 1996's Songs of a Dead Dreamer, was perhaps the defining release of the illbient movement. From there, his works have included collaborations with avant-classical ensembles (the Freight Elevator Quartet, the Kronos Quartet), abstract rappers (Kool Keith, the Jungle Brothers), dub pioneers (Lee "Scratch" Perry, Mad Professor), jazz visionaries (Matthew Shipp, William Parker), metal drummer Dave Lombardo (on 2005's Drums of Death), and countless others. During the 2000s, he released mix CDs spanning the entire catalogs of labels such as Thirsty Ear, Sub Rosa, Shadow, and Trojan Records. While much of his 2010s output consisted of modern classical and soundtrack releases, including 2015's Rebirth of a Nation, he returned to reggae and dub with 2018's Phantom Dancehall.