Record Label: Universal Motown
Genre: Electronica/ Hip-Hop
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

My friends told me about DJ Shadow and I liked his instrumental hip-hop, sampling DJing style; so I was looking forward to hearing this new album. Sadly, “The Outsider” wasn’t what I was expecting because this is pretty much a generic hip-hop album. All that you liked about DJ Shadow has gone out the window as he “tries something different.” Yeah it’s very different but the reason why people like him in the first place is because there isn’t any singing over your music.

Maybe DJ Shadow was getting bored doing the same type of thing that made him known in the hip hop scene. DJ Shadow released maybe 3 or 4 albums and about 4 years apart from each other. Couldn’t he have made some more instrumental albums before selling out. Yeah I said it. This isn’t the type of stuff he’s used to making and he changed his style a lot. The rap singing over the music is annoying and I can’t even listen to it. I like some rap and hip-hop but this rap is just obnoxious & annoying. Then there’s some female vocals singing over slower songs (similar to “Six Days” off Private Press). That stuff is okay but I keep wanting to hear some songs that sound like songs from “Endtroducing..” and “Private Press.” Which pretty much sums up this album. I’m very disappointed in this album.

Bottom Line: Listen to older DJ shadow albums, you know, when he actually made good music.
Notable Tracks: This Time
Overall Rating: