^^^ Understood. 'Cept you gotta understand Shadow's already done the outrageous, it was called: "Endtroducing." At the time it came out, it blew everyone away because there really wasn't any other album that had come out at the time like "Endtroducing." Alot of people argue that Shadow pretty much created his own genre: Trip-Hop, with that album. It also held the Guiness World Record for the first completely sample-based music album ever. I dunno how much more outrageous you can get than that, especially for a debut album.
And I agree with the previous poster who said without Shadow, we wouldn't have an RJD2. Although, I think we would have an RJD2 he proably wouldn't have become the solo artist that he is today because he was doing stuff with Mhz since waaay back. He either would've stayed a behind the scenes producer taking the backseat to the MC's or he would've been the guy to put solo trip-hop type instrumental albums to the forefront.
He [RJD2] stated in an interview that around the early 90's when he first got his MPC 2000, he was blown away by all the options and things you could do with it. And he started puting together the more complex solo type of stuff waay back then also, its just the MC's he was working with didn't wanna rhyme on those beats because it didn't leave enough room for them to shine as lyricists.
But, unfortunately after hearing some tracks from THe Outsider, I was deeply disappointed. It sounded really aweful and nothing at all like ol' school shadow. It sounds like a pop album. Anyone know what he used to make his latest? I understand he's changed his set-up over time from the MPC 60 (which he should definitely return to using) to two MPC 3000's with Pro-Tools and NI Battery (with the 60 acting as a MIDI controller).