THERE'S SOMETHING TO be said for having the world at your fingertips. Just ask Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow.
His fingers have been his bread and butter for the past 10 years, helping him carve out a niche - or more like an empire - as one of the world's hottest turntablists.
His story starts in college, where he spent every spare moment rifling through stacks of vinyl, experimenting for hours, searching for the right sounds to pull from the dusty records, then blending them with modern, sexed-up downbeats.
He called the result Endtroducing, and it flew off shelves. His trajectory into the public sphere was swift. Success and adoration were instant. And that's how a young, white guy from San Francisco pioneered the instrumental hip hop movement.
Although the 33-year-old DJ has had his share of good luck over the years, his attempts to play in Hong Kong since his debut appearance in 1996 have tested his mettle. His 2003 performance was cancelled after the Sars outbreak, and last month's show looked set to suffer the same fate after another bout of bad luck - this time, a typhoon. But Davis eventually made it to town and the show went ahead - albeit two days late.
Settling into a chair in the Park Lane Hotel, just hours before the long-planned show, he looks worse for wear. His eyes bear the tell-tale signs that he hasn't had much shut-eye in the past 24 hours. But it's not due to excessive partying. His manager hovers, asking the media to go easy on the poor DJ, and issuing a warning to keep photographs to a minimum.
'We were stuck in Singapore for 18 hours,' says Davis, alluding to Typhoon Prapiroon, which left hundreds stranded en route to Hong Kong.
