Samuel Morris Zornow (born January 27, 1986), better known as DJ Shiftee, is a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

based DJ and

turntablist Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system ...

Career

Zornow is the 2009 DMC World DJ Finals Champion, the only American DJ to date to have won the DMC Battle for World Supremacy, and was also the youngest champion to win the DMC New York Regional (age 17 in 2003) until DJ Dwells took the title in 2014, at the age of 13. Zornow is also a member of the Lo-Livez DJ crew and DJ program director at electronic music production and DJ school, DubSpot. He is featured in several Native Instruments ad campaigns for their flagship

Traktor Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products. History Traktor was first released in 2000. The initial versions available were ''Traktor DJ'' ...

product. He also recently teamed up with

Jamie Lidell Jamie Alexander Lidderdale (born 18 September 1973, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England), known professionally as Jamie Lidell, is an English musician, soul singer and podcast host living in Nashville, Tennessee. Lidell was formerly a part of ...

Tim Exile Tim Exile (or Exile) is the recording alias of Tim Shaw, a producer and performer of electronic music spanning drum and bass, IDM, breakcore and gabber. History A classically trained violinist, he began experimenting with electronic music age ...

, Mr. Jimmy, and Jeremy Ellis to form Mostly Robot, a collaborative music project that premiered at Sonar Festival in Barcelona in 2012.

Background

Zornow was born on January 27, 1986, in

to David Zornow, a lawyer, and Martha Zornow, a former lawyer, entertainment executive and teacher who later became a school principal. Zornow began DJing at age 13DJ Times: How An Ivy Leaguer Became DMC World Champ
/ref> after purchasing a set of turntables and mixer with money from his Bar Mitzvah. Entering his first competition at age 16,The Harvard Crimson: The All-Spin Zone
/ref> Zornow continued on to win several competitions while in high school at

Scarsdale High School Scarsdale High School (SHS) is a public high school in Scarsdale, New York, United States, a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York. It is a part of the Scarsdale Union Free School District. The school was founded in 1917. ...

in Scarsdale, NY. Zornow was runner-up at the 2004 DMC NYC Championships, and stopped competitive DJing despite being inducted to the Lo-Livez crew. He attended Harvard University, the alma mater of his parents, where he concentrated in mathematics and was actively sought to DJ campus events.The Harvard Crimson: SPOTLIGHT: Sam M. Zornow '08
/ref> In 2007, Zornow returned to competitive DJing after a 3-year leave of absence, winning the DMC Battle for USA Supremacy,The Harvard Crimson: Senior Wins World DJ Title
/ref> and subsequently the DMC Battle for World Supremacy. After graduation from Harvard University, Zornow won the 2009 DMC World DJ Finals, and was awarded the symbolic golden turntables and mixer. As an instructor, Zornow taught a course in DJ History, Culture, & Technique at

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

as an adjunct professor starting in the summer of 2010. In addition, Zornow teaches DJing techniques, use of

vinyl emulation software A close-up of a time-coded vinyl record Vinyl emulation allows a user to physically manipulate the playback of digital audio files on a computer using the turntables as an interface, thus preserving the hands-on control and feel of DJing with vi ...

, such as

Traktor Scratch Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products. History Traktor was first released in 2000. The initial versions available were ''Traktor DJ'' ...

, and has 2 courses devoted to

turntablism Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system ...

techniques at Music Production & DJ School, DubSpot. Zornow is featured in a series of instructional videos titled, “Shiftee Salsa School of Scratch", the January 2009 cover of ''DJ Times'' magazine, and on

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been cod ...

. He is also endorsed by Native Instruments.

Awards

*2009 DMC World Champion *2009 DMC USA Champion *2009 DMC East Coast Champion *2008 IDA/ITF Finals World Vice Champion *2007 DMC Supremacy World Champion *2007 DMC Supremacy USA Champion *2004 DMC Regional Wilmington Del Champion *2004 Guitar Center NY/NJ Champion *2003 DMC Regional NYC Champion *2003 ITF Regional East Coast Champion

References

External links

DJ Shiftee MySpaceDJ Shiftee YouTubeDJ Shiftee Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiftee, Dj 1986 births Living people American hip hop DJs Harvard University alumni People from Scarsdale, New York Tisch School of the Arts faculty Scarsdale High School alumni