A query on digging...

[essei 7.0]

I am a pre-noob. I was wondering what records I should start out with and start mixing. I have no idea where to start artist wise. Are there certain jazz, funk, soul, blues, experimental, hip hop, techno, house, etc. genres I should look up for my influences. As I said, this is just for me starting out...I would study and look up my own after being helped for a while.

My influences are:

DJ Shadow, UNKLE, Public Enemy, Gorillaz, Saukrates, among others.

[HBBoogie]

You could try using Pandora to find tracks that sound familiar to what you're looking for. Just keep a pen or whatever handy to write down stuff you like. When you hear something you like, write down the artist name and label it was released on and start looking through the entire label.

I usually just use labels to find stuff. If I like a certain artist I'll look and see what other labels they have releases on and look through all of tracks those labels have.

Turntable lab has a digital record store worth checking out http://digital.turntablelab.com/

[Mahatma Coat]

You could also put the artists you like into discogs.com and see which record labels they release on, from there you could see which other artists release on the same label and begin to expand your knowledge.

From the names you've posted you looks like you're into trip-hop, downbeat and hip-hop kind of stuff.

You should definitely check out the record labels Mo-Wax, Ninja Tunes, Warp Records, Skint & Wall of Sound Recordings.