Shifting Gears by Z-Trip

Shifting Gears was the first proper studio album from Z-Trip, the DJ and producer born Zach Sciacca, and it arrived on Hollywood Records in 2005 from a man already counted among the pioneers of the mashup. Here he trades the bootleg blend for something built from scratch, and the guest list reads like a crate-digger's fever dream.

Chuck D shows up, and so does Chester Bennington, alongside a deep bench of rappers: Lyrics Born, Busdriver, Murs, Aceyalone, Supernatural, Mystic, Soup, Luke Sick and Whipper Whip. The record swerves and switches lanes the way a great DJ set does, hip-hop at the core but restless about where it goes next. "Walking Dead" was the cut that made it onto the countdowns. Z-Trip went on to collect the America's Best DJ Award in 2009 and to tour as LL Cool J's DJ.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.