Greyboy

Hailing from San Diego, producer and DJ Andreas Stevens—better known as Greyboy—initially gravitated toward hip-hop, yet a shortage of suitable MCs prompted him to pivot toward acid jazz, making him the earliest American to embrace the style. The shift proved fruitful. His first solo release, Freestylin', arrived in 1994 and featured saxophonist Karl Denson; the Ubiquity-issued album, recorded for just $4,000 with no promotional budget, became a cult favorite across Europe and remains the label's top seller. That same year the underground favorite "Unwind Your Mind," another Denson collaboration, surfaced on Ubiquity's Home Cookin' compilation. Stevens followed with Land of the Lost in 1996, just as acid jazz's commercial momentum began to fade. Between 1993 and 1997 he and Denson anchored the acid jazz outfit Greyboy Allstars, which issued three albums on the band's own Greyboy Records imprint. Stevens later returned to hip-hop by teaming with skateboarding champion Rob Dyrdek to establish the P-Jays label, whose compilations and 12-inch singles found particular favor among skateboarders. In 2001 he resurfaced under the Greyboy name with the well-received Mastered the Art, a blend of hip-hop, jazz, rare-groove, and world music that showcased live players Dave Pike and Elgin Park alongside rapper MC MainFlo.