Informal Introduction

Informal Introduction is the debut studio album by American rapper Shade Sheist. It was released on September 10, 2002, through MCA Records. Recording sessions took place at Larrabee Studios, at Soundcastle, at Skip Saylor Recording, and at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Production was handled by Damizza, Eddie Berkeley, KayGee, DJ Quik, Howie Hersh and Timbaland. It features guest appearances from Nate Dogg, AMG, DJ Clue, Fabolous, Hi-C, Knoc-turn'al, Kurupt, Vita and Warren G among others.

Due to little promotion, the album was not a commercial success, only reaching number 69 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. It did, however, feature his biggest hit to date "Where I Wanna Be", which peaked at 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 12 on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs. The album spawned three additional singles, "Money Owners", "John Doe" and "Wake Up" all of which became minor hits on the R&B charts.

Personnel
Guest artists/vocalists
 * Tramayne Thompson – main artist, co-producer (tracks: 7, 15), co-executive producer, mixing (track 10)


 * Henry "DJ Echo" Olortegui – featured artist (tracks: 1, 16)
 * Eric "DJ Vice" Aguirre – featured artist (tracks: 1, 16)
 * Damion Young – featured artist (tracks: 13, 16), backing vocals (track 2)
 * Latonya Holmes – backing vocals (track 2)
 * John Jackson – featured artist (track 3)
 * Royal Harbor – featured artist (track 3)
 * David Blake – featured artist (track 4)
 * Crawford Wilkerson – featured artist (track 4)
 * Jason Lewis – featured artist (track 4)
 * Kenyan "Swift" Martin – featured artist (track 4)
 * Ernesto "DJ Clue" Shaw – featured artist (track 5)
 * Barbara Wilson – featured artist (tracks: 6, 11), backing vocals (tracks: 6, 7, 11, 13)
 * Nathaniel Dwayne Hale – featured artist (tracks: 6, 9, 12, 14)
 * Chris "Nune" McCauley – featured artist (tracks: 6, 15)
 * LaVita Raynor – featured artist (track 6)
 * Caz – featured artist (track 7)
 * Timothy Mosley – featured artist (track 8)
 * Warren Griffin III – featured artist (track 9)
 * Ricardo "Kurupt" Brown – featured artist (track 14)
 * King Arthur – featured artist (track 15)

Instrumentalists


 * Damion "Damizza" Young – drums (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 10–13, 15), programming (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 15) , percussion (tracks: 2, 6, 13, 15) , keyboards (track 5)
 * Howard B. Hersh – bass & keyboards (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 10–13)
 * DeVante Swing – keyboards (track 4)
 * Emmanuel "DJ EMan" Coquia – scratches (track 5)
 * Anthony Mazza – guitar (tracks: 7, 10)
 * Florian Ammon – Pro Tools (tracks: 6, 7, 12, 13)
 * D.B. Murda – programming (track 12)
 * B.W.N. – programming (track 12)

Technicals


 * Damizza – producer (tracks: 2, 5–7, 10–13, 15), co-producer (tracks: 3, 14) , executive producer, recording (tracks: 6, 7, 11, 13)
 * Howie Hersh – producer (track 3)
 * David "DJ Quik" Blake – producer & mixing (track 4)
 * Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley – producer & mixing (track 8)
 * Edward Berkeley – producer (tracks: 9, 14)
 * Kier Gist – producer (tracks: 9, 14)
 * Michael Schlesinger – mixing (tracks: 2, 5–7, 10–15), recording (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 10–15)
 * Jimmy Douglass – mixing (track 8)
 * Steve Penny – engineering (track 8)
 * Jeremy – recording (tracks: 6, 8)
 * Ray – recording (track 7)
 * Jason Schweitzer – recording (track 13)
 * Evren Göknar – mastering
 * Brian – additional editing (track 5)
 * Aaron – additional engineering (track 8)

Additional


 * Jesse Alvarez – art direction, design & illustration
 * JP Robinson – art direction, design & illustration
 * Manuel J. Donayre – art direction, design & illustration
 * David Irvin – photography
 * Anthony Mandler – photography
 * Naim Ali – A&R
 * Alicia N. Graham – A&R
 * Sujit Kundu – management, co-executive producer