It’s either 2003 or 2004, a six year old or seven year old me, is in the back seat of a Green Grand Cherokee Jeep car, listening to a 1995 Jungle Mania cassette tape blasted full volume on the car stereo, on the way back home from after school club.
I’m in my school uniform, with my seat beat strapped on bouncing excitingly to this wild 150 to 200 bpm tempo, the music is covered with Reggae, Dub and Hip-Hop sampling, firing gun shots played in the background and constant wheels up happening every three minutes after a song is played. Thinking about it, it’s not really the best material to play in front of a child, but my old man did not care and wanted me to soak this all in, as he saw the bands I liked at the time such as Busted as pure shite
…show more content…
My father credits the genre of helping him to appreciate the UK after his arrival.
My parents are Congolese immigrants who moved to the United Kingdom in the late 80s/early 90s in search for a better life and escape a country which was about to enter in its first civil war. Moving here, the two found it hard to identify themselves in becoming British and accepting their new country. But when Jungle music arrived in British clubs in the early and mid-90s, the genre was this new exciting sound, which made the two eager to understand it more and be involved in any way.
In the early 1990s, Acid House had now become commercialised and many DJs began to move away from the genre. Music label Shut Up and Dance, and acclaimed DJs Fabio and Grooverider, were originally part of the Acid House movement but left, and began to experiment with Hip-Hop breakbeats and evolve it to a dance tempo. The genre would eventually be Jungle when deejay’s (Jamaican term for rapping) such as the Ragga Twins started to get involved in the breakbeat sound. They were the first to corporate Reggae and Dancehall, and they are mostly credited of forming the Jungle genre, as producers would sample classic Jamaican/Caribbean