100

[wg-]

45





Back to the "real" funky, probably got to get Scotti Dee in there somewhere. I was trying to find the Destruction remix he did but it's not on youtube. (It was on the Mak10 b2b Marcus on Rinse that made everything blow up). So we have got Liberty instead, and Lost In Abyss which is one of the few really big ones to come out of the new thing so far really. Pretty good going to have big tunes 12 or 13 years apart and do very little in the whole time between I think.
Plus a good example of the East London to Essex exodus where loads of these East producers sidle out of the city and you end up having afro-house raves in Waltham Abbey or Gants Hill etc. That was a weird by-product of gentrification and London scene death, I think; I drive to e.g. Hertfordshire now and you've got adverts on A10 flyover for Supa D raves. Surely that wasn't the case 10-15 years ago.

Really someone does need to make a case for Supa D being a big pivotal figure one day.

 

[wg-]

44



Scotti Dee/Scotty D historically part of Scare Dem Crew (not the dancehall one obviously) along with Ears, Hoodlem, Flamin etc. Just kids really but it's nice to make tenuous links between musical lineage eh. That's what this place came from anyway
Not saying this "tape" is perfect, it's scruffy and pretty shit at times really but there's an Ears tune called "Don't Talk About Beef" in it, which is where this embed should start? Love that beat so much, wish there was a better quality version but the low bitrate probably makes it sound better than it is anyway, tends to be the case.
Back to the WQBC post, this one is so lost and obscure the only way you can hear it is inside a fake youtube mixtape that isn't even timestamped.

There must be someone who's written about the concept of ideas of the future lost already. As we enter into the streaming app singularity these moments of the past will disappear forever. If e.g. Silverdrizzle or BlueDollarBillz etc deleted their accounts where does this music even exist.

This "mixtape" is better than i remember actually. Glad I put it in

 

[needful]

yeh idk this seems more school bad bwoy. Not much street confidence. I can forgive that if they've got a hook or something but nah .. meh.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Back to the "real" funky, probably got to get Scotti Dee in there somewhere. I was trying to find the Destruction remix he did but it's not on youtube. (It was on the Mak10 b2b Marcus on Rinse that made everything blow up).

Was this the one that had that "this is happening!" sample and those stabbing strings? Shame Scottie D didn't get more stuff released back then, love his stuff.

 

[wg-]

Yeah something like that, think it was like a souped up version of Witchdoktor if you know that AVH tune

Destruction... Keeps happening

I did have a moody mp3 of it once but can't find it atm

 

[wg-]

43




Bit of anomaly here but I have been trying to rip off this song for several years off and on and failing so lets just throw it out into the ether instead. This lot are from 1985, LA Post-Punk scene, deep obscurity, but tunes started re-circulating 2010/2011 for whatever reason- probably an adventurous blogger.

Anyway if you take away the woman saying scuby-ruby this to me sounds like its got a uk funky riff in it, 8-bar structures, a bit warm square wave bassline, house pads; amazed there's never been a proper re-version of it that turns it into the big syncopated house banger that's clearly lurking somewhere inside

The rest of their music isn't up my street.

 

[Benny Bunter]

46




If I remember right this wasn't actually Cndo, she bought the rhythm off Gukwa and then when it blew up 2007/2008 there was a bit of a furore about it. Like so many things it is lost to time and space now and you just have a vague belief of being correct. I had a copy of "No Fear" by DJ Clock that was labelled Cndo but she definitely didn't make that either
Anyway there were loads of tunes when funky was just kicking off that were grabbed from other parts of the world and scenes that were definitely not adjacent but they just ended up becoming funky tunes anyway.
A bit like Karizma- Twyst This or God Made Me Phunky etc

Remember this? used to get hammered on radio, great for MCs. Sounded so much like Lil Silva or Champion think it was an SA thing though?

 

[wg-]

Remember this? used to get hammered on radio, great for MCs. Sounded so much like Lil Silva or Champion think it was an SA thing though?

Yess love this tune

There was a website called afrodesiamp3.net (i think) around the time of funky blowing up and quite a few people used to delve into it to get tunes that fitted in. That's where you could buy terminator, world on fire, the dj clock tunes, black coffee etc

In fact

 

[wg-]

42 / 41





First big funky vocal in here for a while, we were buzzing when you found out you could just buy it on afrodesia like it was nothing. Can't remember who first started playing it- maybe Kismet from Circle. Remember dubbage?- but pretty soon everyone knew it like back of the hand and DJs could cut the tune out and all the girls could go TURN ME ON

Which is the surefire sign of a funky anthem

Another big one that i really liked was Dragon's End, again an afrodesia tune, found it by accident and didn't hear it about that much but it was good. You just have to have a mix planned for it as the intro is so fucking long and you can end up having to drop it in without the bassline if you're not careful

 

[wg-]

40





Really similar vibe to the Sdoko tune Benny just posted, the original Kenny Dope EP had two big sides then they both got ripped off- D-Malice did Total Destruction and then Lil Silva did No Hook(s)

Tbh they are basically the same tune but Lil Silva brought the London to it and this was a big big tune at the time. One for the MCs/hosts yeah but this got loads of rewinds

 

[Benny Bunter]

Aww man turn me on what a vibe

 

[Benny Bunter]

Always wondered if Kenny Dope had any idea about what he'd set off in Iondon with that No Hooks tune, which seems like a fairly one off tune for him (is it called square wave that bass sound?) I remember in an interview Champion claiming he was the pioneer of that bass sound but surely Lil Silva was the first to rip it off that KD tune and make it a thing for a while?

 

[wg-]

Champion did have Motherboard/Tribal Affair which was a really good 12 but yeah there's no way it was "his". Original No Hook was already big by middle of 08 and there were at least two of the bootleg 4 trackers with it on before Lil Silva or Champion were doing it

 

[Benny Bunter]

Yeah can't remember if motherboard came out before the Lil Silva, not that it really matters.

Obviously it sounds very much like grime too, which is why the kenny dope must have appealed so much. These kids must have heard it and thought, I can already make that sound on fruity and now I can see you can put it on a house/tribal beat and boom

 

[wg-]

39




Worth mentioning that there was also the little period where bassline and funky were popping off at the same time. Seemed like bassline was only big in London for about two months- maybe one summer- but there were a couple of sets I saw where it was all banged together at about 138bpm. So fast funky, slightly slow bassline, and they were fucking mental

A lot of those tunes have aged horribly but Candy Shop will forever be the best bassline tune for me. Will never forget this rattling the mirrors downstairs in the Russian Bar on Kingsland Road (RIP). Fucking bedlam man, what a tune

Obviously got to give Emmerdale Riddim a shout as well

 

[Benny Bunter]

Champion did have Motherboard/Tribal Affair which was a really good 12 but yeah there's no way it was "his". Original No Hook was already big by middle of 08 and there were at least two of the bootleg 4 trackers with it on before Lil Silva or Champion were doing it

I've got a load of mp3s somewhere of Lil Silva's pre-funky grime tunes which are absolute bog standard, badly produced dross. Then all of a sudden he starts making house and it just magically clicks. There was something in the air just waiting to be born around that time and something like that Kenny Dope tune just released it. Thinking of DJ naughty's Quicktime here too, which he apparently made in about 10 minutes.

Edit: and Apple obviously

 

[wg-]

39a




Didnt know this was on youtube. Mental

 

[Benny Bunter]

The bassline/funky affiliation was really interesting and genuine - Marcus played it sometimes, DJ Q, Illmana and others made a few funky tunes, funkystepz were well into it (and you can tell by their basslines) and of course eventually Pantha goes on to make deeptech as Arun Verone.

 

[Benny Bunter]

I suppose the connection was there from the start with flukes/Paleface forming crazy cousinz

 

[wg-]

38



Okay one more bassline tune actually. I dont think that many more need mentioning in this & doubt I'll put another in- but this one was big in bassline, grime and i saw it getting dropped in those funky overlaps as well
Tbh i think you need to think of the likes of brum where London djs are getting booked as soon as they get big, they end up on these multi-genre line ups, your e.g sidewinders etc, all slammed together. So the crossover happens naturally, I'll steal your tune you steal mine
But funky was better than bassline so it ate it though tbf it did regroup as uk bass later which has led to garage revival. I had nothing to do with that one and have no interest in it

Big DJ Spyro one as well