Windrush 75 mix: General Courts

Can you tell us about your mix?

It’s what I would call ‘beautiful chaos’ – it might sound crazy, and a bit all over the place, but it's a vibe, ha.

It features a lot of my current radio selection; including some of my own productions, alongside a few of my personal favourites from within the genre from past years.

In my opinion, Sound & Style-wise, I would say its an eclectic mix – the tunes in the mix draw inspiration from a variety of genres/sub-genre’s such as Reggae/Dancehall, Hip-Hop & RnB, House, Funk, Miami bass, Garage, Funky House; whilst stylistically, being a mix of skippy, groovy, dark, bassy, and bubbly.

How does the mix reflect the legacy of Windrush?

So, usually, when I do recorded mixes, I don’t intend on giving the mix a theme, or a particular sound or style; I just try to mix and blend my favourite tunes as best as possible – the only intention is to create a great vibe, in hopes that whoever listens enjoys what they hear.

But when I was asked to do this mix for the 75^th Anniversary of Windrush, I thought about tailoring the mix specifically to showcase some of the artists and producers in my music collection who are of Caribbean descent; and the style and sound that we have and continue to contribute to the genre, and music in general.

Can you tell us about some of the artists featured in the mix?

Firstly, I wanna give an honourable mention to the legend Terror Danjah; I’ve done 2 versions of this mix and whilst his music featured in the first, I didn’t have enough time left in this second mix to include some of his tunes that I had in the first (so I’m kicking myself for that).

That aside, the majority of the artists/producers featured in the mix are regular features on my radio shows (as previously mentioned) and in my sets whenever I play out live, as well as people who I work closely with. These artist/producers (as well as a few others who haven’t been featured) are like the cornerstone to my selection today in 2023, and have been for last few years:

DJ Conflict: A producer from the Midlands, who has quickly become one of my favourite producers over the last 3-4 years. A lot of the music I play from him is just what I look for in Grime riddims. He has a raw, aggressive style, but it's bouncy and has a nice groove to it and will get you skanking out. Even some of his RnG-ish sounding music will have you screwing up your face, and putting up g*nfingers in the air whilst doing a little 2-step.

DJ Travis-T: a DJ/producer who out of everyone in this mix (and maybe even my selection) has been making music for the least amount of time, but is quickly rising up as one of the coldest producers and engineers. He has produced and mixed some of my favourite tunes of the last 5 years. Lookout for his tune ‘Quik Step’ in the mix. Absolute beauty of a riddim. Gets me dancing everytime.

Spooky: A legend in the genre for his DJing, as well as his productions. Spooky was a go to for this mix - a lot of his music is very in-keeping with my theme for the mix. Spooky’s notable sampling and re-works of classic reggae & dancehall music made him the perfect addition to this mix. I loved that his tune ‘Haunted Joyride’ got the version excursion treatment, and definitely had to feature a couple of versions in this particular mix.

Duppy: the new Prince of Grime! Duppy is fastly becoming one of the biggest up-and-coming artists to come out of the genre. As well as MC’ing, he is a good producer, making unique sounding tunes that help him stand out amongst his peers. Watch this space!

Dinero Drives aka Driver: Driver is a producer who is part of the team/Family. Hailing from South London, Dinero Drives has been making music for a few years now. Prior to meeting Drives, he had a short hiatus from releasing music, but began putting out instrumentals again in the late 2010’s-early 2020. Driver has some bangers cooked up and ready to go, and I thought that he needed to be featured in this mix so the listeners can see the talent he has and the style he brings. Lookout for his forthcoming projects (some of which are featured in this mix).

Jammer, Footsie, D’explicit: These producers have produced some of my favourite vocals and instrumentals to ever come out of Grime. They are just some of the producers who’ve helped craft and pioneer the sound in the genre’s earliest days, and are a great influence to myself and many others when it comes to the music that we make. I felt it was essential to feature some of their music in this mix.

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