Junglist is a slang term which first referred to a person living in an area of West Kingston, Jamaica, called Jungle. [1] It was later used as a term to refer to someone who is a dedicated listener of jungle and/or drum & bass music. Tracks from this genre often contain calls and references to the "original junglists" and "jungle soldiers".
The term itself is connected with the origin of the name jungle. During the time of junglists, they were sometimes referred to as "rude bwoii", a slang term originally used by Jamaicans (as rude boy), meaning "gangsta" or "badbwoy" ("bad boy"). The term refers to an inner city area of West Kingston, Jamaica, called Jungle (the subject of the Bob Marley song "Concrete Jungle", from the Wailers album Catch a Fire ).
'Junglist' developed into a slang term for outlaw toughs who have ostensibly survived- or operate according to the 'law of the jungle'. Certain tracks made references to the "original rudebwoys" or "original gangstas" as denoting particularly respected junglists. Most members of this sub-culture took great pride in the music created by jungle producers.[ citation needed ]
Unlike some urban styles of music, drug-dealing is rarely mentioned in drum and bass tracks, but several MCs sometimes feature lyrics in relation. The only generally accepted illegal activity in the subculture are drug use and graffiti. Junglists often consume cannabis perhaps arising from the reggae roots of jungle music. Other terms applied to junglists in varying degrees are "ravers" or "drum and bassheads".[ citation needed ]
Junglists belong to what is seen as a predominantly UK-based drum and bass subculture. As a subculture, however, it is not nearly as distinct as goth or punk to the untrained eye, where members can often distinguish each other by their mannerisms and fashion without hearing their choice of music. Many of those who identify as Junglists adopt a mix of rasta, rudebwoy and B-Boy fashions since jungle, drum and bass and hip hop have close ties as subcultures.
Ali G could be seen as a parody junglist (e.g. dressing in camouflage and listening to loud drum and bass music in his car; M-Beat and General Levy's "Incredible" was played in the Ali G feature film and appearing on its soundtrack), though he could also be treated as a parody of an avid hip hop listener.
Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's rave scene in the 1990s.
Rapping is known to be a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content", "flow", and "delivery". Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip hop music commonly associated with that genre; however, the origins of rap predate hip-hop culture by many years.
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.
Dub is an electronic musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style. Generally, dub consists of remixes of existing recordings created by significantly manipulating the original, usually through the removal of vocal parts, the application of studio effects such as echo and reverb, emphasis of the rhythm section, and the occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works.
Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.
Wigger, or wigga, is a term for a white person of European ethnic origin, who emulates the perceived mannerisms, language, and fashions associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop. The term is a portmanteau of white and nigger.
Crunk is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more dance and club oriented subgenres. An archetypal crunk track frequently uses a main groove consisting of layered keyboard synths, a drum machine clapping rhythm, heavy basslines, and shouting vocals, often in a call and response manner. The term "crunk" was also used throughout the 2000s as a blanket term to denote any style of Southern hip hop, a side effect of the genre's breakthrough to the mainstream. The word derives from its African-American slang past-participle form, "crunk", of the verb "to crank". It refers to being excited or high on drugs.
Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi, and rudy are slang terms and a subculture that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture and are still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms rude boy and rude girl, among other variations, being used to describe fans of two-tone ska. This revival of the subculture and term was partially the result of Jamaican immigration to the UK and the so-called ”Windrush” generation. The use of these terms moved into the more contemporary ska punk movement as well. In the UK and especially Jamaica, the terms rude boy and rude girl are used in a way similar to gangsta, yardie or badman.
Chicano rap is a subgenre of hip hop that embodies aspects of Southwest Mexican American or Chicano culture. It is typically performed by rappers and musicians of Mexican descent.
There are several subgenres of reggae music including various predecessors to the form.
Michael Alec Anthony West, better known as Rebel MC and Congo Natty, is a British jungle producer and toaster. He has also gone by aliases including Conquering Lion, Blackstar, Tribe of Issachar, Lion of Judah, X Project and Ras Project.
Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. Hip hop culture is characterized by four key elements: rapping, DJing and turntablism, breakdancing, and graffiti. Other elements include historical knowledge of the movement, beatboxing, street entrepreneurship, hip hop language, and hip hop fashion. Some of these are argued to be the “fifth element”.
The dance halls of Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s were home to public dances usually targeted at younger patrons. Sound system operators had big home-made audio systems, spinning records from popular American rhythm and blues musicians and Jamaican ska and rocksteady performers. The term dancehall has also come to refer to a subgenre of reggae that originated around 1980.
Electronic dance music (EDM), also known as dance music, club music, or simply dance, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create seamless selections of tracks, called a DJ mix, by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA.
Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music, becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.
Hip hop music or hip-hop music, also known as rap music and formerly known as disco rap, is a genre of popular music that originated in New York City in the 1970s. It consists of stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, and rhythmic beatboxing. While often used to refer solely to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
Drill 'n' bass is a subgenre of drum and bass which developed in the mid-1990s as IDM artists began experimenting with elements of breakbeat, jungle, and drum and bass music. Artists utilized powerful audio software programs and deployed frenzied, irregular beats that often discouraged dancing. The style was often interpreted as having a lightly parodic relationship with the dance styles that inspired it.
Law of the Jungle is a compilation album of various early jungle music tracks by various artists, released in 1994 in the United States on Moonshine Music. Jungle had started to emerge in the United Kingdom a couple of years earlier but despite its growth, albeit slow, in the United States, no jungle albums were available on the American market. Moonshine conceived the album as a primer for jungle music for American shores, using music from British jungle label SOUR Records, and as a spin-off to their fast tempo techno compilation series Speed Limit 140 BPM+. Law of the Jungle was the first jungle album released in the United States.
Erik Weiss, better known by his stage name Liondub, is an American DJ, producer, and record label owner who specializes in jungle, drum and bass, reggae, dancehall, hip hop and dubstep.