Liondub

Last updated
Liondub
Birth nameErik Weiss
Born New York City, NY, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
Years active1991–Present
LabelsPlayaz · Propa Talent · Serial Killaz · Liondub International
Website bpmartists.com/portfolio-artist/liondub/

Erik Weiss (born 12 November 1973), 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.

Contents

Career

1991–2003

Liondub began his music career in 1991, playing reggae and dub music in New York City. He was introduced to jungle music in 1995, and after a trip to London in 1998 he started playing jungle in his sets. [1] Known for a unique blend of American hip hop, UK jungle and Jamaican reggae/dancehall, Liondub quickly became renowned for his exclusive dubplate driven sets. Voicing dubplates has played a large role in Liondub's success as he travels to Kingston, Jamaica regularly to record dubplates at studios such as Anchor, Tuff Gong, Exodus, Rooftop, and Mixing Lab for sound systems and producers worldwide. [2] The success from his sets enabled Liondub to tour Europe and the United Kingdom extensively, including radio sets and interviews on Kiss 100, Kool FM, Rinse FM and Origin UK. He has played at numerous drum & bass festivals and events including Playaz at Fabric, Sub Dub in Leeds, Boomtown, Innovation in the Sun, Hospitality Bristol, Jungle Fever [3] and Outlook Festival in Croatia. [4] Liondub has performed alongside artists and DJs such as Sly & Robbie, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, Sister Nancy, Sizzla, Capleton, Buju Banton, Morgan Heritage, Damian Marley, Afrika Baambaata, Fugees, DJ Krush, DJ Hype, Andy C, Goldie, and more.

In New York, Liondub has held residencies at venues such as The Box, [5] Tao Downtown, The Skylark, Miss Lilys, and the James Hotel, and is known for his Reggae Brunch parties at Cafe Noir in the Soho region of Manhattan from 2006 to 2012. [6] He was a founding member and first DJ of the Everyday people brunch party alongside host Chef Roble and DJ Moma, and also worked at Halcyon the shop in Brooklyn where he curated the "Bless Up" Internet radio program that hosted international dubstep and drum & bass artists including Loefah, Pinch, Benny Page and various local acts. [7]

In 2003, he became a member of Chopstick Dubplate with founders Jacky Murda & RCola, and in 2008 he started his own record label Liondub International, with Marcus Visionary, one of Toronto Canada's leading drum and bass DJs. During the years 2010–2012, Liondub remixed official tracks for various labels and artists including Johnny Osbourne, Elephant Man, Top Cat, Stevie Hyper D, Tenor Fly and Brother Culture. In 2013, Liondub was signed by DJ Hype to Playaz recordings with his track “Lift It Up” [8] being released on The Flavours 6 EP. [9] In 2014, Liondub was signed by Billy Daniel Bunter to the Music Mondays label and released the two-disc LP New York to London Link Up [10] featuring tracks by Johnny Osbourne, Sugar Minott, Daddy Freddy and Blackout JA.

2013–present

In 2013, Liondub was selected to be the first international radio presenter for Kool London, the longest-running jungle/drum and bass radio station in the world, [11] a station which Billboard magazine referred to as the "leading jungle station" in a 1995 article about jungle music. [12] In 2015, Liondub won the We Love Jungle Award for "Best Jungle Radio Show", and was nominated again in 2016 and 2017, while his label Liondub International was nominated for "Best Jungle Label" in 2016 and 2017 respectively. [13]

From 2015 to 2017, Liondub collaborated with Marcus Visionary to release the Jungle to the World series featuring a wide variety of jungle/drum & bass and reggae artists from around the world. [14] On volume 2, Liondub and Bluntskull remixed the 1993 classic "Put It On", originally released by Jamalski and Rocker-T on Capitol Records. On volume 3, Liondub released the song "Smugglers", featuring vocals performed by Rubi Dan as well as the collaborative work with Switzerland's Jungle Raiders and London based artist Deadly Hunta entitled "Cali". [15] Also in 2016, Liondub presented and released MC Navigator's first full-length LP on the Liondub International label and Navigator subsequently won the Best Jungle MC award at the UK's national Drum & Bass awards. [16]

In 2017, Liondub and Marcus Visionary created the music group Rumble, whose fifth release and full-length LP entitled Printa Riddim featured a remix of Steely & Clevie's seminal dancehall rhythm "Lion Attack". The LP featured vocal performances from artists such as I Octane, Demarco, Daddy Freddy, Ninja Kidd, Powerman and Suku Ward and the LP received a review in an article published in Jamaica's national entertainment tabloid The Jamaica Star . [17] A single off the LP, "Uncontrollable" by Red Fox was premiered by David Rodigan on his BBC Radio 1Xtra show in December 2017. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drum and bass</span> Type of electronic music

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 jungle scene in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reggae</span> Music genre

Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first popular song to use the word reggae, effectively naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. While sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of popular Jamaican dance music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that was strongly influenced by traditional mento as well as by American jazz and rhythm and blues, and evolved out of the earlier genres ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political commentary. It is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rocksteady; from the latter, reggae took over the use of the bass as a percussion instrument.

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, emphasis of the rhythm section, the application of studio effects such as echo and reverb, and the occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works.

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms. Key elements of dancehall music include its extensive use of Jamaican Patois rather than Jamaican standard English and a focus on the track instrumentals.

Jungle is a genre of electronic 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rude boy</span> Jamaican street subculture since 1960s

Rude boy is a subculture that originated from 1960s Jamaican street culture. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms rude boy and rude girl, among other variations like rudeboy and rudebwoy, being used to describe fans of two-tone and 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Dextrous</span> Musical artist

Errol Francis, better known as DJ Dextrous, is a British DJ, producer and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jah Shaka</span> Musical artist

Jah Shaka, also known as the Zulu Warrior, was a Jamaican reggae/dub sound system operator who operated a South East London-based, roots reggae Jamaican sound system since the early 1970s. His name is an amalgamation of the Rastafarian term for God and that of the Zulu king Shaka Zulu.

There are several subgenres of reggae music including various predecessors to the form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Hype</span> English record producer and DJ

Kevin Ford, better known as DJ Hype, is a British jungle and drum and bass producer and DJ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebel MC</span> Musical artist

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.

In Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music. The sound system is an important part of Jamaican culture and history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dubplate</span> Acetate recording disc

A dubplate is an acetate disc usually of 10 inches diameter, traditionally used by studios to test recordings prior to mastering for the subsequent pressing of a vinyl record, but pioneered by reggae sound systems as a way to play exclusive music. They would later become an important facet of the jungle/drum and bass, UK garage, grime and dubstep music scenes.

A sound clash is a musical competition where crew members from opposing sound systems pit their skills against each other. Sound clashes take place in a variety of venues, both indoors and outdoors, and primarily feature reggae and dancehall music. The object is to beat or "kill" their competitors.

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.

David Michael "Ram Jam" Rodigan MBE OD is a British radio DJ who also performs as a disc jockey. Known for his selections of reggae and dancehall music, he has played on stations including Radio London, Capital 95.8, Kiss 100, BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 2 and BFBS Radio.

Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Australia has several bands and sound systems that play reggae music in a style faithful to its expression in Jamaica. Australia has a relatively small Jamaican community, but reggae penetrated local consciousness via the popularity of reggae among the non-Jamaican population of England in the 1960s and 1970s. Many indigenous musicians have embraced reggae, both for its musical qualities and its ethos of resistance. Examples include Mantaka, No Fixed Address, Zennith and Coloured Stone.

Ophlin Russell, better known as Sister Nancy, is a Jamaican dancehall DJ and singer. She is known to the world as the first female dancehall DJ and was described as being a "dominating female voice for over two decades" on the dancehall scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walshy Fire</span> Jamaican-American DJ

Leighton Paul Walsh, better known by his stage name Walshy Fire, is a Jamaican American DJ, MC and record producer. He is part of the dancehall reggae-influenced group Major Lazer alongside fellow DJs Diplo and Ape Drums. Walshy Fire toured with the Black Chiney sound system beginning in 2004. Black Chiney is cited as a significant influence on the evolution of Major Lazer with its mashups that blend hip hop or R&B rhythms with reggae & R&B artist vocal tracks and its representation of the Jamaican sound system. The subsequent mix tapes that the Black Chiney collective of DJs, engineers and MCs would develop were the training ground for Walshy to become a remix producer.

References

  1. ↑ "Serial Killaz - LionDub". Serial Killaz. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  2. ↑ Steffens, Roger (2007). Reggae Scrapbook. Palace Press International. p. 141. ISBN   978-1-933784-23-6.
  3. ↑ Liondub International (2010-08-06), LIONDUB & NAVIGATOR @ JUNGLE FEVER : LONDON MAY 2010 , retrieved 2018-06-08
  4. ↑ "RA: Liondub tour dates". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  5. ↑ sarcastro (2012-08-16). "LIONDUB – LIVE AT THE BOX NYC – CLUB & ELECTRO HOUSE – 03.14.12 [Mix]". Top DnB : Drum & Bass. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  6. ↑ "RA: Liondub tour dates for 2011". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  7. ↑ "Bless Up – DAILYSESSION". dailysession.com. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  8. ↑ Liondub International (2014-01-18), LIONDUB - LIFT IT UP [PLAYAZ] , retrieved 2018-06-08
  9. ↑ "RA: Liondub". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  10. ↑ "Review of 'New York to London Link Up' Mixed by Liondub | Junglist Network". Junglist Network. 2014-08-15. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  11. ↑ "Kool London with Liondub | Series | Top DnB : Drum & Bass". topdnb.com. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  12. ↑ Inc, Nielsen Business Media (1995-07-29). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  13. ↑ "WLJ Award Winners 2016 - We Love Jungle". We Love Jungle. 2017-02-05. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  14. ↑ "Various - Liondub & Marcus Visionary Present: Jungle To The World Volume 1". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  15. ↑ "Various - Liondub & Marcus Visionary Present: Jungle To The World Volume 3". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  16. ↑ "Drum & Bass Awards 2018: The Results". UKF. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  17. ↑ "Rumble Music remakes dancehall classic". jamaica-star.com. 6 December 2017. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  18. ↑ "The Scorcher from Beres Hammond, David Rodigan - BBC Radio 1Xtra". BBC. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.