History of Drum and Bass - North America Beginnings and Scene

North America Beginnings and Scene

The rave scenes in the US (New York) and in Canada (Toronto) embraced the transition of hardcore to jungle around 1994. America's longest running party, Konkrete Jungle also born in NYC, discovered the first US drum and bass MC's Blaise (Naughty Ride), Panic and Johnny Z. Outside of NYC. Dieselboy in Pittsburgh, Karl K & Kaos with MC Dub2 in Philadelphia and DJ Slant & DJ Stress from the 2Tuff Crew in D.C. along with Krazy Josifer and MDF1 from the Life of Leisure Crew in Washington DC. This small handful of US East Coast pioneers spent years in the underground playing "back rooms" before the sound caught on throughout America.

Perhaps most responsible for the extensive introduction of drum and bass to the U.S.in the 1990s was Bassrush, headed by Raymond Frances, whose innovation was to present House, Techno, and Drum & Bass in separate rooms—making Drum & Bass, for the first time, a major feature at U.S. rave parties. The Bassrush DJ Agency also introduced many major UK DJs to the American scene, including Shy FX, Kenny Ken, and DJ Randall.

While New York and Toronto thrived in this culture in the early '90s, new scenes were rapidly gaining recognition in the mid '90s to late '90s in: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Producers and DJs such as AK1200 (ORL), DJ Dara (NY), Danny the Wildchild (CHI), Krazy Josifer (DC), and in particular Dieselboy (PIT) who helped push the genre further and darker, by producing, promoting, releasing compilations available for the public, and performing at raves. He is also one of the first US producers and DJs to break out on the international scene. Evol Intent, Gridlok, Ewun and SPL have followed suit.

These artists have had a profound effect on the surrounding areas movements, causing drum and bass to spread in the majority of the United States. Clubs such as Buzz (DC), Breakdown (DEN), Seminar (CHI), Firestone (ORL), Platinum (PHI), Eklektic (SF), Science (LA), Masquerade (ATL) and Baltic Room (SEA) helped generate a scene outside of the then prosperous rave scene.

In 2000 Dieselboy joined forces with AK1200 and DJ Dara to create an annual tour, the Planet of the Drums. Since 2001 Messinian (James Fiorella, Philadelphia, PA) has been the MC. At ten consecutive years (2009), it is the longest-running annual tour in electronic dance music history.

In 2009, Dieselboy created The Monsters of Jungle, a tour concept featuring artists on his label, Human Imprint. The aesthetic is '80s metal meets drum and bass. It launched at the 11th Annual Starscape Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 2009 as a multi-media stage production including custom visuals, and new music and spoken word audio prepared especially for the show. The first Monsters of Jungle tour featured Dieselboy, the Upbeats (New Zealand), Evol Intent, Ewun, Demo, Infiltrata, Joe Way, Mayhem, SPKTRM, MC Messinian, and MC Dino.