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Drum & Bass Slang
Do you know your rinsin' from your blazin'? Are you locked on? Is that track making you feel freezy? It's our very own A-Z of drum & bass slang, innit.
Love it or loathe it, but you can't ignore it, slang is something we all use, especially when it comes to music and club culture. The drum & bass scene has taken the ever-evolving art of slang to new heights taking its inspiration from a wide range of sources ranging from cockney rhyming slang to Jamaican patois. Then there's the influence of the MC, another art form that drum & bass made its own.
Here at Knowledge we've decided the time is right to attempt our own informal - and hopefully humorous - A-Z guide to drum & bass slang. After much scratching of heads, listening in on other people's conversations, surfing through internet chatrooms and general making a nuisance of ourselves this is what we've come up with. It's by no means the authoritative, definitive version and hopefully it will provoke a few laughs along the way, but most importantly if you've feel we've missed something out or got the meaning wrong, put pen to paper and tell us. It's your culture and we want to hear what you think.
Right, light one up, take a deep breath and here we go...
A - 'AWOL'. Any junglist worth their salt has been 'absent without leave' at one time or another. It's also the name of the famous London club night, of course.
B - 'Bo!' has to rule supreme but 'blaze' - light a spliff - and 'blazin'' - lyrically on fire - have to be worth a shout too. 'Bare' meaning lots of, 'butters' meaning ugly and 'blotters' meaning drug dealers are words finding their way into drum & bass culture too.
C - 'Cockrot' meaning a foolish person has been bandied about in drum & bass circles, we believe.
D - 'Darko' an extension of dark and named after the current hit movie 'Donnie Darko' this is developing a cult following. As 'dang' is to men, 'fassy' is to women (geddit?)
E - 'Are you on one, matey?' (old skool rave-speak.) As we all know, 'easy' is popular among junglists as a salutation.
F - 'Freezy' as in that bassline is freeeeeezy. Back to 'fassy' and if someone calls you that they may be questioning your sexual orientation.
G - 'Ganja' is the obvious choice, while 'ghetto' is often used to describe a rough or raw sound. DJs have also been known to shout 'gremlins!' as a disclaimer when the equipment starts playing up. If London Elektricity have anything to do with it, 'gravy' may soon be in common usage too.
H - 'Headz' meaning aficionados or 'heavy' meaning good to the point of intensity are worth a mention. Neither is exclusive to drum & bass of course, but both are widely used.
I - 'Innit' innit, bruv (or 'Excuse me but is that not the case, my spiritual brother' to get all technical on yo' ass.) We can't forget 'irie' though, a patios word meaning everything is cool or sweet.
J - 'Junglist'. Controversy over the origins of this word have raged for years and one theory is that it comes from Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica, a rundown area of Kingston where Junglist is used to describe the people who lived there. It's also mentioned a lot in jazz, especially about the music of Charlie Parker.
K - 'Kris' is patios meaning cool or good. We can all recognise a 'Killa' tune when we hear one too.
L - 'Locked on' meaning listening to and more specifically tuned into a radio station. See also 'lock off' where a rave, party or pirate station is shut down by the authorities and 'lock down' meaning on top of a situation. 'Liquid' as in 'on a liquid funk tip' refers to the style of music championed by a gentleman answering to the name of Fabio.
M - 'Mak' means a soap bar-sized block of hash (or so we're reliably informed). 'Mash up' is also a popular expression, we believe, and who could forget 'massive' as in big up the junglist massive!
N - 'Nuff' said, 'nuff' tunes and 'nuff' respect - pretty much self-explanatory, we reckon.
O - 'On one' (old skool rave-speak again). Respect is due to 'On a Ragga Tip' while we're at it.
P - 'Phat', 'posse' or 'pressure' - take your pick. 'Punk' meaning a good tune has also gained popularity recently.
Q - This letter was always going to be a tough call by any standards but we reckon 'quick step' just about cuts the mustard (see also tech step, jump up and a thousand others.)
R - 'Rinsin'', a word we all know and love. Slang words beginning with 'r' are rather prevalent in drum & bass - check out 'rewind', 'rude', 'rollin'' and 'runnin''.
S - 'Skank' (to con or rob), 'seen' (indicating understanding or agreement), 'smashin' it up' and 'spec' (a shortening of respect) have all entered the drum & bass vernacular at some time or other. More recently, 'shotters' or 'shotting' have become euphemisms for drug dealers and drug dealing respectively (particularly of the unsavoury crack variety.)
T - 'Twang' means to try and persuade someone. Let's not forget 'tight' too as in 'Selector, you're mixing is as tight as a fish's arse.' See also 'tearin'' and 'tear it up'.
U - 'Underground' 'cos that's where drum & bass comes from. U feeling it?
V - 'Voodoo magic' as in 'that tune is fuckin' voodoo magic, man' (comes from a sample used on an old skool jungle tune on Moving Shadow), as well as the name of a legendary night at Equinox in London around 1994-96. Rumour has it that 'velly good' said with Sicilian accent has also become a popular True-Playa-ism!
W - 'Wicked'. OK, it ain't exactly exclusive to drum & bass but we all use it. There's also 'watless' meaning thick or stupid apparently.
X - 1Xtra, Radio One's new baby brother bringing drum & bass to the nation. (OK, it's not exactly slang but we reckon they're worth a shout.)
Y - 'Yard'. The patois word for home, it's also often used in drum & bass to describe where a studio is. 'Y'get me'?
Z - 'Zzzzzzz'. What other styles are compared to drum & bass!
For the latest drum & bass slang, internet forums are well worth checking out. Dogs on Acid at
www.dogsonacid.com and Drum & Bass Arena at
www.breakbeat.co.uk/forum are particularly recommended.
Words: Matthew Duffield
www.knowledgemag.co.uk
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