In light of the reaction to Rob’s recent editorial regarding dubstep and moombahton, we’ve invited Sweat Records co-owner and Get Low founder Jsin Jimenez to deliver a two-part rebuttal in defense of Miami’s music culture.
From Moombahwhat?: How Dubstep Duped Miami:
“But when the ears of the city’s denizens hungered for a new bass banquet near the beginnings of 2009, something went tragically wrong. Instead of looking for a market-fresh bite of sound – like Washington D.C.’s then-new reggaeton-infused Moombahton movement – it went for a canned, decade-old subgenre of exploited British bass music: Dubstep”
Let’s start by fixing the facts of this statement. Moombahton was invented in the fall of 2009 by Dave Nada when he slowed down a Dutch House Remix by Afrojack called “Moombah” to 108 beats per minute (BPM) so the kids could dance at the high school party he was playing. It was slowed to a BPM close to Reggaeton, so he took the “ton”, added it to “Moombah” and history was made.
Inspired by this new sound, Dave went on to release the first Moombahton tracks on T&A Records in March of 2010. When these came out, they were much more than “Dutch House pitched down to 108 BPM” – a big critique of the genre. In addition to the BPM, there are chopped vocals, layered acapella’s, extended and enhanced build-ups, as well as the introduction of new drums and percussion elements were used for the foundation of new Moombahton production.
Still in its infancy, Moombahton is slowly making it’s way into Miami’s Bass subculture. The Vagabond’s weekly (((SHAKE))) party has been playing “Tropical Bass” (Moombahton, Tribal Guarachero, Digital Cumbia, Baile Funk, Dancehall, etc) out on the patio for a minute. If you were in the main room for GET LOW WMC you heard Ashworth transition from Moombahton to Moombahcore to Dubstep seamlessly:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12447435″ params=”show_comments=false&auto_play=false&color=ff40BC” width=”100%” height=”100″]
This is the perfect harmony of real bass music and how we do it in the “City of Bass.” Miami is definitely taking notice, and you can expect bigger events showcasing this genre as it grows like Dubstep did before it. Here’s another great local Moombahton mix by Somejerk to hold you over until then:
[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/somejerk/heartbeats-unlimited-mixtape” params=”show_comments=false&auto_play=false&color=ff40BC” width=”100%” height=”100″]
We’ll talk about Dubstep’s place in Miami in the next post…