I’m sad that Dubstep seems to have exited the underground scene as hastily as it arrived. It must have been 2009, I was a liberal-minded, drug-taking student who had recently stumbled upon an alternative to the mainstream: a place called ‘The Tunnels’ (Grahamstown) where there were no holds barred.

It was situated on a farm just outside of town and the partying took place in a disused kiln. That should give you an idea of the kind of open-air drug market that flourished around us and as for pleasure of the acoustic kind, let it suffice to say that there is no better way of amplifying bass-heavy music than by playing it at full-blast in a place that was used to bake bricks.

Skreecha – Caspa and Rusko mix by Skreecha

So there I am in a pleasantly altered state of mind, looking to intoxicate myself further when a nondescript Caucasian chap in a skullcap ascends to the DJ’s deck. He’s wearing one of those ironic Ts, his says Dubstep: I like the part that goes womp womp womp womp womp. I don’t get it. I don’t know what Dubstep is, which is when I am told that this nondescript bloke is from Cape Town and he has come to bless us with unfamiliar coastal sounds.

The bass tore through my shirt and began to pound a relentless fist against my chest. My body moved at a staggered pace, and it was a while before I realized that it was not without a certain swagger. My heart, my lungs, every natural rhythm was hijacked by the bassline. Pretty young things seemed to bounce toward me like coins on a subwoofer. I couldn’t make out their faces though, which is when I smiled. My introduction to Dubstep was complete.

caspa/rusko dubstep mix by toby_marks

I’ll tell you why I love Dubstep and why I am a tad mad that it is being ushered out of student drug circles. Having been indoctrinated into the false belief that one can only ‘gedlemba’ to the high-tempos of house and dance music, I was relieved to come across party music I didn’t have to sweat to. Secondly, I doubt there is better music to trip to, whatever you’re on.

I’m certainly not the first to have made positive associations between a hair-raising student past and the sounds that were themes to good times but my association with Dubstep is an enduring one and I would hate to be the last adventurous black boy to shatter stereotypes and social conventions to the earth-shaking sounds of Caspa, Mojo, Rusko or Reso.

Not to say that there isn’t an over-abundance of urban black youth that is looking for an alternative to Black Coffee (no disrespect), I’m sure I’m not the only one so screw the television commercials, take a trip to an open-air festival in a backwater town of your choosing if you find that you are black, still under 25, and think that Dubstep is a dance they do in Jamaica. I’ve negotiated with the student Gods of hedonism on all our behalf. They will not take Dubstep away from us yet.

WORDS: Lumumba Mthembu