Strip the breaks back and you can hear what holds a lot of jungle up: a sound system riddim. That is dubwise, the reggae and dub side of the music, where the bassline does the talking and the low end is the whole argument. One label, Liondub International, even spells it "dubwize", and lists its output as jungle drum & bass, dubwize, dubstep remixes and original dancehall. The label's pitch is original reggae as the foundation, rather than samples and acapellas that have already been rinsed. Congo Natty boils the idea down: in his view, jungle is a reboot of roots reggae for a new century.
Half-speed bass, full-speed breaks
Dub itself comes out of Kingston, Jamaica, in the early 1970s. The classic moves are versions that keep a balance of familiar elements from the original and a new, stripped-down cut, with delay and feedback, reverb, high-pass filtering and the drums and bass pushed right up front in the mix. Sound systems were the main outlet for heavy dub through the 1970s and early 1980s, so that is where the bass weight lived. The earliest history reads more like oral tradition in mythology than meticulously written documentation, so treat any neat origin story with care.
Now drop that into a jungle tune. One way to hear jungle's odd sense of time is half-speed dub basslines running alongside 180 bpm breakbeats. The ragga-driven music of the time was a barrage of militant breaks over half-time reggae basslines, and the pairing of 160 bpm breaks with 80 bpm basslines made the ragga vocal almost inevitable. On top of that there was a "dread bass" sound that started to dominate jungle tunes. Dead Dread's track of that name, from 1994, is the one that showcases it, with slowed, stretched vocals and a bassline that is viscous and thick. Pure pressure.
Sound system school
Blues parties, stacks and MCs
Plenty of heads in jungle came up through London sound system culture. The DJ Fabio grew up in Brixton going to blues parties built around large sound systems and MCs, which he described as Jamaicans doing in London what they had done in Jamaica. Navigator says he had been involved in sound system culture since 1979 and joined Unity Sound in 1985 alongside Demon and Flinty, later the Ragga Twins. His view is that "the main ingredient of the music" was reggae.
The working habits came across too. Junglists adopted wholesale a hierarchy in which producers gave a chosen few DJs DAT tapes of their latest tunes, and those were pressed as dubplates if approved. Jungle also took the MC and the mic straight from the reggae soundsystem.
Early jungle and dub bass
Some early records wear their dub content openly. Babylon Timewarp's "Durban Poison" (1992) opens with slow skank guitar and heavy dub bass before the breakbeats and rasta vocal samples arrive. Remarc's "Drum & Bass Wize" (1994) is spiced with a sampled dancehall MC. Dead Dread's "Dread Bass" (1994) is the record that showcases the sound of that name. Lemon D's "Jah Love" carries reggae samples, and a compilation of 1993-95 ragga jungle digs straight into the reggae sampling roots of the music.
Rebel MC and Congo Natty
The figure at the centre of the story is Michael West, who recorded as Rebel MC and later as Congo Natty. Born in Tottenham in 1967, he grew up in London sound system culture, had a UK Top 10 hit in the late 1980s with "Street Tuff" and then returned to the underground, where he is counted among those who developed the jungle sound.
His album Black Meaning Good paired hardcore breakbeats with roots reggae and dub. On "Coming On Strong" he used slowed Amen breaks, Detroit-style basslines and dub effects, with a sampled Johnny Osbourne vocal. He worked with reggae artists including Tenor Fly, Barrington Levy and Dennis Brown, and in 1993 he founded the Tribal Bass label and the Congo Natty imprint. There is also a story about the word itself: the tale goes that Rebel sampled the phrase "alla di junglists" from a Kingston sound system recording, and the word reached the UK that way.
When the ragga got shelved
The ragga side did not stay at the top. Fabio said "the ragga thing kind of went and it turned into drum & bass", which he dated to about 1996. Navigator recalled that around 1995 DJs "stopped playing any music with ragga in it or samples". The scene later pushed the dub-influenced strand of jungle to one side.
Round again: later releases
Chopstick Dubplate, a label founded by Jacky Murda in 1998, says it kick-started the ragga-jungle revival with a new formula, and Murda is credited with a blend of original ragga vocals. Liondub International was founded in 2008 by Liondub and Marcus Visionary, born on the foundations of original reggae, jungle and drum & bass, and dancehall. In 2013 Congo Natty released the album Jungle Revolution on Big Dada, working with producers including Benny Page, Vital Elements and Serial Killaz, with Adrian Sherwood credited with production duties.
Names to know
- Congo Natty (Rebel MC): see above. The jungle sound he helped develop was, in his view, a reboot of roots reggae.
- Benny Page: a producer on Congo Natty's Jungle Revolution, and, with Doktor, the artist behind "Warn Dem" on Jungle Cakes.
- Chopstick Dubplate: the crew and label centred on Jacky Murda, nicknamed "The Rodigan of Jungle".
- Isaac Maya: a Mexican producer whose remix of "Rockin' Dubs", released in June 2025, mixes drum & bass and jungle with dub influences.
- Marcus Visionary and Liondub: co-founders of Liondub International and co-presenters of Jungle To The World Vol. 6.
Labels that carry the weight
- Liondub International: founded in 2008 by Liondub and Marcus Visionary, with sub-labels including Blacklion Movements, Rumble Muzik and Liondub Street Series. Liondub45, co-founded in 2009 with producer Victor Axelrod, releases 7-inch records focusing on deep, vintage dub and roots reggae, and Liondub was the first international radio presenter for Kool FM.
- Jungle Cakes: a jungle and drum & bass label helmed by Ed Solo and Deekline. Its catalogue includes cuts from a Trojan remix project and a drum & bass rework of "Three Little Birds" that is described as approved by the Bob Marley Foundation.
- Tribal Bass: the label Congo Natty founded in 1993.
Shaka and the stacks
You cannot talk dub pressure without the sound system men. Jah Shaka migrated to England as a youth in the mid-1950s, settled in south-east London, formed his own sound system in the 1970s and made a quick impact with dubplates from producers such as Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee and Lee Perry. He trounced Coxson Outernational in 1976. In 2014 he said his early sound depended more on frequency than power, and that his set-up is normally four stacks, aiming for surround sound.
Still rolling
The thread never fully snapped. Congo Natty released Jungle Revolution on Big Dada in 2013, and in June 2025 Reggae Roast put out a jungle and drum & bass single of "Rockin' Dubs" featuring an Isaac Maya remix.
Related styles
- Jungle: the style in which half-speed dub basslines ran alongside fast breakbeats.
- Ragga Jungle: the neighbouring style built around ragga vocals, tied to the 80 bpm basslines under 160 bpm breaks.
