Week 26: Classic Ragga Jungle

Ok, first things first. I AM HALF-WAY DONE. One half-year of mixtapes successfully hammered out. wheee!

Anyhoo, to mark the half-way point I figured I'd throw in a mix that a lot of people have been asking for (droon, joe joe, matthew e., and others)—a mix of ragga jungle. This is really the genre that got me started as a touring DJ / producer in the global sense: my first releases were ragga jungle records, and my first international gigs were ragga jungle gigs (hi guido & jak & tim & beni!)

So yeah, I decided to throw together a mix of classic ragga jungle tunes. For those of you wondering what the hell "ragga jungle" even means, let me break it down into its components:
Jungle music is a fast, breaks-oriented, bass-heavy genre of British dance music that emerged in the early '90s and later evolved into drum & bass, UK garage, grime, dubstep, bassline, & UK funky.
Ragga is another word for the big, brash, hip-hop influenced dancehall reggae of the 1990s—the stuff where the vocals sound a lot more like rapping than traditional reggae singing.
Add those together & there you go.

It was pretty big in the early-mid-1990s (I'm using "pretty big" in the same sense that dubstep is "pretty big" right now), and its heavy use of reggae samples made it somewhat divisive in the proper reggae scene. As a fun little side note, here are two dancehall tunes from 1995 (both on the WigWam riddim by A-Class Crew) that demonstrate the controversy jungle caused in the UK reggae scene:

Starkey Banton; Jungle Bungle
Tenor Fly; Don't Dis The Jungle

And now here's the mix. Oh, and for the people who are undoubtedly going to be all "WHERE IS CONGO NATTY?!?!", I'm basically limiting myself to tracks that came out in 1994 and 1995. A mix of newer / second-wave ragga jungle will come later. It will include Congo Natty, so calm down already.

Chrissy's Year of Mixtapes Week 26: Ragga Jungle

1. Greenwood; Hold It Down (Inner City Dance)
   
2. DMS & The Boneman X; Sweet Vibrations (FX Recordings)
   
3. M-Beat feat. General Levy; Incredible (Renk)
   
4. The New Cru feat. General Pecos; Run Come (Labello Blanco)
   
5. Bounty Killer & Beenie Man; Borderline Mobster (Sensi Crew Remix) (Greensleeves)
   
6. The Dream Team aka Bizzy B & Pugwash); Stamina (Suburban Base)
   
7. Hardware; Yout Man (Frontline)
   
8. Skeng Gee; Connections (Marvellous Cain Remix) (Suburban Base)
   
9. Firefox & 4 Tree; Warning (Powder Mix) (Philly Blunt)
   
10. Smokey Joe; Gimmi My Gun (Desired State Remix) (Labello Blanco)
    
11. L Double; Little Rollers vol. 1 (Flex)
    
12. Barrington Levy & Mega Banton; She's Mine (Sensi Crew Remix) (Greensleeves)
    
13. General Degree; Papa Lover (Stretch Remix) (Jet Star Records)
    
14. Remarc; R.I.P. (Suburban Base)
    
15. Dextrous & Teebone; Selectors Roll VIP (Subliminal / unreleased)
    
16. Conquering Lion; Code Red (X Project)
    
17. R-Type; Love Is Blind (Hyper Records)
    
18. Shy FX & UK Apachi; Original Nuttah (S.O.U.R.)
    
19. Chakademus & Pliers; Gal Wine Drum & Bass (Greensleeves)
    
20. Dextrous; Wanted Dead Or Alive (Subversive)
    
21. Marvellous Cain; The Hitman (Dream Team Remix) (Suburban Base)
    
22. Cutty Ranks; Limb By Limb (DJ SS Remix) (Suburban Base)
    
23. Ellis D feat. The Specialist; Nice Up Your Scene (White House)
    
24. Studio 1; Dancing Feet (Strictly Underground)
    
25. Dawn Penn & Bounty Killer; You Don't Love Me No No No (Ambient Jungle Lick) (Greensleeves)
    
26. Barrington Levy; Here I Come (Ridley Don Remix) (Greensleeves)
    
27. Mad Cobra; Tek Him (B-Line Remix) (Jet Star)
    
28. Shy FX; Simple Tings (S.O.U.R.)

NEXT WEEK: Quebecois Disco.