When dubstep first began to gather momentum, circa 2005, there was a fair amount of confusion regarding the "dub" fragment of the genre's name. In the earliest interpretation, according to interviews with people like Horsepower, the word came from two meanings: An influence of dub reggae and the instrumental "dub" side of vocal 2-step garage records. Yet at the time, it was being interpreted literally, as if dubstep was just a form of dub.

The confusion was aided by the fact that dubstep was in one of its phases when sampling dub reggae was the fashion, with tunes like Skream's "Smiling Face" triggering a slew of imitators. Critically, the issue with this style was that while popular, it lacked originality and quickly became stale. Furthermore, it also ignored all the vital and vibrant music that had come out of Jamaica after 1970s dub, most notably dancehall.

As dubstep had progressed during 2007/08 into "big room" dance music, there began to be a slew of dancehall refixes, not least Coki's "Burnin" refix and his collaboration with Underground Ice to refix Mavado. Also massive was Clue Kid and Cotti's "Sensi Dub" refix and Cotti's "I Don't Give a Dub". But while full vocal refixes re-contextualise an anthem for a new audience, recently one of the above refixers, Cotti, has pushed the creative boundaries much further with two massive original vocal productions, "Calm Down" [ft. Doctor] and "Dem Fi Know" [ft. Jammer]. Between them they beautifully mutate dubstep, grime, dub, and dancehall in a perfect meeting point of the four genres.

When dubstep and grime co-evolved out of the ashes of UK garage, one of the defining differences between the two dark hybrids was how grime, with it's focus on vocals, took more reference from dancehall, whereas dubstep, with it's use of space as aesthetic and love of immense sub bass, more readily referenced dub. But "Calm Down" and "Dem Fi Know" blend elements of both Jamaican styles, using dub's sub bass and dancehall's current obsession with autotune'd vocals (most obviously, see Munga's "Autotune").

In addition, these two dubs push the envelope by not simply shoehorning Jamaican vocals into dubstep/grime tempo, but by being original vocal production from UK grime MCs; their use of local language move them to an original space beyond just dancehall or dub. They also blur the boundaries between dubstep and grime again at a time when few dubstep producers seem interested in engaging with the genre's vocal cousin.

Cotti's willingness to experiment with grime MCs is no surprise given his background. He began his music career with south London grime crew, 4N Format. Then around 2005 he met DJ Chef and Kromestar. Then one day a chance encounter came about through his studio partner, Clue Kid. "One day I was chatting to Clue in the studio and he told me that his aunty had just got a new tenant moving in," explains Cotti. "'Some guy called Loefah.' At that point to be honest me and Clue had never heard of him before so we were like 'Yeh, seen. OK.' Clue's aunty then tells Clue that this guy Loefah has got studio and all that so we decide to go check this guy out, from there Loefah showed us and still shows us 'nuff love and respect. Big up to him every time! Then that lead to our first invite to come and play at DMZ in September 2006."

Following the Loefah connection, it was another family link that brought about "Dem Fi Know". Slickman (Party) is cousins with both Jammer and Cotti, and so when Cotti and Slickman began writing what was to become "Dem Fi Know", they turned to Jammer to add the vital vocal ingredient. Cotti was revisiting his grime roots but with a fresh new approach. Yet this might not sit well with some of dubstep's more purist fans. "To be honest a lot of dubstep heads are not really comfortable with grime or more so the people in grime," explains Cotti. "So I think in small doses the two can work together. It's kinda crazy because now a lot of the grime MCs are MySpace'ing me about beats and that asking me to do a single for them but what they don't realize is that tracks like 'Calm Down' and 'Dem Fi Know' are not your typical grime or dubstep tracks, [but] a right combination of music and vocals that actually make it happen.

"Where as a lot of MCs think, 'Yeh let me just vocal dubstep beat and it'll be big because its dubstep' which is so very far from the truth. To be honest I have given out a few beats to other grime MC's to vocal for their mix CD's etc but unless it has the same kinda feel good vibe as 'Calm Down' or 'Dem Fi Know' I won't be playing it or supporting it in my sets and I don't think many of the other dubstep DJs will either. On the whole I love working with vocals too so I'll always be looking for that vocalist who can bring something positive to my music but that's not necessarily a grime MC, and to be blunt typical grime MCing doesn't bring that, so like I said they can work together in small positive doses which I think will reflect the majority of the dubstep scene's view."

Cotti's insight also reflect in some way a shift in power balance between dubstep and grime. For quite some time dubstep remained in grime's shadow, either derided or ignored by grime fans until Geeneus, Wiley and Skepta helped changed opinions. The reality is now that bar Dirty Canvas, there's precious few regular grime raves in London, thanks to the draconian policing of nightclubs. But with events like Rinse & Forward>>'s successful party at The End last month and grime MCs adding vital and original vocal elements to dubstep instrumentals, it's clear the two genres can be massively beneficial to each other.

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Speaking of Rinse & Forward>> at The End, grime provided two real highlights. The first was SuperSkepta. Dressed in a superman t-shirt and cap, he spent the night MCing from a commanding position, stood on the ledge that houses the decks. From the dancefloor, he looked 20 foot tall, immense and powerful, spraying the club with bars. Working in tight relay with Wiley, they looked match-fit from a summer's worth of Boy Betta Know shows. Also check his amazing new vocal tune "Nokia Charger Wire".

Second was DJ Spyro. Placed in the "second room," Spyro is one of the new breed of grime DJs that are re-asserting the importance of DJing in the genre over MCing. Armed with pioneer CDJs his mixing at The End quickly made jaws drop and crowds gather. Rolling through grime classics, UK garage, and the odd dubstep anthem, his mixing was both tight and rapid fire. Technically it was breathtaking as he cut seamlessly into the next tune 16 or 32 bars after the previous had been mixed in.

While dubstep is fixated upon dubplates, Spyro's mixing showed the advantages of skilled CDJ mixing. Without the need to lift the needle, take the record off, return it to a sleeve, select a new record, place the needle, find the beat and mix it in, he could focus on mixing in one of the multiple tracks in CDJ. With both hands a blur, he more closely resembled a conductor, orchestrating a grime inferno, than a DJ. If every DJ could master skills like that, the writing would be on the wall for vinyl.

To hear Spyro sets for yourself try this one and this one from February, or download more from the Rinse FM blog.

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One of the strongest grime tracks around at the moment is Ruff Sqwad's "Ruff Sqwad Mandem", marking as it does, the return of one of grime's most loved crews. While their most well known member, Tinchy Stryder has been off promoting his solo album and new EP "Cloud 9" via the indie support act/student tour route, it's the return of the full camp that sparks excitement.

"Ruff Sqwad Mandem", is produced by Dirty Danger and amazingly, in the mixtape era, is also going to be released on vinyl on the No Hats No Hoods label. The imprint is the affiliate label of London's leading grime night, Dirty Canvas-- though to be fair to the lineups, they do put on some amazing dubstep, bassline and garage DJs too.

The tune samples one of the Sqwad's earliest productions "Raw 2 the Core", made back in 2001/02, at a time before the genre could realistically be recognized as having been formed. Speaking to Rapid, he's bashful about how ahead of their time they were, though the evidence is clear from their back catalogue. In the early days however, their strong point was their production rather than their MCing-- especially compared to peers Roll Deep's bars-- but on "Ruff Sqwad Mandem" you can here a crew at their vocal peak, each verse tight and energetic. It's pure inertia. "When we write tunes, we aim to make people react to it, we look for a bop of the head or watch them dance around," explains Rapid. His comments are telling only because the majority of big tunes in grime have tended to try to engender a reload rather than work towards a groove.

Rapid reveals he has a few exiting projects underway. He's submitted some tracks for Durrty Goodz' LP and is looking to work on an entire album with Ghetto, perhaps with Dirty. The two of them have an instrumental CD ready called Ruff Sqwad Hits: Something to Write to which will feature 2 minutes of their 40 best instrumentals, old and new. Fans, MCs and DJs are then encouraged to loop the tracks and use them as they wish.

The funniest thing however, is when you speak to Rapid about funky, the emerging underground raw house sound of London: he's all enthusiasm and excitement. As was suggested in interview with Geeneus, Supa D and Soulja there's a real cross pollination currently going on between grime producer and funky, mostly in one direction only.

"Funky? We're loving it, we're making it and we're deep into it" enthuses Rapid. "We've got stuff coming out," he adds before playing a fresh beat down the phone that features a 4x4 kick, almost reggaeton-esque congas, warm pads and a male vocal. He insists on keeping the track name and singer under cover, presumably because of the inherent politics of being a known grime producer involving himself with the emerging funky scene. Tensions no doubt abound, between the core funky producers and the new enthusiastic converts, but just as dubstep found when it got invaded by disillusioned drum & bass producers who thought dubstep was just grey techstep at 140 bpm with a snare on the third beat. With hype come burdens to bare.

"If I enter the [funky] game, they won't have anything to moan about, my stuff will be quality," insists Rapid. "Everyone else from grime is moving there, slyly," he adds before describing how many conversation he seems to have with other grime producers ends in a confession of clandestine funky beat-building and a nostalgic desire to return to a UKG era. "Funky: it just grabs you. You can actually rave to it. Put on a shirt, some shoes, get a drink in your hand, go to a rave and dance."

This, in a nutshell is perhaps the driving force for funky: the percussive ability to dance to it, rather than watch it like a concert, though the scene's sonic warmth must also be part of its mass appeal. But for others the warmth is exactly what limits funky right now, but, interestingly, Rapid insists this is changing. "Some of it is getting raw now, with deep basses. That's what we're trying to do, to toughen funky up a bit."

Dusk + Blackdown now DJ on Rinse.fm. Download their January 08 and February 08 shows.