It was a way for DJs to compete and keep crowds coming back, especially during a pre-internet era when pirate radio, raves, and record shops were the only places you could hear new music prior to its release. Just as floor-rumbling bass and reggae samples were highly prized in the jungle scene, so too was having tracks that no one else had. You couldn’t get these tunes, no matter how hard you tried.' Groove used to get it first, then me and Randall and Scotty-and that was it. Goldie never used to give his tunes to more than two people. and no one else would have access to them. He had instant access to Photek, Dillinja. Groove would go and play a set down Blue Note, and some of these tunes would come out eighteen months later. 'We had access to music that no one else did, so it was really important that we went out there and did our thing,' Fabio continues. ‘That would create a buzz on the track-that’s how you’d do the hype. ‘Groove would play something brand new, and everyone would talk about it,’ explains Fabio. Before the existence of CDJs, a dubplate allowed a DJ to play a just-finished track before its official release-sometimes months and months upfront. Successful soundsystems in Jamaica, and then in the UK, could draw ever larger crowds with the promise of exclusive, exceptional tracks and the dubplate idea, like other facets of reggae, was carried over to jungle/drum & bass.įabio & Grooverider were the first DJs from the acid-house era to cut their own dubplates-closely followed by Micky Finn. Originally consisting of dub or vocal reggae tracks, having a selection of plates in your record bag was a form of one-upmanship that could give you an edge: after all, the DJ with the baddest tunes wins the battle. An acetate pressing of unreleased music, produced especially for DJs and soundsystems, the dubplate was the secret weapon with which top selectors could annihilate their rivals in a soundclash. Exalted among the many musical innovations that Jamaica has given the world is the dubplate.

Dubplate pressure