The Jungle Book series originally started way back in time on the now defunct EDJ. In 2012 Jamie took over the project and continued with a monthly column right up until the site closed. Drum&BassArena will now run the project on a weekly basis providing you all with a ton of history on releases from the 90’s, exclusive mixes and photographs. Hold tight!
Dopestyle – Volume Three
You Must Think First!!
Dopestyle, AKA DJ Hype released this legendary piece of vinyl in 1994 on his own label Ganja Records. ‘You Must Think First’ is probably best know for lifting the sample “The game of chess, is like a swordfight. You must think first, before you move” from the classic film ‘Shaolin and Wu Tang’. These same vocals were also sampled in the classic Hip Hop track ‘Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ by the Wu-Tang Clan, released in 1993.
The combination of big crashing breaks and destructive sub bass is always a knockout blow, adding in samples from early 90’s martial arts movies in this case took the track to another level. Reversed breaks in the intro combined with moody pad effects, sword fighting and vocal snippets create the inevitable build up that a storm is on the cards. It’s a short intro, no long build up or lengthy 64 bar anticipation, just a short teaser of what’s to come, then… deep sub low bass, mashed up breaks, and some fitting female vocals all create a sense of danger, if a track was to demonstrate the darker style of raves at the time this would be one of them.
Check out Younghead’s set from the July ‘94 Roast alongside MC Navigator where the tune gets an almost instant reload at the very start of the set. No doubt you can imagine the place going absolutely crazy when the bassline was introduced through the speakers!
Playing this track back may remind you that production doesn’t always require or warrant a bassline which covers a multitude of notes. A simple 3 or 4 note bass structure is sometimes just as effective as a full blown multi octave pounding arrangement.
Touching on the Wu-Tang samples again, Tiger Style, also released in 1994 on Ganja Records is worthy of a place in any Junglist’s collection and featured somewhat of a commercial success by featuring on Telstar’s Jungle Mania.
You Must Think First received remixes from the likes of Back 2 Basics in 1994, Shimon in 2002 and again in 2007, although with most remixes the original was without a doubt the best version.