Considering the article on Dope Style’s ‘You Must Think First’ last week, it seems slightly uncanny that I am now writing about a track by Dope Skillz – quite what the fascination is with using the word Dope in an alias is anyones guess but believe me, this one is another bona fide dance floor killer.
Dope Skillz – Yo Son
Dope Skillz, commonly know as DJ Zinc, shot to fame in 1995 with the legendary Super Sharp Shooter and continued to produce hit after hit for many years. He was to drum & bass what Pete Waterman was to pop music in the mid 1980’s but probably with better dress sense.
The thing with Zinc is he left the scene with dignity and on the rare occasion he does surprise us with a jungle or drum & bass set, they are always welcomed with incredible enthusiasm.
You may ask why I am talking about a B side, why I have chosen to ignore the flip, which for those that know is the unmistakable ‘6 Million Ways’. The reason is simple – it should never have been a B side. Although Yo’ Son received significant support, it was probably overshadowed at the time by the flip and if my memory serves me correctly, the main DJ’s playing the tune were from the True Playaz camp.
I think what originally attracted me to this tune was the break Zinc used, it’s the same as that used in popular early 90’s hardcore, way before the switch to the happier side of things. For years after the release of the Dreamscape 06 tape pack in 1993 I had pondered on how this break was made and what that snippet of a vocal actually said. Eventually I gave it the name of “the keep at it break” mainly due to my assumption that the sample said “keep at it”. I was sadly mistaken though!
Turns out after speaking to Zinc on Twitter it’s the Lyn Collins ‘Think’ break so quite where I got “keep at it” from I have no idea!
Yo’ Son probably isn’t your choice of an intro tune but it’s certainly a two or three deep track, it’s also pretty speedy so would sit nicely in your 174 range.
The switch around 5 minutes include the upper octave bassline really fits in nicely although playing this at high volume caused concern back in 1995, especially when I was probably using my old mans speakers from his hi fi rack. What was going to blow first, the mid range or the bass speaker!
“Bow wow yippie yay didn’t you hear me say, I’m a dog killer ‘cause all dogs have their day”
Other tracks under the Dope Skillz alias to check include No Diggidy (not the Aphrodite bootleg) and Prankstas which I will speak more about at a later date.
Check out this wicked mix from Clarky and Zinc recorded from Eruption FM way back in 1995 which features an unreleased dubplate of ‘Yo Son’. Big up Hardscore for the original upload and Phil Aust for sending me the links.
