ReggaeEDM Sound System

The sound system

Seven styles. One lineage.

Drag the fader and the engine rebuilds the groove, from 72 BPM dub to ReggaeEDM at 170, the tempo of Legal Dreamers (Dub Guardian Mix). Flick it and it lands on the nearest style.

Miami / baseline: Legal Dreamers

ReggaeEDM

Arrow keys move between styles. The grid lights up in time.

“ReggaeEDM is for real. It's a modern sound with history, heart, and purpose.”

Damian PintoThe Voice of EDM

History of ReggaeEDM

From a Kingston sound system to the main stage

Late 1960s
Waterhouse, Kingston
King Tubby turns the mixing desk into an instrument
An electronics repairman who ran his own sound system, Osbourne Ruddock started cutting instrumental versions for the dance. He dropped the vocal, pushed the bass, and threw the drums into spring reverb and tape echo. Dub starts here.
Open the King Tubby profile
1973
Washington Gardens, Kingston
Lee Perry builds the Black Ark
In a studio behind his house, Lee "Scratch" Perry layered phasers, delay and found sounds into records that still sound like the future. Every bass genre since has borrowed from that room.
Open the Lee "Scratch" Perry profile
1979
London
Adrian Sherwood starts On-U Sound
Sherwood carried dub into post-punk London and treated the mixing desk as a live performance. The UK sound system scene got its studio counterpart.
Open the Adrian Sherwood profile
Early 1990s
London pirate radio
Jungle takes the break and the bassline
Rebel MC, later Congo Natty, and a wave of pirate radio DJs sped up breakbeats and laid reggae sub bass and ragga vocals over the top.
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1994
UK Top 10
General Levy and M-Beat chart with Incredible
A ragga MC on a jungle record reached the UK Top 10 and proved sound system culture could cross over without losing its accent.
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1998
Zen Music Festival, Florida
Kēvens names the sound ReggaeEDM
After performing with a live band at the Zen Music Festival, Miami artist Kēvens coined ReggaeEDM for his blend of reggae, dub, jungle and drum and bass. The genre has its name.
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Early 2000s
Croydon, South London
Dubstep grows out of the dub plate
Producers around Big Apple Records stripped UK garage down to half-time drums and sub bass. The mixing habits came straight from King Tubby.
2009
Kingston and Los Angeles
Major Lazer arrives
Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do set out the project's digital reggae and dancehall sound and carried it onto festival stages.
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2012
Festival main stages
Skrillex and Damian Marley release Make It Bun Dem
The biggest name in dubstep teamed with Bob Marley's youngest son. The family tree was out in the open.
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2023
Jamaica
Legal Dreamers hits No. 1
According to The Foundation Radio Network, Kēvens' Legal Dreamers became the first ReggaeEDM song to chart and reach No. 1 on the Jamaican Reggae Singles Charts.
Open the Kēvens profile