F-F-F-F-F-Funkystepz

CAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKECAKE has been in my head for the past three days and it is making my life better. Can these guys not just get Lily Mackenzie or whoever to do a full album of banging vocal tracks of their own so I don't have to feel guilty about not turning off Bruno Mars/Drake?

also one of the simplest pleasures I'm getting from listening to this collection is from shouting FUNKYSTEPZ at moments it could/does fit in, I might have to create a "best funky producer audio tag" poll

I have the "FUN-KY-STEPZ" and "PRE-DI-TAH" tags enter my brain at the randomest moments

I also get the Crazy Cousinz "oh", Cooly G's "mmmm-mwah", Ill Blu's "eww", Champion's "champion sound" and "Roska Roska Roska" popping into my head a lot. I'm sure you could argue that it says a lot for the songcraft of these producers when even their sound tags are earworms.

xp hahaha me too reverend, today: bus

terror's danjah "reh reh reh"

funkystepz tag is a classic 4 all time

Some ppl don't like it apparently: https://twitter.com/Funkystepz/status/205038076291059713

crazy cousins "OH!" is my fav

I hear the Crazy Cousinz one as a "WOO!"

yeah, you're right -- it's kind of a hook in itself... they really deploy it so well

yeah, such a dope element in and of itself

Lil Silva and Miss Fire are two more Funky producers with sound tags, I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Wonder why so many in Funky? I agree Funkystepz's is the best, it not only lets you know it's them, but how they deploy it right before the drop really pushed the tune even higher.

i also like "donaaeeeeooo. donnaaaaeeeeooooo"

the bruno mars remix is really good too

i always think of the crazy cousinz tag as that sing-song "cray-zee cou-sinz, cray-zee cou-sinz"

I always think of the Ill Blu one as the echoey deep computer voice 'ill-ill Blu'. I don't think I spotted the eww until the thread on here. MY faves are at the mo are prob Funkystepz and Champion. Worst was prob when you go see Marcus Nasty and you get a dreary voice slowly saying over every other track 'marcus nasty dubplate special' even if the song had been out for years.

"ladies and gentleman the champion of the world has arrived"

"the heavyweight"

can't remember who posted the dj diamond cuts philly party mix but every time she triggers "this is a rest in peace shout-out to the rest of the airwaves, because dj diamond cuts is KILLIN IT" i loved it just a little bit mote

more

i always think of the crazy cousinz tag as that sing-song "cray-zee cou-sinz, cray-zee cou-sinz"

― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Sunday, May 27, 2012 4:10 AM Bookmark

what was dope about this one was how sometimes they just dropped it as an instrumental melody and it was still enough to mark their territory, so to say

Wonder why so many in Funky?

A lot of grime guys do it as well. Terror and Preditah obv, but ppl like Silencer (TEDDY!), Rude Kid (Are you ready! / Always ready!), D.O.K. (Ha!), Skepta/JME (Serious!) and Spooky (spooky... a bit crap that one). Thought it might have something to do with the DJs / producers not having to rely on egocentric MCs to shout them out, but I'm just guessing here.

i feel like it's like a watermark on an image, so that no matter who uses it you will KNOW where it came from

My dream commission is to write an entire thinkpiece about uk funky producer tags. This is a handy guide I assembled back in March 2010:

Funky producer signatures rated:

Roska - Somewhat boring in and of itself, but the rhythmic repetitiveness of 'roska!roska!roska!' sounds great when dropped at the right moment of a track. 6

Crazy Cousinz - The "Whoop!" works in so many settings, is instantly reognisable without being so singular as to get annoying through overuse, and is great not merely as a producer signature but as a herald of key points in the tune - usually it drops just before the beat rolls out again. 9

Scotty D / Funk Factory - Points deducted for not being intelligible: purportedly this is "now hear this!" but it sounds like "whoiddit?" to me. 4

Cooly G - The lazy drawl of "yeah it's Cooly S G, mwah" is so seductive, though its very laziness works against its capacity to act as a hype inducer. But it never gets old either. 7

Funkystepz - Sometimes this is straightforward but when they stutter it "F-f-f-f-f-funkystepz!" in a highpitched goblin chirp it's by far the best drop-announcer in the game. 9

Greyman - That scraggy chuckle makes me think of a ghost dog (though not Ghost Dog) so points for imaginativeness. But it's an easy signature to overlook. 6

Lil' Silva - Kinda boring "menacing" slow announcement of his name, barely different from all the "marcus... nasty... dub-dub-plate..." stuff. 4

Screama - "Complex Simplicity!" wins sympathy votes for me simply because it references Teedra Moses, but in truth this is not that successful a producer tag. 5

Ill Blu - Not one but two tags, on the one hand those disgusted "ew!" cries which probably technically involve someone attempting to say "Ill", then the evil robot intoning "Ill... Blu..." The sense of timing for the deployment of both is almost always exquisite. Flawless in concept and execution. 10

think perhaps my favourite is "naughty raver!", announcing the work whilst giving a cheeky wink to the listener

i imagine were he still alive grimey simey might have even drawn a line with it to 'charly'/'trip to trumpton' style nursery ardkore

TEDDYYYY! is also great yes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jgggh

FUNKYSTEPZ GUEST MIX

Funkystepz x Drake — YOLO (Miami Bass mix)
Funkystepz — Bizzaro
Rihanna — We Found Love (Funkystepz Edit)
Funkystepz — Jigga
Funkystepz — Mind F
Funkystepz x Rihanna — Birthday Cake (Miami Bass Mix)
Funkystepz — Star 9
Funkystepz — Warrior
Funkystepz — Phantom
Funkystepz — Royal Rumble
The Hi-Fives — What you do (Funkystepz Billionaires Club mix)
Shanay Holmes — Worth the Wait (Funkystepz LoveShy Mix)
Bruno Mars — It Will Rain (Funkystepz LoveShy Mix)
Usher — Climax (Funkystepz LoveShy Mix)
RudeKid Feat Sketpa — Get Busy (Funkystepz LoveShy Mix)
Scrufizzer — Steam (Produced by Funkystepz)
Scrufizzer — Fizzy Flow (Produced by Funkystepz)
Funkystepz x Scrufizzer — Barracade

haha taping that as i type

Great mix! Nice mix of Funky, Garage and Grime. I like the Scrufizzer collaborations too, they're hard and heavy, but still rhythmically interesting. I really hope 'XTC, 'Mundo Bizzaro' and 'Radar' get releases in the near future, those tracks are amazing. Off topic, but why on earth is BBC 1xtra dropping DJ Q? He's the best thing going for them, imo.

Anyone else hear this? It's out now.
http://soundcloud.com/3beat/3beat098-preeya-kalidas-love-3
I just realized that Preeya Kalidas played Omar's wife in Four Lions. I knew she looked familiar!

is it wrong that half the reason I'm addicted to them right now is because i love their tag so much?

Tim F or anybody else, what's one of their songs where they do the stuttered "highpitched goblin chirp" tag?

?
standard one as in beginning of birthday cake remix or something rarer?

kinda funny anomalous thing is that dj q despite his ineffable genius is probably the one ukg-and-related dj who's never really traditionally ever played much funkystepz stuff

I've been wondering about that too. It is Scrufizzer that does the tag, no? His voice could be described as a 'highpitched goblin chirp", just listen to 'Funkystepz Anthem' from their Boiler Room set. I've noticed the sometimes downpitch the tag, like on 'Hurricane Riddim' and 'John Wayne'.

ok guys enough about the flipping tags already

NOT ENOUGH ABOUT THE FLIPPING TAGS

the tags are fantastic but ONLY IF YOU DON'T THINK ABOUT THEM TOO MUCH

you can have your tags talk if you say anything remotely at all of value about the myriad dizzying musics of funkystepz, imagine that for a compromise

http://www.sharebeast.com/vgnsrjb6wm0z

here's the set to cut out and keep btw

'mind f' is the ONE i tell you, the prancing dinosaur sequel to 'fuller' ONE

I get your point, rtc, but as an unrepentant Funkystepz fanboy, I'm just glad people are talking about them at all, here and dissensus are the only places I'm aware of online where they get any love at all, if it takes some tedious tag talk to accomplish that, I can live with that. I'm glad I'm not the only one that loves Mind F! It sounds to me like a mix between 'Vortex' and 'Phantom' with a psy-trancey 303 grumbling underneath.

i love the preeya kalidas remix!

haha omg the gothic backing vox coming in at 2:40

also hey the original is surprisingly good too

'kinda funny anomalous thing is that dj q despite his ineffable genius is probably the one ukg-and-related dj who's never really traditionally ever played much funkystepz stuff'

true. In a way Funkystepz are a bit too good for their own good now. Now that that the funky scene has died and fell away beneath their feet, its sort of hard to see how they fit in. As much as I enjoy Qs show and a lot of the new garage he's playing, when funkystepz do garage they make everyone else look shit. it must be quite intimidating for everyone else.

The fact they have so many killers that their DJ sets are all their own tracks only underlines how far ahead and isolated they are by now.

First "Pastor Lucas" and now the girl who played Amira in Eastenders, do you think Funkystepz have a fondness for the BBC soap opera?

heh benny tbf they were playing full sets of their own productions even when it wasnt yet all killer

i don't disagree that they outmatch a lot of other stuff in quality but that gives the misleading impression that they're on the same page to begin with

certainly the mutated dutch gene in their dna - or at least the way it's mutated - is something sui generis and as yet indigestible to the nu-garage nation

i think that (absolute masterpiece of a) remix for the rude kid tune is probably going to do well for them in terms of its comparative restraint

love Star 9 so much

the Scrufizzer stuff is thrilling, coming off of 20 minutes of no rapping to suddenly having every demi-bar stuffed with eight words apiece