Renegade Riddims: Lubi J

Lubi J is all about dropping big tunes, whether it’s atmospheric Jungle or dark and heavy Drum & Bass. Based in Cardiff, she’s been mixing since her uni days back in 2000.

Studying radio at university led to a long run of presenting radio shows since the age of 16, mainly on local stations in Cardiff and up in Birmingham (post uni), plus more recently on digital stations.

She started off mostly playing soulful Drum & Bass heavily influenced by Fabio’s liquid funk and artists like Calibre, Carlito and Addiction and EZ Rollers. Despite mostly playing liquid in the early days her love for Jungle and the darker styles was always there and she would often pull out tracks from labels like Ram, Liftin Spirits, Metalheadz, V, Full Cycle and Renegade Hardware. In the late 00s, she side-stepped into playing Disco and Funk for a few years after being educated and influenced by her friend and artist Hoxe in old skool funk and the history of breaks. 

She fell back in love with playing Jungle Drum & Bass around 2012 when Catapult Records (a legendary record store in Cardiff) started putting on events in the unique Vaults venue and gave her a residency. At this time she was the only female playing Drum & Bass in Cardiff.

In recent years she’s become more immersed again in the darker breaks and beats of Jungle. Heavily influenced by labels like Function, Rupture, Samurai and Repertoire.

She’s held residencies and played at a number of different nights in Cardiff and over the bridge in the last 20 years, supporting a raft of the finest in the scene, including; Bukem, Calibre, Storm, Digital, Spirit, Total Science, Mampi Swift, Djinn, Roni Size, Break, Alley Cat, Randall, Klute and Doc Scott.

After feeling the void of modern Jungle and heavier Drum & Bass in the capital city, the year 2022 brought the start of putting on her own events with fellow DJ, Electra. Headspace was born with their first event celebrating a meeting of minds with Concrete Junglists, featuring Tim Reaper and Sully in Cardiff for the first time. Many more raves are now being planned.

In addition to Headspace events, Lubi J has begun working on her own productions and will be sharing some music soon…watch this space!

For now, Lubi J joins our Renegade Riddims after she previously recorded a mix for our International Women’s Day 2021 Radio takeover. Check out her brand new mix below and download it for free here

Q&A:

Sum up this mix in 10 words…

Big tunes with lots of deep and dark vibes

What’s your personal favourite track on it?

I can never pick just one. Lots of favourites included, like Obsession, B-Boy, Clones, Murderder… I could carry on!

What’s the special ingredient in this mix?

Lots of strong tracks with plenty of breakbeat appreciation

What have you got coming up?

Got a few festivals over the next couple of months, including Big Love this weekend in South Wales, I’ll be supporting the legendary LTJ Bukem with my Concrete Junglists family. Plus my own event in Cardiff is coming up in August, called Headspace, which I run with fellow DJ, Electra. We’ve got jungle’s finest, Dead Man’s Chest and Sheba Q bringing the heat.

When was the last time you actually raved?

The last heavyweight rave I went to was Rupture in June – full on sweatbox raving all night! Plus I played out and had a wicked rave at the Warm Ears Music event in Bristol a couple of weekends ago, playing alongside Madcap, Ill Truth, Anca, Structure, TTB, D.E.D and Elementrix.

And finally, do you have a special message for our readers?

Enjoy the mix!

TRACKLIST:

Seba & Blackeye MC – Thoughts Run Free

Shodan – Nauty

John Rolodex – Archetypes

Madcap – B-Boy

Calibre – Fire & Water

Commix – Daggers

Loxy & Resound – Clones

Genotype & Just Jungle – Brukfoot

Mark System – The Earth

Acid Lab – Testify

Breakage – Old Skool Ting

Paradox – Toprock

High Contrast – Amen Sister (Digital remix)

DJ Trax & Madcap – The Warning

Andy C – Cool Down (Total Science remix)

Digital & Outrage – Like This

Sicknote, Sweetpea & Dissect – Jahlocia

Quartz – Lies

Gremlinz, Homemade Weapons feat Collinjah – After Dark

Future Cut feat Jenna G – Obsession

Spirit – Murderer

Olski – Latency Dub

Amit – Doomed Youth