The 10 Best Jungle Tracks of All Time, according to General Levy
Few artists have done as much for jungle as General Levy. The ragga MC started chatting on the mic when he was at school, and by the age of 14 he was forming sound system crews and was putting on parties around the capital. Coming with his own style – the hiccup-type sound that is now his calling card, the MC made a stamp for himself on his link-up with M-Beat, ‘Incredible‘, which ended up crashing into the Top 10 and – helped by its Ali G inclusion – isn’t likely to ever leave the collective UK consciousness.
Since that 1994 single and ensuing success, General Levy’s career has gone through a series of highs and lows, but he remains a much-loved figure of the UK music scene, and is coming into 2019 with a certain energy – with two releases under his belt already. Ahead of his appearance at Love Saves The Day in Bristol this May, General Levy lists the most gargantuan cuts from jungle’s deep and storied history…
“M-Beat has got some great tracks and I could have picked so many of them, this track reminds me of when I used to live on Bow Road with my first daughter’s mum and we used to go to Telepathy and we also used to babysit for the young grime MC Godsgift.”
“This is a serious tune from back in the day, reminds me of getting ready to go raving when Commander B used to rinse this tune on his night flight radio show on Choice FM.”
“Goes down a storm, first time I heard this was in the Astoria at Jungle Mania I think, when it dropped it was crazy.”
“This list wouldn’t be complete without Congo Natty and here with the excellent Peter Bouncer, a classic tune that everybody loves. To me it was the perfect fusion between reggae and rave heads, another classic tune from the raves – when the bassline drops the whole place was skanking.”
“All-time classic, bad tune, makes the gal them skank, used to love watching the reaction from the gals, beautiful tune.”
“Bassline to die for, definite banger. One of the most influential tunes that really helped stamp the jungle scene on UK urban culture.”
“Bad bwoy tune, when this tune play the bad man start skanking. We used to go mad on this tune MCing, it was great for all the MCs to go mad on.”
“Never grows old – nutty tune, I just love the way the crowds react to this tune. This is a perfect example of how innovative UK production is.”
“Could turn Hare Krishna into a badboy – Human Traffic, nothing more I can add to this!”
“Fire remix! This tune gets me naturally high – makes me laugh and skank at the same time, ‘cos my name’s Paul.”
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