Bubbling Cause Trouble

Cola Y Su Grupo Di Tambu - Mi Moreno (from Musica Crioyo di Corsow)

The first Afro-Curacaoan song and dance is of as much importance to bubbling's creation as turntables and raggamuffin. DJs such as Moortje cite tambu as the backbone of the rhythm, though it differs from reggaeton's Dem Bow. The music can be both secular or religious, and went on to become a huge part of the island's culture after the abolition of Dutch slavery. Much like the fuss going on in the Netherlands in the 90s, its sound was influenced by other Caribbean music and there are actually other forms of tambu elsewhere in places where "Marooned" communities existed (or still exist). I have documents from Jamaica, Trinidad, and the other ABC Islands that prove this, but your are most likely to still hear tambu to this day at celebrations in Willemstad. I didn't immediately hear the connection between the two, but upon matching the tempos you can clearly tell how embedded it is. Unfortunately the recording industry isn't really pressed to document this stuff, and there isn't even much in the grant money pimpin' libraries of Smithsonian Folkways, Ocora ect. Luckily there are some nice record collectors out there that like to share their finds with us, one of which was nice enough to rip these amazing Cola y Su Grupo tracks. There is actually a fair amount of videos on Youtube as well.

A very in depth article on tambu can be found here, with all the information you might ever need.

Nederreggeton

It's often hard to find something so lyrically driven as hip-hop interesting when you don't speak the language, but Immorales found solutions. Comprised of six rappers and producers part of the Dutch Antilles diaspora who's music could be accurately described as Nederreggaeton, they are by all means unashamed of where they come from and you could say they "put it on for their cities". Performances taking place during frequent trips to Curacao on family visits are spoken in Papiamento, while the Netherlands rap game is Dutch. Their love for reggaeton results in songs sung in Spanish as "Los Immorales" when the audience is right, in part due to member I $ Ki's maternal Venezuelan roots. Talk about reading the crowd, these guys will speak to you in your mother tongue and even change their name to make you feel comfortable. Similar to the K-Liber bubbling in a rub-a-dub style philosophy, these guys pull together all aspects of culture within their scattered diaspora to form a comprehensible international hip-hop group. "People here can not relate to this music because they have not grown up with it" says member Pimpi, but we know that this is nether fact or fiction around these parts.

Read an article about them here if you can speak Dutch or use Google Translator.

Whos Down?

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Viben

K-Liber - Liber Nan So ke Kome

These guys are my favorite non-U.S. Hip-Hop group for a number of reasons. The first being that I have become a slave to Bubbling/Bubbeling/Bobbeling. The second being how successful they are able to mesh it with their craft, like DJ Moortje was their DJ Screw. And it's not just rap in another language too lost in translation for me to fully understand, but really in its own league of "rapping" in the same way Dancehall and Reggaeton are well, sort of Hip-Hop. Curacao is a different island, and while it was bitten by the raggamuffin bug along with the rest of the Caribbean it comes with its own set of rules. This is why K-Liber are able to place on pop charts in the Netherlands, and in this case able to pull off straight up Tambu as a reminder of where they come from. A pop group making references to the root, modern national pride not far off from certain Jamaicans trying to link Daggering to Kumina. A further investigation into the idea that "it's all hip-hop" to quote Toy Selectah, and to me both strengthening the legitimacy of non-U.S. hip-hop as well as further distancing it from such.

Free Your Slaves And Your Ass Will Follow

Tambu plays a large part in the roots of much of the music of the Dutch Antilles as mentioned by the likes of DJ Moortje and can't be ignored by those of us who love movement of the hips. Much like Batuko in Cape Verde and other dances done by displaced Africans, it was forbidden by European Slave traders due to it's "risque" nature, labeled as heathen and remained in secrecy for hundreds of years. The story of cultures condemned due to ass shaking can be told a number of ways (more on the 200+ year old history of Juke/Jit later) but since we've been talking about Bubbling a lot this video seemed totally appropriate. My collection of this stuff is small but growing, Grupo Zojojo being the top dogs so far. I recommend spending time on Youtube checking out some of the performances, which are more than worth watching.

Drop Bombs Like Hiroshima

Reflex DJ - Death Row Bubbling Battle Mix

While were still on the subject...

Weird The Club Up

Unknown DJ - Bubbling Battle Loop Mix

Bubbling battle tracks can be a scary swamp to trudge through, and you will step in plenty of shit along the way. Cramming 10 songs into 5 minutes while pulling them up and down like taffy is no easy task. The hardest part is making them not sound ridiculously corny, and tracks are often full of lame sound effects, muscle flexing, and sometimes even fucking South Park samples (I have a great track that's ruined by just that). A bad taste similar to the one Breakcore always leaves in my mouth. Yet sometimes, it all falls into the right place. This is one of those miniature DJ mixes that makes my obsession worth it and I can forget about all the incredibly dated turntable masturbation that I've put me ears through. A perfect battle track and like the best, an incredibly weird one too. Tiny guitars and a ghost organ lead into DJ Class' Tear The Club Up(!!!) and we are happy. From what I can tell, Baltimore Club isn't so rare in these parts and as strange a phenomenon as Bubbling is to begin with I'm not even surprised. There might be some kid in Suriname baking up some Juke for all I know (I can dream can't I? I mean they fuck with Paul Johnson). It's all one big mutated diaspora due to Dutch Slavery that has it's roots planted in Turkish raves, Jamaican cartoon chase footwork competitions, and the Mad Decent Website.

Edit: The DJ says his name at the end but I can't make it out very well. Maybe you can.

Give It To Me Plenty

DJ Moortje - Money

This is my shit right now. So is this. And this. Moortjewatch 2.5.

Bubbling Roots

Pretty cool old school DJ Moortje interview with footage of him driving through tunnels. The footage of General Levy sounds like Eephing. The second part contains some more talk about the speeding up factor that seems to bother a lot of Dancehall artists when applied to their own music.

Skank if Your Skankin, Bubble if Your Bubbling

DJ Memmie - Memmiemix

A pretty killer Bubbling mix that might not have much in terms of chipmunk remixes otherwise known as "Mickey Mouse Style", but it's still pretty great. There is a moment towards the end that goes Kawina, Merengue, slow dance Batchata. It's Kind of nuts.

Wanna Battle?

DJ Moortje - Battlestation Mix

This dude has quickly become one of my favorite DJs ever. This one is super techy, with a lot of ??? moments.

I missed this article from last year over at the Guardian on Bubbling, written by Prancehall. I guess Cutty Ranks showed up at a club in Amsterdam and got mad because Moortje was playing his music too fast. Also some talk about the government in Curacao destroying Bubbling tapes back in the day. Makes me sad.

Self-Proclaimed Hot Boyz of Amsterdam

K Liber - Dansen (from ?)

This is the kind of stuff I've been trying to get my hands on over the past week. K Liber are a Hip-Hop group from Curacao now based in the Netherlands who have a heavy Bubbling (Bubbeling?) vibe in the production. The beat for this track is pretty bananas, sounds like Soca made from really cheap keyboards. The music from that part of the world and within the Dutch Antilles diaspora is insane, I have a lot of stuff that sounds like weird carnival (and I don't mean the pre-Lent festival) rides.

Edit: If anybody knows where this is from I'd love to know. The version on their album Schuurpapier is a different remix.