Getting to Know a Genre: Ghetto Funk

Here at DMNW, we try to not get too deep into the genre definitions. After all, with the amount of supposed genres out there you’d probably spend less time writing a thesis than trying to figure out what the hell something like post – dubstep is anyway. But as much as we hate putting a label on something as relative as a sequence of notes; unless you want to just cram everything into one insanely massive list, it’s probably for the best that we loosely define them…for the purpose of this article, of course.

Today we’re talking about Ghetto Funk – the mid tempo cousin of breakbeat that, like most dance music, was popularized in the UK before making its name known worldwide. Although it was born on an assumingly overcast and otherwise gloomy day in Bristol, over the years Ghetto Funk has managed to shine through the speakers of dance music fans all over the world; gaining major footholds in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and pockets of Europe. Blending the best from a multitude of genres, Ghetto Funk takes your love of hip – hop, breaks, funk, soul, and bass and combines it into one smorgasbord of sound.

What could best be described as a form of mid tempo party breaks clocking in at around 110bpm, Ghetto Funk was born from the success of the golden age of breakbeat. Early pioneers such as A. Skillz, Nick Thayer, and Featurecast started mixing their favorite hip – hop tracks with the music they grew up listening to as kids. The addition of a few wobbly basslines and some swinging percussion is all it would take to define the sound, which opened the door for the freshly founded funk to take over.