When I watched this documentary the first thing that I was really hoping it would probe was the idea of lyrics in jungle music. It takes it samples from many different genres of Black music, whether it be reggae or soul; however, a lot of these samples are mixed up and mashed up. Sampling music seemed to be more about the sampling instead of the lyrical value of the music. I was very interested then, to see what those producing music and lyrics had to say about them and their influence on their audience.
I think that an interesting shift happened when the modes of production became available to everyone. As Koushik Banerjea stated “it provided an opportunity for a lot of urban youngsters…to actually inform music with…their own experiences and to make the music a bit more relevant to what they…were feeling.” These bedroom junglists were working towards not only changing the genre and making it more accessible, but also were bringing more legitimacy to the genre. Shy FX and DJ Gunsmoke illustrated this legitimacy by using their own personal experiences in their lyrics, using what Back stated as culture lyrics which educate their community both “black youth in Britain…[along with] a wide variety” (196) of others – lyrics that everyone could relate to. Banerjea illustrated how this brought legitimacy to the genre since it is a reflection on the reality of the perceptions of young black men. Instead of glamorizing violence, it acts as an escape from the reality and to subvert these common misconceptions, something which I think is very powerful as it illustrates how the music acts both as an escape, but also as a social vehicle to catalyze the potential for social change.
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