Music

James Blake says American dubstep has become a "frat boy pissing contest"

by Tyler Munro

James Blake seems like he wouldn’t hurt a fly, that if he accidentally stepped on an ant, he’d apologize profusely. But frat boys and American charting dubstep artists? Yeah, fuck them, he says.

Talking to the Boston Phoenix, Blake took a question about supposed male dominance in the genre and ran with it, splitting his answer down the middle with a surprisingly biting commentary on the state of modern dubstep,

“I think the dubstep that has come over to the US, and certain producers—who I can’t even be bothered naming—have definitely hit upon a sort of frat-boy market where there’s this macho-ism being reflected in the sounds and the way the music makes you feel. And to me, that is a million miles away from where dubstep started. It’s a million miles away from the ethos of it. It’s been influenced so much by electro and rave, into who can make the dirtiest, filthiest bass sound, almost like a pissing competition, and that’s not really necessary. And I just think that largely that is not going to appeal to women. I find that whole side of things to be pretty frustrating, because that is a direct misrepresentation of the sound as far as I’m concerned.”

Since we didn’t get any names from Blake, we couldn’t reach any of these certain producers, though we imagine their responses would probably go a little something like this….”womp womp womp womp reeeeeeee, wobble wobble womp.”