This is a Brooklyn story

In October 2011, Dub-Stuy founder Quoc Pham, a long time DJ and selector spending his time between Brooklyn and Europe, attended Aba Shanti’s seminal University of Dub party in London. The vibes on the night energized him and left him convinced to do something that could bring the same experience to the U.S. east coast, where sound system culture had been declining since its 1980s heydays. The month before attending University of Dub, Quoc had co-hosted the Dub Invasion Festival in NYC, but he how understood that the best way to represent the culture was via a sound system, rather than just events. This idea was the seed for Dub-Stuy.

Back in NYC, Quoc spent the rest of the winter researching the specifics of building a sound system via online forums. In the process he met Jason, a local speaker builder recommended online as someone who might be able to help. Together the pair began to build what would become The Tower of Sound, a bespoke 15000-watt wooden sound system. By spring of 2012, the first version of the rig was fine tuned and tested, components refined. As the summer landed, The Tower of Sound was rolled out for its first shows: community events in Bed Stuy and a VICE Motherboard event in XX featuring hip-hop icons RZA and Large Professor.

It was during the creation of the sound system that Quoc met Jay Spaker, a local Brooklyn producer and vocalist. The meeting would prove to be another key event in the birth of Dub-Stuy, cementing a creative partnership that later gives birth to both the Dub-Stuy label and its lead artist: Tour de Force, a collaboration between Jay and Quoc. Bonding over a shared love of Jamaican sound system culture, roots and reggae, American hip-hop, and the modern evolutions of both, Tour de Force would be the sound of Dub-Stuy and the Tower of Sound would be its amplifier.

Dub-Stuy officially launched in October 2012 with a party at The Paperbox, featuring legendary American dubstep selector Joe Nice, NYC’s Matt Shadetek, and the UK’s Brother Culture. At the same time, Dub-Stuy moves into its first office in the heart of Bed Stuy.

Following a successful start, 2013 was all about growth for Dub-Stuy. In March, we launched the Echo Chamber series of events where we invite guests from the international scene to Brooklyn. The first three events welcomed guests from France, America, and Brazil. In August, we followed this with a second event series, The Roots of Sound System, dedicated to the long and storied history of the scene and music. The first event in the series brought together two foundational NYC sound system pioneers: Downbeat The Ruler and Deadly Dragon. And then in September, as summer drew to a close, we hosted our first ever block party in Bed Stuy with special guests Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest and Hank Shocklee from The Bomb Squad.

2013 was also the year Dub-Stuy made its mark in New York with a feature in Red Bull’s music magazine and a display of the Tower of Sound at their Roots of Dubstep event, which brought many of the scene’s pioneers to Manhattan. Throughout the year, the rig travels around the five boroughs showing that sound system culture is alive and well in the city.

Beyond events, we also start growing our local and international community beginning in the summer with the first Tour de Force track, ‘Pool Party’ featuring Jahdan Blakkamoore. Given away for free, the track would find its way in the debut Tour de Force album, Battle Cry, released the following year. Dub-Stuy Records launches in December of 2013 with the first official Tour de Force 12″, Old Time Love, released on vinyl and digital formats.

In January 2014, we hosted the second Roots of Sound System event with special guests Channel One from England. This is the first time the pioneering sound had performed in America and they received a warm Brooklyn welcome despite the freezing cold. The event represents the theme of 2014 for Dub-Stuy: international expansion.

The label continued with the February release of Tour de Force’s debut album, Battle Cry, featuring a host of local and international vocal guests including the UK’s Brother Culture and Jamaica’s Luciano. Following an album launch at Echo Chamber IV, Tour de Force set off on its first foreign tour with a string of dates in Asia for Quoc, Jay, and Brother Culture. In the autumn, Tour de Force was invited to France for the Telerama festival. This is a return home for Quoc, who was raised outside Paris, and sows the seeds for a burgeoning relationship between France and Tour de Force. Tour de Force Remixed is released in September with the duo inviting fourteen guests from the worldwide sound system scene to reimagine their debut.

For Record Store Day 2014, The Tower of Sound was set up at the Powerhouse Arena bookshop in DUMBO for the Dust & Grooves launch party, a celebration of record collectors. Quincy Jones’ classic album Walking In Space is played on the system to a crowd of families and music lovers. June and July saw the last two events in the Roots of Sound System series featuring more legends: Shinehead, Ranking Joe, and Carlton Livingston. The year wraps up with one more Echo Chamber, this one looking to the present and future, with an international lineup of bass music producers and selectors: Om Unit from England, DJ Madd from Hungary, and Dave Q from New York.

After two years of growth and work, Dub-Stuy slows down in 2015 and regroups. The label diversifies with its first signing, DJ Madd. The Hungarian producer relocates to Brooklyn and joins the Dub-Stuy family with Kingdom, a 12″ of forward thinking bass music.

Tour de Force continued ahead with the Back to Africa 12″ and expanded beyond the duo of Quoc and Jay with a full live band featuring horns and drummer. In the winter, the band set out for a French tour taking in six cities in two weeks. Before that, Tour de Force and Dub-Stuy landed in Croatia for an appearance at the Outlook Festival – one of the leading events in the European summer calendar.

Back home, the next two installments of Echo Chamber left a sizeable mark in Brooklyn. First with a spring clash made in Bristol between Gorgon Sound (aka Kahn & Neek) and Dubkasm, who brought dubwise and roots vibes as only they can. And then with an October show featuring Leipzig’s Jahtari, king of the 8-bit reggae sound, Jane Bee, and Adam Prescott.

Refreshed and ready to forge ahead, in 2016 Dub-Stuy relocated its offices to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and set about expanding its label roster with two new signings, Dubamine and Bhukka, a new vinyl series dedicated to dancehall culture, and more events at home and abroad.

The year began with a Brooklyn show featuring Poland’s Radikal Guru and Italy’s Numa Crew, a brand new 12″ from Tour de Force, and the official NYC launch party for the 2016 edition of Outlook Festival in May featuring Glasgow’s Mungo’s Hi Fi facing off against O.B.F from Paris. The summer saw Dub-Stuy take over Trans-Pecos in Brooklyn with the Backyard Hi-Fi series featuring food, music, and good vibes. Guests in the series came from all four corners of the world including Tommy Sunshine from Tokyo, Yaadcore from Kingston, Junior Dread from Brazil, Ghislain Poirier from Montreal, LV from London, and Max Glazer from NYC among others.

2016 closed with one last jam-packed Echo Chamber at the Paper Box featuring Quantic and Parisian dub master Moresounds. Alongside this is the second Dubamine release on the Dub-Stuy label featuring a remix of the classic Joker Smoker with a new vocal from Tristan Palmer himself.

Five years in and Dub-Stuy has hit its stride, standing its ground in a proud warrior stance. At home we celebrated local heroes while keeping a focus on the expansion of the Dub-Stuy sound globally and strengthening our release line up.

The first event of the year was the tenth Echo Chamber in Brooklyn, with the young prodigy Dubamine and UK veteran Vibronics. This was followed by yet another Outlook NYC launch party featuring the mighty Iration Steppas from Leeds, Grand Ancestor from DC and local DJs Liondub and Anna Morgan. In August Dub-Stuy returned to Outlook with its own boat party featuring friends and family from the US and Europe. Before that there was one more hometown celebration with the 25th anniversary of Deadly Dragon Sound who left town after a quarter of a century of holding it down for sound system culture. In July we returned to Trans-Pecos for another Backyard Hi-Fi with Bukkha and junglist Jacky Murda. We finished the year with Echo Chamber XI and a French sound clash between Von D, newly welcomed to the Dub-Stuy roster, and OBF featuring Sr. Wilson and Jahdan Blakkamoore.

2017 was also the year that the Dub-Stuy Sound DJ collective was firmly established, taking the label’s sound to the world. It began with a Boiler Room session in NYC in February and continued with an 11-date European tour in the spring, three Colombian dates in July and a return to Europe in September.

Alongside all this the Tower of Power sound system also took pride of place at Dia:Beacon, the New York state art institution, for the month-long Dub Love dance installation and in the back streets of Greenpoint for a memorable 4th of July block party with local radio station The Lot. It even made an appearance in the video for WizKid’s “Come Closer” featuring Drake.

Label wise the year started with a split 12″ from Bukkha and Vibronics, followed by the second installment of the riddim series featuring Burro Banton, Rider Shafique and Shanti D. Kunta Kinte Riddim 2017 proved one of the most popular releases to date with a repress and acclaim from all parts of the sound system community. Bukkha then returned with the Death Chat 12″, his own take on grime and dubstep featuring London’s Killa P. Next was a new artist, Long Island’s Blind Prophet and the Marijuana Burns Capitalism 12″ with Russian vocalist Tenor Youthman. Closing the year was Von D, who debuted on the label with the four-track EP Wicked Scam.

Alongside all these standard releases we also launched a new event-specific 7″ series, with a colored 7″ record pressed in limited quantities for every event featuring unreleased dubplates from the headliners. These records were sold at the shows and online with no digital. Pressed locally in New Jersey at Stereodisk, these 7″s proved to be a huge success and have quickly become collectors items.