The Ragga Twins, also known as RTC, are an English ragga and

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

MC duo of Deman Rocker (David Destouche) and Flinty Badman (Trevor Destouche). Originating from Hackney,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, they started out on

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

's Unity sound system, and are regarded as pioneers of the scene.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

called them "crucial cogs in the development of U.K. dance music."

History

The Ragga Twins originated as part of London's Unity sound system, operating under the name in 1989. They first came to prominence with a number of groundbreaking singles in the early 1990s including "Spliffhead", "Wipe the Needle", "Hooligan 69" and "Mixed Truth", with production by Shut Up & Dance. This was followed by album ''

Reggae Owes Me Money ''Reggae Owes Me Money'' is the debut album by British duo The Ragga Twins, produced by hardcore duo Shut Up and Dance and released on the latter's record label of the same name. After establishing themselves as dancehall artists from the Unit ...

'' in 1991. They resurfaced in 1995 on

Positiva Positiva Records is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and concentrates on releasing dance music in the UK. The record label was set up in 1993, by Nick Halkes, who previously ran XL Recordings. Its headquarters are at the Universal U ...

, and continued to release tracks intermittently into the 2000s. The Ragga Twins longest musical relationship is with Aquasky, a partnership that was first cemented in 2001 when the tracks "All in Check" feat. CoGee and "Loko" were written for Botchit & Scarper. Four months later, the tracks "Coffee" and "Dem No No We" were recorded for drum and bass label Moving Shadow, and in 2002, the

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

track "Dirty Entertainers" was recorded with Aquasky on their now defunct Sonix label. The following year, a remix was created and white labels distributed but the single was never released due to Aquasky leaving their distribution deal with ST Holdings and moving to SRD. A series of 12" singles have been released with Aquasky on their Passenger label since 2002, including new tracks for the 601 album ''We Do Bass'' and a Ragga Twins 2002–2013 compilation album. In 2004, Aquasky were approached by HBO for the usage of the tracks "Loko" or "Dem No No We" to be used in the Ali G series '' Ali G in Da USA''. HBO finally settled on "Dem No No We" which took the Ragga Twins' new breakbeat output to

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

. A video was shot for the "Superbad" single in 2011 by b-boy and film-maker Charlie Marbles, a friend of Aquasky also from Bournemouth. In 2008, the Twins lent their vocals to the Backdraft single, "Rock the Mic". In 2010, they were featured on Mason and the Fraudster's track "U Appear". Flinty Badman & Deman Rocker appeared in the Plan B crime film '' Ill Manors'' in 2012. In 2014, they featured on "All is Fair in Love and Brostep" and " Ragga Bomb" from

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead sing ...

's debut album '' Recess'', and "Zipper" from MUST DIE!'s album ''Death & Magic''. In 2008,

Soul Jazz Records Soul Jazz Records is a British record label based in London. Outside of releasing records, the label also publishes books, occasionally films and performs as a DJ set. The music releases labels from a variety of genres, including reggae, house ...

issued a compilation album of their early 1990s recordings entitled '' Ragga Twins Step Out''. Ragga Twins play regularly on the Kool London

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

Discography

Albums

* ''

'' ( Shut Up and Dance Records, 1991) – UK No. 26 * ''Rinsin' Lyrics'' (

, 1995) * ''Ragga Twins Step Out'' (

, 2008) * ''Keep On Chant'' (Solid Vinyl Music, 2003)

Compilation albums

* '' Ragga Twins Step Out'' (2008)

Singles

* "Illegal Gunshot" / "Spliffhead" ( Shut Up and Dance Records, 1990) – UK No. 51 * "Wipe the Needle" / "Juggling" (Shut Up and Dance, 1991) – UK No. 71 * "Hooligan 69" (Shut Up and Dance, 1991) – UK No. 56 * "Mixed Truth" / "Bring Up the Mic Some More" (Shut Up and Dance, 1992) – UK No. 65 * "Shine Eye" feat.

Junior Reed Delroy "Junior" Reid (born 6 June 1963) is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician, best known for his featuring on the songs " One Blood", "It's Okay (One Blood)" and " This Is Why I'm Hot", as well as being the lead vocalist for Black Uhur ...

(Shut Up and Dance, 1992) – UK 63 * ''Freedom Train EP'' (

, 1995) * "All in Check" feat. CoGee / "Loko" with Aquasky (Botchit & Scarper, 2002) * "Coffee" / "Dem No No We" with Aquasky ( Moving Shadow, 2003) * "Jerlipy lipy" (Solid Vinyl, 2003) * "E Legal Gunshot" (Solid Vinyl, 2003) * "Shut Em Down" with TC Izlam & Ed Solo (Solid Vinyl, 2003) * "Dirty Entertainers" with Aquasky (Sonix, 2003) * "Ready for This" with Aquasky (777 Records, 2005) * "Everybody Hype" feat. DJ Go with Aquasky (777 Records, 2006) * "Let Me See Your Hands" / "Let Me See Your Hands" with Aquasky (777 Records, 2007) * "Rock the Mic" with Backdraft (Passenger Records, 2007) * "Bring Forth Ya Booty" with 10 Sui & La Resistance (Mob Records, 2008) * "Give It Up" with Aquasky (Passenger Records, 2008) * "Living Legends" / "Raggatron" with Aquasky (Passenger Records, 2010) * "Humble" feat. Tenor Fly with Aquasky (Passenger Records, 2011) * "Heatwave" feat. MC Spyda, CoGee, Pedro Slimer & M-TEK (Passenger Records, 2012) * "Hot Like We" with Realecta (2015) * "All Is Fair in Love and Brostep" with

( Big Beat Records, 2014) * " Ragga Bomb" with Skrillex (Big Beat Records, 2014) * "Bad Man (Skrillex Remix)" with Skrillex (

Owsla Owsla (stylized in all caps) is an American record label and creative collective. It was founded by Skrillex, Tim Smith, Kathryn Frazier, and Clayton Blaha in 2011. Skrillex announced the label on August 17, 2011. The label's first release was ...

, 2015) * "Get Ready 4 tha Drop" with Charlotte Devaney (Karma London, 2015) * "Windpipe" with Barely Alive (Disciple, 2015) * "Worldwide" with Metrik ( Hospital Records, 2016) * "Watch Out" with Dirtyphonics and Bassnectar (Monstercat, 2017) * "Computa Hakka" with Pegboard Nerds (Monstercat, 2019)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Musical groups from London English electronic music duos English hip hop groups Drum and bass duos Male musical duos Breakbeat hardcore music groups British drum and bass music groups Ragga musicians Black British musical groups Musical groups established in 1989 Musical groups from the London Borough of Hackney