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As a 10 year veteran of the Konkrete Jungle family, and a member of crews and labels such as Chopstick Dubplate, Cause and Effect Records, B_LOW, and Little Island Records, DJ Tuffist has come a long way from the humble origins of his musical quest and continues to blaze forward along the path.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, DJ Tuffist grew up with the constant presence of urban musics around him, so naturally, his ears perked up when he heard these musics expressed in a new and different way in the form of what is known as "Jungle/Drum and Bass." In 1996, Tuffist then only 14 years of age, began to collect Vinyl and make mix tapes to sell outside of the parties he frequented. Soon he, and his then DJ partner Human? would become known around town as "The Mix Tape Kids." In 1998 thanks to friend, DJ Cassien, a veteran Junglist on the NY circuit, he landed a residency at NYC's Legendary Drum and Bass event, Konkrete Jungle!
Soon after, He and Human? formed Survival NYC, New York's original Ragga Jungle Crew. During these early years Tuffist was dedicated to collecting as much Old School and Ragga Jungle as possible and managed to amass a healthy collection of Jungle Gems! This proved useful when the Jungle Revival movement started to take off in the early 2000's. All of the sudden Tuffist found himself with a full schedule of shows. In 2001 Tuffist got a job working at Break Beat Science, the main store at that time in North America for Jungle/D&B. At this point Tuffist had achieved a strong Foundation in New York, and began to travel more frequently for gigs. He began to do shows in important cities around the continent, including Las Vegas, Miami, Boston, Ottawa, Toronto & Montreal. He even made it as far as Amsterdam, and London, where he was blessed with the opportunity to open the night for V Recordings' well known weekly D&B event, Movementat at Bar Rumbah!! Between 2002 and 2003, with the Jungle Revival in full swing, Tuffist and Survival (Which by this point Included MC Bass Nacho & Cassien of Legend) put on some of the most memorable nights in the history of Konkrete Jungle including "The North American Ragga Jungle Project Tour," and N2O Records' "Dis Da Program Tour." In early 2004 Tuffist left Survival and began to focus more on his own production. In 2005 alongside Miztah Lex, Tuffist launched Cause and Effect Records and released his first track on vinyl, "My Sound (The False Alarm)."
2006 was a significant year for Tuffist. He moved to Barcelona, joined Chopstick Dubplate, and began to incorprate Dubstep into his DJ sets, thus spawning another branch of his musical journey. In 2007, recognizing the obvious lack of Dubstep music in Barcelona, Tuffist and his friend Satta B decided to try doing a small weekley event, "Bass Attack," showcasing this and various other styles of Bass Music. Bass Attack became the meeting points for various dj's, producers, promotors, and bass heads around town, helping to kick off the Dubstep movement in Barcelona.
Since relocating to barcelona, Tuffist has been invited frequently to play at some of the most important Drum and Bass nights in the city, including Breakstorm, SURCO, BCN Bassline, Raval Bass & Step Inna Di Jungle. In 2008 Chopstick feat: Tuffist, Jacky Murda & Demolition Man were invited to headline the prestigious Nowa Jungle Sensi festival in Vilanova, and later that year Tuffist was invited to play at the Boom Festival in Portugal, one of the largest Electronic Music festivals in the world! In the last few years Tuffist has also touched down around the Iberian peninsula at Fokin Massive(Zaragoza), 13 Calles (Aranjuez), Sub'd'Vision (Granada), the Manlleu Youth Festival alongside Demolition Man, Jacky Murda & Aries (Manlleu), and the Mountain Bass Festival in the Pyrenees Mountains (Huesca). Outside of Spain Tuffist has also performed consistantly around Europe in Ireland, England, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. All the while Tuffist has managed to maintain a hand in event promotion, helping to organize events including the Barcelona branch of Konkrete Jungle which featured artists like Souljah,Tenor Fly, and Top Cat (2007-2008), The Sub Sonar Special with Rusko(2008), and now Barcelona's poular new Dubstep monthly: B_Low, which boasts a dangerous brigade of residents as well as regular international guests! Tuffist is also part of the Barcelona based Radio program, The Chorizo Show, which airs on the british station Sub.Fm (voted 1 Dubstep radio world wide!!)
Over the past year Tuffist has spent much of his time in the studio with Jacky Murda and Aries producing the new "Chopstick Meets River Nile" album which features Vocalists: Jah Mason, Luthan Fyah, Turbulance, Natty King, Uthan Green, Stikki, Antonio West, Hi Kee, Charm Squad, Jah Romie, Wild Life, and Spectacular. The Album is set to drop in November 2009.
To add to the list, Kion, Jacky Murda, and Tuffist are the core components of a fresh new Dubstep Label, Little Island Records, which will feature remixes of classic and new reggae tracks by an array of talented artists such as Tes La Rok, Cardopusher, Itchy Robot, 23HZ & Numaestro, and of course the little island crew. For More Info Feel free to send Tuffist a mail!!
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