DJ Zinc

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DJ Zinc
Birth name	Benjamin Pettit
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Drum and Bass, Breakstep, Crack House
Years active	1993 - present
Associated acts	Freestyles The Ganja Kru Hoodrats Hype & Zinc Pure Swift & Zinc
Website	http://www.djzinc.com/

DJ Zinc (real name Benjamin Pettit^[1]) is a drum and bass / breakstep DJ from the United Kingdom. Zinc is best known for 1995's "Super Sharp Shooter", a hip hop / jungle fusion.^[2]

Biography

Zinc's career as a DJ and producer, stretches the steady evolution of hardcore from its house and rave roots through ragga and hip hop styled hardstep and beyond.^[2]

He continued to DJ on a regular basis, and was one of the first drum and bass heads to score with the R&B slanted two step market courtesy of his 1999 single, "138 Trek".^[2]

He also remains a relative rarity in the drum and bass scene in that his productions outside drum and bass, most notably in the breaks genre under the pseudonym Jammin popular. Several of his productions have been successful in the UK garage genres with songs like "138 Trek", and Zinc's work is also appreciated by Grime artists.

DJ Zinc produces and DJs as part of the Ganja Kru and True Playaz collectives, often in association with friend and mentor DJ Hype. He also runs the Bingo Beats record label, which releases both drum and bass and breaks records. He has also been known to release many records under the alias of Dope Skillz.

In 2001, Zinc released a remix compilation album of his own productions called Beats By Design. By August 2004, he released his second album, Faster a concept album of sorts. The album, as the name suggests, ups the tempo little-by-little for each song. The title track, and album opener, epitomises this and is a grimey crawl through bass and beat that speeds up from 40bpm into the early 100's by its end.

Zinc, however, turned his back on the genre in 2007. Disenchanted by the lack of originality, DJ Zinc told his agent to stop taking bookings for drum'n'bass nights and abandoned the sound he once lived for. He took most of 2008 off to spend time with his young son and figure out how he wanted to move forward in his career, before returning in 2008 to play a hybrid of house sounds. From deep house to funky house to fidget house, he ended up producing something that did not fit into any of these sub-genres. He later named his new sound as Crack House.^[3]

Aliases

• Dope Skillz
• Jammin'
• Pacific
• Shox
• Tuned Air
• Tyranny

^[4]

Discography

Singles

• "138 Trek" (2000) - UK #27
• "Casino Royale" / "Dead A's" (2001) - UK #58 †
• "Reachout" (2002) - UK #73
• "Fair Fight" / "As We Do" (2002) - UK #72
• "Ska" (2004) - UK #54
• "Steppin' Sones" / "South Pacific" (2004) - UK #62
• "Drive By Car" / "Ins" (2005) - UK #66 ‡

† - credited as 'DJ Zinc / DJ Hype'

‡ - credited as 'DJ Zinc featuring Eksman'

^[1]

Albums

Compilation albums

References

External links

• DJ Zinc at Discogs
• DJ Zinc at rolldabeats
• DJ Zinc RBMA video lecture session Pt.1
• DJ Zinc RBMA video lecture session Pt.2
• RBMA Radio On Demand - Train Wreck Mix - Volume 2 - DJ Zinc (Bingo Records)