Music
DJ Die & Gutterfunk win Culture Clash Bristol
Watch the hometown crew triumph over Butterz Sound, Team Tectonic and Stylo G's Warning Sound.
DJ Die Presents Gutterfunk celebrate
© Theo Cottle/Red Bull Content Pool
What. A. Show. Four crews, four stages, four rounds – but there can only be one winner, and this time it was Bristol drum’n’bass titan DJ Die and his Gutterfunk family who walked off with the prestigious airhorn trophy.
Watch Cora Delaney's report on Culture Clash Bristol below.
3 min
Red Bull Culture Clash Bristol 2016
Red Bull Culture Clash Bristol 2016
Going into battle
It was by no means a forgone conclusion, with powerful competition coming from all quarters. Butterz Sound looked like early leaders, with Elijah and Skilliam taking a seat in comfortable easy chairs and flicking through newspapers as Gutterfunk opened the first round. That, plus P Money on the mic and choice cuts including The Bug’s Skeng and Kanye West’s Who Gone Stop Me put Butterz one up at the end of round one.
Gunfingers go up as Butterz Sound go in hard
© Marcus Maschwitz/ Red Bull Content Pool
Host Julie Adenuga keeping things on track
© Marcus Maschwitz/ Red Bull Content Pool
Lady Chann is repping for Team Tectonic
© Marcus Maschwitz/ Red Bull Content Pool
Lethal Bizzle
© Marcus Maschwitz/ Red Bull Content Pool
Team Tectonic started out deep and moody, and the decibel meter at the end of the first round suggested perhaps the crowd were a bit too hyped to go with them. But they rallied hard, bringing out Riko and Lady Chann (an ex-girlfriend of Stylo G MC Stormin – that’s gotta hurt) and veering between seismic dubstep, jungle and thundering reggae. It's an approach that wiped the face off Warning Sound's face come the Sleeping With The Enemy Round, where the purpose is to bite another sound's style.
If you’re here and on this stage, you put a lot of your lifetime into making music, and that gets a lot of respect from me
It was the team next to them who occasionally looked like they had it in the bag. Stylo G’s Warning Sound had an almost limitless supply of killer dubplates – from So Solid Crew’s 21 Seconds to Section Boyz’ Lock Aff to a Beenie Man cut shipped over from Jamaica. They had some killer guests too, including Lethal Bizzle (“You don’t just play the 45… you bring out the fucking artist!”) and a ready-for-war Chip – who unfortunately was cut off mere seconds after his arrival, when the timer ran out at the close of round three. "We want Chip!" chanted the audience. Don't worry, he's coming back – you think a clock's going to stop him?
Blow your horns for Stylo G's Warning Sound
© Marcus Maschwitz/ Red Bull Content Pool
The full Team Tectonic family go in hard
© Theo Cottle/Red Bull Content Pool
Warning Sound roll out the dubs
© Theo Cottle/Red Bull Content Pool
Elijah Butterz (left) gets the crowd hype
© Red Bull Content Pool
The crews took to Twitter after the Clash…
There can only be one…
Warning Sound's combination of dubs, guests and trash talk won them round three, meaning it was one a piece to Butterz, Warning Sound and Gutterfunk as the crews entered the final Armageddon stage. But DJ Die and Gutterfunk had brought their A game since the very beginning. From an opening round that saw them mixing up James Brown’s Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine and General Levy’s Incredible to a crowd-pleasing closer that rewired Bristol heroes Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy as an assault on hapless soundbwoys, they got the tone just right throughout.
Of course, this is a city that loves its drum’n’bass – and while some crews got bogged down in the business of war, Gutterfunk kept a smile on everyone’s face throughout. The final round was a close-run thing, with the decibel meter registering a near draw between Stylo G, Team Tectonic and Gutterfunk. But there could only be one winner, and as host Julie Adenuga walked to the middle of the room and announced the winner, it’s hard to deny it was justly deserved.
Says DJ Die:
We’re over the moon man. We definitely didn’t come here to lose, but we weren’t like 'We’re gonna win it'. We’ve put a lot of effort in. Me and Dismantle worked really hard – since the line-up was announced we basically just worked non-stop in the studio. It’s a lot about the vocalists and the artists that came through for us to join us and deliver dubs. We had Solo Banton on board, a veteran of the clashing scene. We got a Limb By Limb dubplate from Cutty Ranks. That wasn’t really Shara Nelson [on the Massive Attack dubplate] – you can’t get everyone you want – but you can have a good idea and execute it in a certain way.
And Die proved that at the end of the day, the beef onstage at Red Bull Culture Clash isn't personal – and that ultimately these events are built on mutual respect.
"Big up all the other teams too. If you’re here and on this stage, you put a lot of your lifetime into making music, and that gets a lot of respect from me."
DJ Die and Dismantle show off their trophy
© Theo Cottle/Red Bull Content Pool
Next stop Manchester – see you there?
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