Why I'm Reposting
It's WMC… MMW… Ultra Week in Miami, aka the moving raver holiday in March where ravers worldwide go to their mecca and listen to music many decibels louder than needed. For those who haven't been to Miami during March, you can actually feel the bass shake you from the highway, and it's not uncommon to see car accidents with scantily clad kandi kids and ravers running away from the scene to stash their party supplies.
For clarity, I haven't done a Miami March in more than a decade… but I have fond memories. One day, when I retire or get a job in the music industry, I'll be back, baby.
Aside from a few videos of friends at Ultra or various label parties for a day—cause a week is too many for us—my only real glimpse of the shows this year was a Florida legend, AK1200, respectfully hating on four far more mainstream drum and bass DJs. For clarity, AK1200 is one of my favorite DJs, though I've only caught him twice. He was criticizing a recent “supergroup,” or whatever you call it when four DJs get together to make worse music than they would solo.
For more clarity, I'm very open to mainstream music, including that of these four. WORSHIP is composed of four English lads you may know as Sub Focus, Dimension, Culture Shock, and 1991. Sub Focus has been a big name for a while, including back in the 2010 days when EDM ruled nightlife. Dimension is a big name in more recent years, often mixed in with hardcore and heavy bass DJs, known for darker, tech-influenced drum and bass, sneaking his way into Infrasound and the sub-bass community. Culture Shock has also been on my radar for a long time as a lyric-heavy, melodic DnB artist, who I most commonly hear dubbed over trippy animations in IG Stories (before my ban). And, not hating, but I think of 1991 as the ‘go-to gimmick artist’ for when you need a remix of Kanye or Drake to mix into a set.
Some commentators joked, “Together they make the ChatGPT of DnB." and “Since when is Nickelback a DnB act?”
One Florida promoter (and legend) wrote, “I picture them holding each others’ hands to help each other up onto the platform. Like old ladies helping each other up onto a riser at their Traveling Pants book reading tour. What a fucking joke.”
Their vanilla sound was only upped by their questionable name, WORSHIP, alongside a symbol of prayer hands. [Note: I did a bit of research and could find no connection between each artist individually or the group to Christianity or gospel music, but I can say that their increasingly vanilla sound is akin to Christian rock.]
Anywhoodles, I don't agree with Dave AK1200 Minner on this take completely. I do partially. I definitely get why others do. And it's worth sharing as a glimpse of how underground music is guarded. Follow him here and read my outro after the repost: https://www.facebook.com/AK1200official or https://www.facebook.com/reel/929438883014023
Nov 2026 update: After a completely unrelated incident involving an Atlanta MC, I mentioned that I had only heard of several artists because of their spicy social media posts, and that I wished social media didn't focus so much on hate and controversy. Dave saw that I'd mentioned him alongside some more troublesome incidents, read this post (before this update), and reached out. We ended up having a really interesting chat.
So I want to emphasize that Dave does not hate the guys behind Worship. He was simply expressing disappointment. He remains good friends with them (especially Sub Focus), and his comments came from knowing the background of a record label and an industry joke that the guys had played into.
For clarity, I'm not hating on Dave, and Dave isn't hating on Worship. Dave and I found common ground: I can have my own critical opinion without it coming from a place of hate. So can he. He was in London every other week at a peak moment and knows more about the back-then London scene than I let off below.
Interestingly, Dave also mentioned that he's set to do his final tour, something I had no idea about! Which brought us right back to my original point: social media prioritizes controversy over the actual information we signed up for. It's not the artists' fault that I only see their content when it generates controversy. It's the fault of social media, and that's just sad. So I hope you counter it by liking his other content and showing love.
Dave is such a humble and nice guy, and he didn't mind me leaving this (unedited) post up. I'm praying he writes his untold history of DnB, because he clearly knows enough behind-the-scenes gossip and industry stories to keep nerds like me entertained for years.
AK1200; Mar 29, 2026
Normally I would never, ever say something negative about someone else’s professional endeavors in any creative form. This. This is an absolute pisstake. The four of you standing there while your song plays, on top of equipment that everyone else has to use. The psychology of it is not that you are taking in the moment. It is that you are more important than the music you wrote. Just like your name implies, you wish to be worshipped. And for what? Homogenizing music that came from the streets of London? This is your interpretation of DnB culture? You couldn’t possibly whiten this any further. I am so happy you see this as an achievement and how you have manipulated the deepest roots of underground music and summoned them to the surface in a way that would make the cheesiest of artists cringe. Enjoy the money. The only influence you are passing on to the youth, is greed and arrogance. I wish you could be on the outside looking in at yourselves. You could have had the tools to really push things in a good way. Instead, this is what people will remember. This little clip of you four standing above everyone and everything else to be seen and not heard. Please also know I am not coming from a place of hate or envy. You are all equally talented as the other and have made a profound impact on the music already. But this. Where do you go from this? You’ve just depicted the epitome of a farewell. Maybe that’s the plan? Different strokes, I guess.
Thoughts on Repost
Like I said, I’ve got some problems with AK1200’s take, even if it’s popular with his fans and fans of underground jungle music.
Music evolves. Whether we like it or not, generic-sounding DnB is really popular. Especially at the mainstream stage of a mainstream festival. They’re not playing a sweaty basement, they’re playing Ultra F-ING Music Festival, Miami, where most of the crowd has no idea what’s going on because A) they went to take pics and drugs and see some boobies and butts and LED lights, B) they’re there to have fun and don’t really care who’s playing.
DJs are meant to play to their audience!!!
At Ultra, that means being a boyband: jumping on the stage, disrespecting the old school culture, even cheesy shoutouts to MLK Jr. or grandiose gestures about how we all love each other. These four were not the first or the last to jump around on the table. Jumping on the table is a standard at Ultra mainstage.
The lads were simply doing what was expected to keep the audience. And it works. It moves people who aren’t used to the old school, no cells/cameras in sight, look at the crowd not the stage mentality. Today it’s about pyrotechnics and visuals for the youngins. And boobies, butts and LEDs. Did I mention the boobies and butts and LEDs?
Next, to be a bit more pedantic, at least three of these four guys are from London. The other is definitely from England. So a Floridian telling Londoners about London culture is a bit ironic, innit?
As a reminder, AK1200 himself was in a white boy supergroup alongside legends DJ Dara and Dieselboy. DJ Dara was the only non-American, but got big in the US, and had locks ffs. It’s very Ali G: a white guy telling other white guys they’re too white.
Don’t get me wrong, I was hyped to see Planet of the Drums about a decade ago. I’d do it again and again. I gave AK1200 a big, sober-raver, hug the last time I caught him. And, yeah, I love POTD music more than WORSHIP by kilometers.
But it’s beeps and boops. I never get why people guard genres so much.
Ultra deserves respect for keeping the scene going. The hope is that someone tunes into drum and bass at a mainstage and gets pulled into a new scene, then develops the sophisticated palate to appreciate AK1200 and Dieselboy.
If Ultra and others copied everything their haters said, they’d be broke. We’d lose another major fest, that books major acts who otherwise wouldn’t be playing in the entire US. Let’s appreciate things for what they are and what they provide, instead of what we wish they were. We can’t change the mainstream mentality. We can just guide it. Respectfully.
Now don’t get me started on Art Basel…
Note: Ultra’s had dnb, jungle and breaks on big stages for years. Pendulum closed the festival, Rabbit in the Moon has been there since the early days, acts like Chase & Status, Nero, and even The Prodigy played there. Maybe we should be happy that DnB is more mainstream, even if it’s polished with Avicii/SHM-esq lyrics.
