Words by Jesse Serwer and DJ Gravy—

We were a bit surprised when we first came across Skrillex and Damian Marley’s ”Make It Bun Dem,” in its original form under the name “Rudeboy Bass,” earlier this year. While dubstep has obvious roots in dub music, and producers such as Rusko were making reggae-influenced dubstep early on, as the music has progressed from an underground London phenomenon to the soundtrack of fuzzy boot-wearing teenyboppers, this connection has been obscured. And no one’s done more to turn dubstep into the new soundtrack for the Hot Topic set (and a genre worthy of recognition by the Grammys) than Skrillex.