Zinc

DJ Zinc is one of the true genre-hoppers of British drum & bass, a producer and DJ whose career mirrors the evolution of UK rave music itself. From the early hardcore days and the birth of jungle through drum and bass, UK garage, breaks, house and bass music, Benjamin Pettit has repeatedly reinvented his sound without losing the rhythmic instincts that made him such an important figure in the first place.

His breakthrough came in 1995 with ‘Super Sharp Shooter’, a track that fused jungle’s breakbeat intensity with a heavy hip-hop influence and became one of the defining anthems of the era. But by the time it appeared, Zinc had already been immersed in the underground for several years, learning his craft through pirate radio, early production sessions and his partnership with DJ Swift.

Zinc’s first steps into production came around 1991, when he began working with DJ Swift on the Swift & Zinc series. At a time when making electronic music meant gaining access to expensive hardware and recording studios rather than opening a laptop, the pair were part of a generation learning how to turn the energy of pirate radio and illegal raves into records. Zinc has recalled getting his first opportunity to use a studio after meeting someone through the pirate-radio scene, paying just a few pounds an hour for studio time.

Those early experiences coincided with jungle’s rapid transformation from hardcore into a distinct new sound. Zinc absorbed everything around him; hip-hop, ragga, house, rave and breakbeats and that eclectic approach would become a defining feature of his career. His early releases appeared through labels and imprints connected with the emerging jungle underground, before his solo breakthrough changed everything.

‘Super Sharp Shooter’ was the record that put Zinc firmly on the map. Released in 1995, its combination of a familiar hip-hop vocal, stripped-back drums and heavyweight bass perfectly captured the attitude of the emerging jungle sound. It became one of the most heavily played records of the period and remains one of the tracks most closely associated with Zinc’s name.

The same period also produced his infamous bootleg of The Fugees’ ‘Ready Or Not’. Alongside ‘Super Sharp Shooter’, the track demonstrated Zinc’s instinct for taking recognisable material and rebuilding it for the dancefloor. Both records were instrumental in allowing him to leave his office job and pursue music full-time.

Zinc soon became closely associated with DJ Hype and Pascal, forming the True Playaz camp and working as part of the Ganja Kru alongside Hype and Rude Bwoy Monty. The collective became synonymous with the tougher, more direct side of late-’90s jungle and drum & bass, while Zinc continued developing his own productions alongside the groups output.

One of Zinc’s great strengths was his refusal to remain within one definition of drum & bass. Tracks released under the Dope Skillz alias explored a different side of his sound, while his work as Jammin pushed further into breaks and garage territory. Rather than treating these projects as side experiments, Zinc used them to explore where UK dance music could go.

That instinct became particularly important with ‘138 Trek’. Originally released around the turn of the millennium, the track combined breakbeat rhythms with the emerging UK garage sound and became a major crossover record. It eventually reached No. 27 in the UK Singles Chart.

‘138 Trek’ also signalled something bigger. Zinc was demonstrating that the rhythmic language of jungle could be stripped down, slowed and rebuilt without losing its physical impact. The track’s success helped establish the foundations for the next stage of his career and, ultimately, the sound that would become associated with his Bingo label.

Founded in the early 2000s, Bingo became Zinc’s vehicle for releasing music that didn’t necessarily fit neatly into the existing drum & bass landscape. The label’s catalogue moved through drum & bass, breaks, garage, bass and house, reflecting its founder’s own refusal to be boxed into a single genre. Today, Bingo’s catalogue continues to describe itself simply as releasing “dnb, house, breaks, bass and everything else that we love.”

His 2003 album ** Faster ** was another indication of how far his production was moving. Rather than simply delivering another collection of drum & bass tracks, Zinc used the album format to explore a wider palette of rhythms and influences. It demonstrated that the producer behind ‘Super Sharp Shooter’ had no intention of simply repeating his most successful formula.

Then came one of the biggest creative pivots of his career.

Around 2008, Zinc stepped away from drum & bass, telling his booking agent to stop taking D&B bookings while he concentrated on developing a new sound. He called it “Crack House”, bass-heavy house music drawing on deep house, funky house, fidget and the rhythmic DNA of garage and breaks.

For an artist who had already established himself as a major name in drum & bass, it was a serious gamble. Zinc later described the decision as effectively starting again from the bottom. Instead of relying on his reputation, he approached producers from the new scene as if he were an unknown artist, introducing himself and sending them his music.

The result was the ** Crack House ** EP in 2009, followed by Crack House Vol. 2 in 2010. The releases featured artists including Benga and long-time collaborator Angela Hunte, and anticipated a wave of bass-heavy house music that would become increasingly prominent in UK club culture. Zinc himself has described the decision as a calculated leap into a musical gap that he felt existed at the time.

His genre-hopping continued through the following decade, taking in house, breaks, bassline and further experiments with UK dance music. Along the way came ‘Wile Out’, his collaboration with Ms. Dynamite, which became another significant crossover success and demonstrated that Zinc could move between underground credibility and mainstream dance music without abandoning his bass-heavy approach.

Despite moving away from drum & bass for a period, Zinc never completely abandoned the music that had built his reputation. He has repeatedly returned to D&B, and his later work has shown that the connection with jungle remains deeply embedded in his production style. His comments about the genre make clear that one of the things he values most about early drum & bass is precisely its openness.

That philosophy explains much of Zinc’s longevity. His career isn’t really a story of leaving one genre behind for another. It’s a story of following the next interesting rhythm.

From the early Swift & Zinc records and pirate radio, through ‘Super Sharp Shooter’, Ganja Kru and True Playaz, to ‘138 Trek’, Bingo, Crack House and his later bass-heavy productions, Zinc has repeatedly identified where underground British dance music is heading and positioned himself just ahead of it.

As a DJ, that same curiosity has made him particularly difficult to categorise. His sets have never been restricted by genre boundaries, moving between jungle, drum & bass, breaks, garage and house depending on the environment. His long-running relationship with Rinse FM, alongside appearances on BBC Radio 1 and two Essential Mixes, has further established him as one of the UK’s most respected selectors.

More than three decades after he first started experimenting with music, Zinc remains active through his own Bingo imprint and continues to release material spanning bass, house, breaks and drum & bass. Recent Bingo releases include the ** BASSLOVE ** project, while the label continues to function as an outlet for Zinc’s constantly evolving musical interests.

There are few producers whose careers map the history of British bass music quite so neatly. Zinc was there when hardcore became jungle, helped define the hip-hop-influenced side of mid-’90s drum & bass, anticipated the garage crossover with ‘138 Trek’ and later helped pioneer the bass-heavy house sound that emerged in the late 2000s.

He never stayed still long enough to become a nostalgia act.

Essential Tracks & Releases:

🎧 DJ Zinc – Super Sharp Shooter

🎧 DJ Zinc – Ready Or Not (Fugees Bootleg)

🎧 Dope Skillz – 6 Million Ways

🎧 DJ Zinc – 138 Trek

🎧 DJ Zinc – Wile Out feat. Ms. Dynamite

🎧 DJ Zinc – Reach Out

🎧 DJ Zinc – Crack House EP

🎧 DJ Zinc – Faster

Breakbeats. Bass pressure. Constant reinvention. DJ Zinc is one of British dance music’s great musical shape-shifters, a junglist at heart who has spent more than 30 years following the sound wherever it leads.