Reggaestep
Also known as Reggaestep
A lightly documented fusion tag for reggae-meets-dubstep tracks, best treated as an online scene label rather than a settled genre family.
Origins and context
Online electronic-music scenes in the late 2000s and early 2010s, where dubstep and reggae/dancehall influences were being blended and tagged together.
How to listen
Listen for
- Dubstep-style bass and drops paired with reggae/dancehall phrasing and offbeat rhythmic accents.
Mood
- Heavy, spacious, and dancefloor-ready, with a breezy reggae pulse beneath the low-end weight.
History
The term reggaestep appears in online genre descriptions as a portmanteau of reggae and dubstep, with cultural origins commonly placed in the late 2000s in the United Kingdom and early popularity online in the early 2010s, especially around SoundCloud. Documentation is thin, so the label seems to have been used more as a scene tag than a tightly bounded style. One widely cited recording in this orbit is Skrillex and Damian Marley’s “Make It Bun Dem,” which major streaming platforms present as a 2012 release and which Damian Marley’s artist page explicitly frames as a groundbreaking collaboration with Skrillex. That track helped make the sound legible to a wider audience, even if the genre name itself remained loose and inconsistently applied.
Notable artists
- SSkrillex
- DMDamian Marley
Essential listening
- 1
- 2
Damian Marley
Explore connected genres
Sources and further reading
- Reggaestep
- Spotify
"Make It Bun Dem" is a major reference recording for the style and is presented by streaming services as a 2012 release.
- Spotify
Damian Marley’s artist page describes "Make It Bun Dem" as a groundbreaking collaboration with Skrillex.
- Reggae