Madd Again!’s “Duggu” Is A Dance Craze Waiting To Happen
This new Manchester crew, fronted by three MCs, is the bomb.
Some tunes are so infectious, we call them earworms. That makes me think about the brain as an overgrown garden, wriggling with life. The tune currently fertilizing my grey matter is "Duggu," the first single from Manchester crew Madd Again!'s debut EP on UK label/collective Swing Ting. Madd Again! is producer Zed Bias—who used to make UK garage back in the day—and MCs Killa Benz, Trigga, and Specialist Moss. The three frontmen's very distinct voices bounce off each other, adding an extra layer of energy to the already ultra-catchy "Duggu"—it's dancehall filtered through the spectrum of UK club music and it makes me want to party. Over to Madd Again! to explain how it came to be.
"This track was born about 2 minutes after a meeting at my studio with Bal & Joey from Swing Ting," Zed Bias told The FADER. "Trigga, Moss, Benz and myself were getting ready for a writing session, so I played everyone a riddim that me and Moss had already been working on called 'Madd Pon Dem.' Everyone started vibin out to it—after about a minute, Killa Benz suggested the tune should be called 'Duggu,' and that this should be a fun ting. We all jumped on it straight away—Bal and Joey hadn't even left the room yet and it was virtually done. Madd."
"As it was a jumpy jumpy beat I felt only a new dance could sit on it," picks up Killa Benz. "'Duggu' was born from that. I didn't even know I was gonna say that so it was a natural freestyle. I imagine a man and woman bussing moves on each other like a competition then as the hook duggu comes in, it's time to make a shape and do the 'Duggu.' Right now I'm luvin the vibes it's creating." Specialist Moss agrees: "It was vibes we had in the studio that day, I drove down and it was on! 'Duggu' to me means time to get it on."
"Duggu is the new dance for the U.K.," says Trigga. "Something that children adults and grandparents can get involved in. This brings the essence of Jamaican dance and carnival culture together." Swing Ting will release the debut EP from Madd Again!, titled Beg Nar Fren on May 25th, but you probably need to preorder it now cos it's too damn good.