Goldie

It’s difficult to imagine jungle and drum 'n' bass without Goldie. The UK DJ/producer—born Clifford Joseph Price in the West Midlands in 1965—changed the shape of the music on both micro and macro levels. The former B-boy and graffiti writer discovered the nascent sounds of breakbeat hardcore in the early ‘90s, thanks to girlfriend DJ Kemistry, and began producing singles for 4 Hero’s Reinforced label; with his 1992 single “Terminator,” under his Metalheads alias, he pioneered the technique known as time stretching, extending his samples without altering their pitch, essentially mutating the genre’s DNA. Then, with his 1995 debut album, Timeless, he pushed outward, expanding rough-and-ready club tracks into 21-minute orchestral fantasias. (On 1998’s Saturnz Return, he went even further, kicking off with an hour-long epic and then collaborating with David Bowie, Noel Gallagher, and KRS-One.) Few artists did more to take jungle mainstream, so it’s fitting that Goldie’s fame eventually led to roles in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch and the TV series EastEnders. And in 2016, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, offering royal confirmation of something ravers already knew: Goldie has long sat atop jungle’s throne.