Miami, 1996: Nobody Knew What Drum and Bass Was
The World of Drum & Bass did not start with a big idea. It started with a problem. DJ SS and the Formation camp went to Miami in 1996 to promote the label. They would tell people they made drum and bass. The response, consistently, was: what’s that. The genre that was already massive in the UK, already building scenes across Europe, had not registered in Miami — one of the most music-saturated cities in the world.
They went back the following year. This time with a decision: if nobody knows what this is, the only way to change that is to do it so big it cannot be ignored. They booked a club called Salvation, put on one big party, and drew around 600 people. For a first event in a market that had no idea drum and bass existed, 600 people was a genuine victory. The World of Drum & Bass was born from that gamble.
We went back and said the only way to do this is to just do it big. Put on one big party. We got about 600 people the first one — we were very happy. At the time drum and bass wasn’t even in people’s heads in Miami on a commercial level.
The B Room Problem and Why They Refused It
The early years of the tour ran directly into the infrastructure problem that would define the American DnB scene for decades: no main venues wanted to give drum and bass a headline slot. The offer was always the B room, the side stage, the smaller space. SS and the Formation camp made a decision that defined the tour’s identity from the beginning: no. They were not going to promote their music from the back of the room.
Miami was the right promotional base for that stand because of WMC — every label, every promoter, every scene from every corner of the world came through Miami during Winter Music Conference. If you were going to make a statement about drum and bass deserving main venue treatment, you made it there, at that moment, in front of everyone. The name ‘World of Drum & Bass’ was not accidental. It was a declaration.
No clubs wanted to give drum and bass any main venues — it was always the B room or somewhere small. We thought: no. We want to promote our music to the world. Miami is the promotional point. That’s why we came with the World of Drum & Bass.
Eleven Years Deep: Building Territory by Territory
By the time this interview was filmed the tour was eleven years old and operating across Russia, Australia, America, Germany, and beyond. SS’s philosophy for sustaining it was precise: you do not just parachute a big name DJ into a territory and leave. You build the local scene. You bring in the local talent on the lineup. You make the local scene healthy and strong so you can come back regularly and the community holds.
That philosophy — invest in the territory, platform the locals, make the scene self-sustaining — is the same philosophy that WOMP TV was built to apply to the American DnB scene nearly twenty years later. SS articulated it clearly on the fifth floor of a San Francisco nightclub in 2007 or 2008 while the party raged below. WOMP TV had the camera running.
You’ve got to build each territory for this thing to grow. Go to a place, work with the locals, build up and promote the local talent — make their scene healthy and strong. At the end of the day it boils down to music.