Toddla T Influences

Its the first album I fell in love with that I managed to source myself, i.e. it wasnt something that was on the radio. It was an album that I heard at my cousins house and I was completely blown away by it. It was the first hip hop record that I studied and was obsessed with. I picked The What because its an early track on the album and I remember it kicking in and catching my attention. Everything about this track and the album, from the beat to the skits, the way Biggie spits his lyrics, his flow, everything, the artwork of the record, to me is still my favourite album of all time. The What is my favourite off that.

Everything about it, from the skits to the production just added to my love of hip hop and Whats My Name again is just super catchy, production was really crunchy. It was the complete opposite spectrum to what was happening on the east coast of America with people like Wu Tang, etc. The early Snoop stuff was massively influential.

Bashment and Reggae and Jamaican music was stuff that really influenced me later on after hip hop. There was a local radio station that used to play loads of bashment and I remember Red Rat came to town to do a PA and everyone was super excited, and this tune Tight Up Skirt I remember hearing it loads in the past. He was a proper super star at the time, when I started DJing bashment a bit later, that was the record that I always used to play because it sounded sonically amazing and I still really rate that record.

Another track from the bashment world, which is still a massive party record that I used to play a lot and I still play occasionally now. There are loads of versions of this there was a Sean Paul one as well but this was one of the early bashment records that I used to play at parties. It still sounds amazing, still goes off at raves, the simplicity of the production is pretty special as well.

One of the obvious jungle tracks was this track. This was my intro into jungle, UK sound-system music. I have great fond memories of it and I still play it today.

When I first started going out playing and expanding my horizon this was a big track. Again, its still a record that I play today. Its stood the test of time. The simplicity of it is incredible. Its another one that we used to play at parties all the time, it made sense with all the bashment and hip hop I was playing as well.

It was produced in a tiny budget studio in a flat in Sheffield which not many people know and it was produced by Ross Orton in a minimal setup, but the sound that Ross used to get out of the studio was incredible. The track then went on to pave her career. I remember hearing it being made at his flat, and then people thinking it was a revolutionary sounding music. But to me, it was just Ross in his bedroom and I find that really inspiring; that what we were doing at that time could go so far.