Pull Up! out of Essex, England come through with the latest installment of the LargeUp Mix Series. For their Winter Warmer mix, Pull Up! crew selectors Gully B, Andy A and J Buss run through top-shelf dancehall and afrobeats from this year, giving us a rundown of some of 2018 smashes from Rygin King’s “Tuff” to “Under Water” from Vybz Kartel, mixed in with slept-on tracks from Burna Boy and Jah Vinci, plus dubplates and exclusives.
Run Winter Warmer below, and read on for the track listing and a brief interview.
Who/what is Pull Up!?
Gully B: Pull Up! is a UK-based, Carnival-Music collective and events brand, consisting of myself, Andy A and J Buss. We’re from a seaside town called Southend-On-Sea, located about an hour east of London. There was never much of an Afro-Caribbean culture growing up here, yet we all found a love for dancehall, reggae, soca and Afrobeats, and started our own event (Pull Up!) in the basement of an old pub.
Andy A: Because nobody would let us play dancehall or Afrobeats in the local clubs, Gully B even bought a big active soundsystem, so we could rent out spaces around the town and throw Pull Up! parties in venues that didn’t usually hold music events.
J Buss: I was a raver at the parties to begin with! I had just turned 18, and was thankful there was a night where I could hear the music I loved. After working hard at improving my mixing, the guys let me open up one of the events, and I became the third member of the team after that.
Gully B: Through the years of us throwing these parties, we then extended our goals, and have become prolific radio presenters, thanks to Reprezent Radio, by giving us a platform for us to share the music we love on air. The radio show has allowed us to interview some of our favourite artists like Konshens, Mr. Vegas, I-Octane, Stylo G, Romain Virgo, Freezy, Spragga Benz and Kevin Lyttle.
What was the idea/concept behind this mix?
J Buss: Every year, we link up together and record our annual mix. As we work hard as radio presenters and showcasing new music, we never really record many full-length DJ mixes. So this mix is a roundup of some of our favourite tracks of 2018. I’ve focused solely on my love for Afrobeats this year, which you can hear at the end of the mix.
Gully B: Each of us has our own unique style as a DJ, I’m a big collector of Dubplates, so I loaded my part of the mix up with some of my biggest dubs of this year. As well as a fun Capleton dubplate over a reggaeton anthem, for good measure! Hailing from the UK, I wanted to highlight some of the talent we have over here, like Stylo G, The Heatwave, Big Zeeks, Alicai Harley, K More, andDiggy Ustle.
Andy A: I just went in hard this year. Really flexing this year’s movements in dancehall from some of the hardest tunes of the year. It’s been a great year for dancehall, so I wanted to put my focus on showcasing those sounds.
What’s next from Pull Up?
Andy A: I’m working closely at discovering new talent, and I’m especially excited about working with a new St. Lucian artist called J Lucia, as well as shifting my solo focus on production too. I’ve also just started a new weekly DJ residency in Southend-on-Sea.
J Buss: As well as playing with Pull Up!, I plan on starting up a new side-project event called Jook So, where I can promote my love for genres like Afro-Swing and US rap music.
Gully B: I have a monthly London DJ residency at Get Busy, where I’ll be playing dancehall, soca and Afrobeats every month. I’m also working on our UK Festival schedule for the summer as Pull Up! As if that wasn’t enough, I’m planning on bringing the biggest guests to our radio show in 2019, as well as dipping my toes into the world of producing too. I’m sitting on a few Gully B tracks, with some great artists, so you may see some original material dropping next year. In the meantime, I’ll be updating my weekly Spotify Playlist with all the new music in dancehall, soca, Afrobeats and reggae.
