- Today we know Flava D as a skilled and colourful DJ, someone who always brings the party with her blend of sugary UKG and tough-nut grime and bassline. A Flava D set is permeated with pop hooks, old favourites and new bass anthems—plus plenty of MC bars to sing along with. But Danielle Gooding really is a producer first and foremost. Before signing to Butterz, she was hard at it, selling instrumentals over Myspace and collaborating with various grime kingpins (Wiley, Ghetts, Merky Ace) and even hip-hop artist Black The Ripper. Gooding started making music at 16 and was a participant in London's RBMA in 2010. By the release of her breakout single, Hold On / Home, she was an accomplished grime producer—albeit a largely uncredited one. Butterz swiveled the spotlight onto Gooding and elbowed her into the DJ booth, which she has since used to air her own music. Pushing Flava D productions has always been on the agenda, which is exactly what she does on her Fabriclive mix.
There are only a handful of tunes on Fabriclive 88 that Gooding hasn't had a hand in, including Marco Del Horno and DJ Swerve's funky club-slayer with D Double E, "Dem Tings Dere," and "Like This," another D Double vocal. There are also tracks from Gooding's T Q D partners DJ Q and Royal T, unreleased material from Champion (the grime classicist "Gunshot"), a new vocal edit of Terror Danjah's "Juicy Patty," and some lesser-known names Gooding is championing. The rest is all Flava D favours.
We begin in the piña colada-sipping portion of the mix, with some of Gooding's self-released UKG tracks, before the grizzly bassline of Taiki Nulight collab "Conflict." It kicks off a sweet and streetwise relay that persists until TuffCulture's uplifting, Todd Edwards-esque "To My Heart" begins the mix's UKG-centric comedown. In terms of a Flava D set, it mostly ticks all the boxes: female stamps in abundance, pop hooks (like Moski's "What I Like"), MCs and big bass anthems—including My Nu Leng collab "Soul Shake," Swindle's "Mad Ting" (remixed into a killer bassline romp) and "Kill Alla Dem," a new one from Champion and Flava D.
The mix could do with a bit more deviation, though. By the time we enter the second half, the garage-grime back and forth has grown tiresome and feels overloaded with Flava D productions. But that ultimately seems irrelevant. Gooding's music has been mounting in the shadows for years, and she's proven to be a major force in the dance, with the mixing skills to match. Fabriclive 88, then, is a personal portrait of Flava D, the uncompromising artist who's dancing to nobody's tune but her own.
トラックリスト01. Flava D - Intro
02. Flava D - Whistler
03. Taiki Nulight & Flava D - Conflict
04. Riddim Commission feat. D Double E - Dem Tings Dere
05. Champion - Gunshot
06. Flava D - Closer feat. Miss Fire
07. Flava D - Bleeding
08. Majestic - Crooks VIP
09. Flava D - Wheels
10. D Double E - Like This
11. DJ Q - Flavor
12. Flava D - Hold On
13. Moksi - What I Like (DJ Q Remix)
14. My Nu Leng & Flava D - Soul Shake
15. Swindle - Mad Ting (Flava D Remix)
16. Flava D & DevelopMENT - Gun Down
17. Royal T & Deadbeat UK - Revenge
18. Flava D - Changed My Way
19. Notion - Glow
20. Flava D & Miss Fire - Happy
21. Flava D & Holy Goof - Section Request
22. Terror Danjah- Dollar Sign feat. Stush & Sticky
23. Flava D - In The Dance VIP
24. Distro - Off The Chain
25. Champion, Flava D & Slick Don - Kill Alla Dem
26. TuffCulture - To My Heart
27. Flava D - Clarity
28. Flava D - Motions
29. T Q D - Only One
30. Flava D - Searching