Ming+FS

Most jungle DJs have played around with the notion of mixing hip-hop and jungle records together. Although the tempos of albums from both genres can be synchronized, the beats will not match up perfectly, due to the different rhythmic cadences that producers in each genre routinely employ. The resulting combination is fantastic, an impenetrable rhythmic juggernaut that is neither hip-hop nor jungle.

Of course, this is old news to Ming+FS, a New York City DJ and production duo that has been exploring such possibilities since 1996. Ming+FS’s careening DJ sets are a nexus of jungle, hip-hop, electro, and turntablism, and their 1999 debut, Hell’s Kitchen, chucked the boundaries of both genres out the window, creating a more dense, satisfying fusion than jump-up junglists Aphrodite and Mickey Finn ever could.

Judging by their newest effort, Subway Series, they seem to have lost confidence in the raw power of this fusion, letting hip-hop and electro take the spotlight while using jungle sparingly — though it probably won’t make a difference when they appear live on four turntables at the Grog Shop. Even though Ming+FS are by no means masters of DJing any one genre, they move from raga-tinged jungle steppers to Bambaataa-style electro with ease, working in a Juice Crew a cappella and some meaty scratching at the same time. If you ask us, that makes them masters in their own right, which is probably just the way they like it.

This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2002.