Rusko

Rusko’s rowdy sensibility and love for wobble bass made him a poster boy of London’s dubstep scene in the late 2000s, with heaving, bone-snapping tracks like “Cockney Thug” and “Woo Boost” paving the way for a mainstream embrace of the genre. Rusko (real name: Christopher William Mercer) was born in Leeds in January 1985, and he stumbled into the dubstep sound in the mid-2000s while attending local “Sub Dub” nights between classes at the city’s College of Music. After moving to London, he formed a partnership with the producer Caspa, and the two made their first big splash in 2007 with a pummelling contribution to the FabricLive DJ mix series. The spiky-haired producer made bass drops even bigger (both musically and commercially) with his Mad Decent-released 2010 album, O.M.G.!. But tracks like the dreamy Amber Coffman collab “Hold On” also showed an interest in ’90s rave breaks and subtle synth harmonics, and subsequent releases found him venturing into reggae and hip-hop. He took a break from touring in 2017 to seek treatment for gastric lymphoma, but since then he’s maintained prolific output—all the while staying true to his phantasmagoric vision steeped in club culture.