Rusko

Rusko, born Christopher William Mercer on January 26, 1985 in Leeds and raised in nearby York, is one of the names you have to bring up when you talk about how dubstep actually got built. He studied Music Performance at Leeds College of Music, but it was the Leeds dubstep scene — small nights, tight-knit crews, bass-heavy sound systems — that really shaped him as a producer. Along with Caspa, he co-founded the label Sub Soldiers, which became one of the key outlets pushing the genre out of the underground and into wider view.

Rusko’s sound was never just “wobble bass” for the sake of it — his tracks had melody and humor and a real sense of showmanship, which is part of why he crossed over so easily into festival culture right as dubstep was blowing up in North America. His albums O.M.G.! (2010) and Songs (2012) captured that moment, and tracks like “Hold On,” featuring Amber Coffman, and his collaborations with Cypress Hill showed he could bring bass music into rooms that weren’t already converted. On top of his own releases, he built a serious remix résumé, reworking tracks for Adele, Lady Gaga, Basement Jaxx, and The Prodigy.

His label history tells its own story about how fast that scene was moving — from Mad Decent, to independent releases like the Kapow EP in 2012, to joining Owsla in 2013, right in the thick of dubstep and bass music’s biggest commercial run. Rusko has never been afraid to jump between sounds, dipping into drum and bass and other corners of bass music rather than sitting still in one lane.

In 2017, Rusko was diagnosed with gastric lymphoma, and stepped back from touring to focus on treatment. He got the all-clear and returned to performing in 2018, picking right back up with new music and shows. Since then he’s kept releasing steadily, with recent tracks landing on labels like Monstercat and Deadbeats and collaborations with newer-generation bass artists like Subtronics and Pegboard Nerds, keeping him connected to a scene he helped build from the ground up over a decade and a half ago.