Best of: Hamdi Deep Cuts & Hidden Gems
In the last few years, one of the biggest artists in the dubstep world has unquestionably been Hamdi - his song “Skanka” catapulted him to fame and he has since worked with major EDM artists such as Skrillex, Marshmello, and Zeds Dead. But before his meteoric rise, he proved himself to be one of the most unique and varied producers in underground electronic music for quite a long time beforehand - his success is extremely well deserved. Here are some of my personal favorite songs from his catalog over the years.
Sirmo - “Rewind Come Again (Hamdi Remix)” (2016)
Early on in his career Hamdi mainly made bassline, and you can tell from this tune that the style of bass in his biggest songs originated from these days - this was my favorite of these older tunes in this style.
KXVU - Guinevere (Hamdi Remix)” (2017)
This is an early example of his greatness in the 140 bpm sphere - this one is a fairly chilled-out grime tune.
Spooky Bizzle - “Badboy (Hamdi Remix)” (2018)
This is my personal favorite of all of his dubstep tunes - the drums just smack so hard and it has just the right dose of wobble.
Here Hamdi tries his hand at UK Funky for the first time, and this makes you wish he had more songs in this vein - it’s a whole lot of fun.
Here Hamdi is influenced by a mix of Joker and Silkie’s “purple” sound as well as the likes of Sam Gellaitry and Herzeloyde - this is such a stellar & accessible tune from him.
Mura Masa - “Lotus Eater (Hamdi Edit)” (2019)
The original Mura Masa tune is one of my all time favorite songs, and here Hamdi adds a bit of a grime twist to it resulting in a very good edit.
“What You Gonna Do (with Razor & Retrospect)” (2019)
This is, to my knowledge, one of the only tunes that actually features Hamdi MCing - he’s known to do that at shows sometimes but as far as recorded songs go it is very rare. And he is pretty damn good on this track, which is a fun summery UK Funky tune.
This was the first song of his I ever heard - I remember it well because it was during a Sicaria Sound livestream set during the pandemic, it went so hard that they rewound it and the set was pre-recorded! And it’s still one of his best dubstep tunes to this day, the VIP version is a banger too.
“Instances (with King Monday)” (2020)
An excellent laid-back garage tune with a nice jazz-inspired breakdown in the middle, this is one of the more distinct songs in his catalog.
Lijah - “Alhassan (Hamdi Remix)” (2020)
This was one of Hamdi’s earliest songs in the 160 bpm realm - the original Lijah tune was a sick maximalist grime production so it’s especially impressive that he turns it into a minimal footwork-influenced banger in the vein of artists like Itoa. One of my absolute favorite songs he’s done.
“Shadow (with Hatcha & Flowdan)” (2020)
It’s borderline criminal that this one is so overlooked - Hatcha is one of the largest pioneers and icons of dubstep, and Flowdan is of course the Grammy-winning MC whose deep baritone has been so synonymous with dark dubstep & grime for over two decades. And together with Hamdi they concocted a unique, unsettling banger that’s among the best work of all parties involved.
“Trumpet (Y U QT Remix)” (2020)
I had to include this one despite it being a remix of one of his tunes - this is one of my personal favorite garage tracks of this decade, the dub/reggae-oriented breakdown in the middle is superb and makes this a major standout track. The entire release (on Conducta’s Kiwi label) is worth checking out as well, both the original and salute’s remix are great and all of the songs are quite distinct from one another.
Both Hamdi & MPH have become quite popular lately, but not a ton of their new fans know about their earlier collaborations - they reunited a couple more times for “Nobody” and “R+R” and all of these are among my favorite songs by both artists.
This is my personal favorite in the entire Hamdi catalog - this appeared as part of the second installment of his Cuba EPs where he infuses the country’s jazz rhythms into his existing sound palette. And “Havana” is the standout from that series, it is guaranteed to go off at any party it’s played at.
Following “Trumpet" this marks Hamdi’s second track on Kiwi, and it’s an excellent UKG bubbler.
Zefer - “Garden (Hamdi Remix)” (2021)
This is my favorite Hamdi song in the UK Garage style - it’s nothing too complicated, just a bass-heavy dancefloor-friendly banger that would always get a club moving.
I believe this was the first song he released following “Skanka,” but it unfortunately has less than one-percent of the plays as that one. Nevertheless, it’s a stellar breakbeat-driven tune - I would love to see more from Hamdi in this style.
This is another tune from him that is among my absolute favorites, it is closer to R&G (R.I.P. Terror Danjah) than most of his usual output.