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Music

Part Three of Our Jersey Club Documentary Delves into How the Genre Went Global

Our final chapter examines how the sound expanded beyond New Jersey, and into countries as remote as Norway and Egypt.

It was 2004 when DJ Tameil first chopped up the bed squeak sample from the intro of Trillville's "Some Cut". Little did he know that a sole bed squeak would come to define Jersey Club-a movement that began with Newark's Brick City club scene and pioneered by his Brick Bandits crew.

In the past two years, the bed squeak itself has gone global, popping up everywhere from Norway, London, and Egypt. Today, you can find that bed squeak all over SoundCloud, along with other iconic samples from the Brick Bandit's highly-coveted kit.

"Me and Tim Dolla did a lot that we never thought everyone would stick to," DJ Tameil told THUMP. "Like the use of the Ludacris 'dick sample' that we started randomly dropping in tracks. We… took it to a playful level but everyone kept doing it."

The final segment of our Jersey Club documentary explores the ramifications of this: when a local, grassroots music scene tips and becomes a full-blown global phenomenon. This international spread was supported through the help of club tastemakers like Sam Tiba, Sinjin Hawke, and DJ Slow, whose mentoring has pushed the careers of many local Jersey artists. But it's also surfaced darker questions of cultural appropriation, as the sound has become rife with saturation.

Regardless, no matter where the bed squeak is chopped up, or where the next generation of Jersey Club producers come from, the sound will always be tied back to its home: New Jersey.