Full video

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a genre born in the UK's Underground

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Music Scene has taken the World by

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storm this is the story of donk and why

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this man turned himself into a lobster

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DJ my name's Lobster B and I'm best

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known for being a DJ and donk producer

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before we get into it why are you

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dressed like a lobster during lockdown I

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did a lot of DJ streams online and I

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thought if I was just a guy sat in my

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bedroom then it would be a bit boring I

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had a baby a few years ago and my friend

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bought him this which is a lobster

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costume and he absolutely didn't want to

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get into it and I thought oh what if I

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try this on for my streams I got

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bookings after Co and I turned up to

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them without my costume and the

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promoters always said where's your

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costume you know you're not Lobster be

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without it so I guess I have no choice

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but it's stuck and I'm happy with it

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so tell us what exactly is donk donk

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music is quite hard fast bouncy dance

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music it's also known for

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remixing uh pop music tracks the

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characteristics of donk are things like

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uh sped up Chipmunk style sort of vocals

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it has an offbeat donk sound which is

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best described as like a a flip hop flop

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hitting a drain pipe like a th sort of

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noise characteristically 150 bpm which

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is quite fast it's probably faster than

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say house or trance or technique what

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makes donk music different from other

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dance music genres is that there's

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definitely a sense of humor it's kind of

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tongue and cheek there's no pressure to

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go to these events and dress all the

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same like some techno parties people can

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be uninhibited and be themselves and

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just have a good time it's just fun

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where did this genre of dance music come

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from donk music came from the

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Netherlands the first track was by Club

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heads in the early

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[Music]

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2000s it was popularized in the UK by

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the blackout crew who made put a donk on

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it in

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2009 that became huge that got into the

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UK charts and everyone knew donk from

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that track donk became popular up north

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in Wigan that area where the blackout

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crew are from there's a really legendary

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venue up there called Wigan Pier in the

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early to mid 2000s Wigan Pier was

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absolutely like the place to go for Don

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music and everyone sort of flocked there

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as like the Donk

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Maca do you remember the first time you

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heard donk

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music the first time I heard donk was a

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long time ago when I was in my teenage

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years that was even before blackout crew

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did put a don on it there was a DJ

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called Alex K who's a popular Australian

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DJ who was doing donk mashups of dance

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tracks his tracks were the most popular

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ones on wig and Pier when the Donk scene

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first originated I can remember the

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first donk event that I went to which

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was entrance versus Ultra beat who are

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still both massive acts they played a

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whole set of donk and it was just pure

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Euphoria it was is like totally

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uplifting and you just leave on such a

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good vibe and I think that's really what

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made me think yeah I need to get into

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this why do you think donk has had a

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rise in popularity in recent years when

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I first started going to donk or bounce

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events in the southwest they were very

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working class like the ones up North and

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then the Donk scene started coming about

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in London and it's become very trendy

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everyone's super fashionable but there

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has been a good outcome with that

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because London scene is incredibly

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inclusive donk Knight's sort of largely

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queer or queer inclusive event and it's

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you know dress however you want and

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there's no kind of judgment there which

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is great in terms of costumes I've seen

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everything Goths Japanese influence like

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Lita style cyber Goths just straight up

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ravers all sorts anything goes nostalgia

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in the Donk scene I think is incredibly

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important I grew up in the early 2000s I

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was listening to those Tunes so you've

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got things like wenga boys crazy frog

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that kind of music which is from that

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era people love hearing those Chun even

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if they were babies or maybe not even

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born when those tracks came out which is

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great for me something that has really

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helped the Donk scene is social media

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donk is like a really good genre for

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things like Tik Tok videos filmed at

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Raves cuz they're just fast and fun they

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have heavy drops

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I found my tracks being used for

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incredibly Niche things on Tik Tok such

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as German combin Harvester drivers using

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a particular track of mine a Madonna

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remix almost every day I have a new

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video on Tik Tok which is someone

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driving a combine harvester to my track

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which is

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hilarious so Lobster B how did you get

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into becoming a donk DJ I've been making

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donk for over 20 years I kind of made it

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just like a play it to my friends I

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never imagined that it would take off so

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I never bothered releasing it I thought

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it was too Niche and then when I

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realized that there was a market for it

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I started releasing my tracks about five

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or six years ago and yeah it's all

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kicked off since then a lot of DJs want

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to take the crowd on a journey or

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respond to the crowd's Vibes or reaction

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I kind of do the opposite because a donk

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event people just want to hear like hard

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dance donk bangers and so I just smash

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them out all night one of the nicest

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things for me is when people message me

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to say that they've come alone to one of

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my gigs it's nice to think that they

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feel that they can do that and it's an

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inclusive enough event for them to feel

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safe and meet other people who are into

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that sort of Music I've got some

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returning Lobster V fans who will fly

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from other countries to see me which is

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super nice and people people in the

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crowd who dresses lobsters and that's

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always very heartwarming to see is this

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your first DK now

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or other night before oh absolutely our

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first donk Rodeo are you here for L

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three of

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course um have you been seen L before I

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have tce I've seen him three times oh

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really tonight energetic fun we like any

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music

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it sounds a bit like obnoxious yeah it's

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just silly that sounds silly

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funy and

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fun

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seriously there's no other music like it

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like when you go on Spotify there's

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nothing when you going to sow the real

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juice is that it's like the nectar of

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the

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peach period like I love

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that the future of donk music will be it

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getting more into chart and pop music

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some artists in my scene have made

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bootleg tracks and then instead of

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getting sued they get approached by

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Universal or Sony music who say hey how

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about we make this track official and

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that is happening more and more you

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start to see donk all over Europe now

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even Berlin has its own donk scene I

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never thought I'd see the day especially

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when I started playing events in Berlin

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I feel like the crowd didn't know how to

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react but now they seem to be super into

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it which is amazing I'm excited to see

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how the scene grows and it's definitely

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on the up