Words: James Keith

Usually, compiling a new 20 Reasons To Love... feature is a joy; trawling through the depths of Spotify, hunting down deep cuts with Discogs, and of course coming away with an even greater appreciation for the artist in question. In the case of the artist we’re profiling this week — DJ Q — that’s mostly true, except with a catalogue as enormous as his (and that’s before we even get to his features and remixes), whittling it down from several hundred to just 20 proved to be torturous to say the least.

Known primarily for his slippery bassline anthems, Huddersfield-born DJ Q’s lengthy career has also seen him explore UK funky, jungle, grime, house music and garage, and collaborate with countless UK club titans. We’re all familiar with t q d, his collaborative venture with Royal-T and Flava D, but there’s also his many team-ups with like-minded bass lovers like Jamie Duggan, DJ Champion, and Finn, not to mention his production work for everyone from old masters like Maxwell D to rising superstars YGG.

In short, DJ Q’s been about a bit. Across four albums and a constant avalanche of singles and EPs, Shollen Quarshie has not just led the charge of bassline up and down the country, he’s become synonymous with it. From his beginnings in the mid-2000s to the present day, just about every single bassline or UKG compilation has featured at least one Q track (if not five or six). In fact, if you find a bassline mix or comp without DJ Q on it you can throw that straight in the bin, because this is the only primer you’ll need.

Here are 20 reasons to love DJ Q.