Absolutely. I don’t cut any corners with my products and brands, I go on in on it. So when I work with someone I’m creating a connection and relationship between our brands. It’s very tight, it’s a family. From the hip hop side I’ve been working with guys like Rodney P, Omar, Skitz and Ty. From the jungle side I started with Kenny Ken, Moose, Ron. They’ve been with me ever since. I’ve never rinsed it, I’ve kept it as a family which keeps on growing. Since the release of ‘”We Are I.E.”, sounds kept blurring and artists started finding their own niche in Jungle. Some artists preferred softer, ambient, and textured melodies while some preferred darker and heavier sounds which could create maximum sonic impact. Jungle music also became a way of expression for London’s streetwise and marginalized youth. They saw Jungle as “England’s answer to hip-hop”, by merging the Jamaican reggae scene with then 4-to-the-floor basslines and erasing racial boundaries by advocating unification of people from different walk of life through its multiculturalism. The Amen Break was drummed on ‘Amen, Brother’ by the late Gregory .C. Coleman which was the B-side of The Winstons’ 1970 single ‘Colour Him Father’. Take one bassline created from the sound of rotating helicopter blades, another that shifts deep rolling funk and dancehall. Add it to a break built from Blowfly’s filthy ‘Sesame Street’ that occasional erupts into a snare roll that echoes the helicopter blades. Add horn stabs, gunshots, discordant strings and a jittering Afro sequence and you’re left with a tune that oozes tension and drips with suspense. A huge anthem in 1993, its metronomic flow had all of the detailed production that would mark out drum & bass in this era. It also offered a different vision to the ragga fused jump-up jungle sound that was dominating things at the time.

Long Piano rolls, bouncy basslines, breakbeats, and a lush blanket of vocals defined the Hardcore sound in the late 80s and early 90s. The Breakbeat Hardcore scene did see a steady revival in mid 2000s, but in the early 1990s, the genre slowly started fragmenting into several sub-genres like Dark-core and Happy Hardcore which paved a way for darker moods and melodies to make doorway in the UK Rave scene. Yes! We’re taking over room two at Fabric with Makoto, Kenny Ken, DJ Ron, Bailey, Zero T, AI, Seba with MCs Verse, Moose and 2Shy. We’ve got the jungle and drum & bass. A celebration of everything. The full spectrum of the music and the full spectrum of what I’ve been about. We’re going to shut down London that night. It’s brilliant – it’s time to celebrate the full culture. Absolutely. That’s another foundation. Aersosoul is inspired by typography. The book Subway Art had a big influence on me. I grew up in boarding school from the age of about 7 till I was 16. I was pretty much by myself, very independent, people around me from different cultural upbringings. We were doing graffiti, skateboarding, breakdancing, BMX. We’d take our lino down to the Madison Jones club in Bournemouth and battle these guys who ended up being the massive crew Second To None. We’d bury them every time! Hip hop culture during the 80s was huge, so I spent my years soaking it all up. Then when I met Dev it all fell into place. We saw how much fun they were having and brought it into our own circles’ ... raving at AWOL in Ministry of Sound. Photograph: Eddie Otchere

Perfect example. He’s family. I’ve been sponsoring him since he was 17 years old. Before Intrgue or any of that. I heard a tune of his on Defunked and went to Bristol for a meeting. Now Intrigue is the longest running night in Bristol. That’s a good example of us spotting someone who’s still going to be smashing and influential 10, 20 years later. Drum & Bass is a genre that spans across three decades of rich musical history. Since its inception in the early 90s, the genre has kept shapeshifting its styles into different eras of music and it has now consolidated itself as a genre that is influencing electronic music in big ways. For a genre so rich in its history, it’s only fair that we narrate its evolution in the way it deserves to be; and through our ‘Evolution of Drum & Bass’ series, we aim to take you on a ride right from where it all began to its place in electronic music in modern-day electronic music. I want to push Aerosoul Africa. That’s part of who I am and my identity. I want to focus more on that as a brand. Afrobeat is huge and Africa’s rich culture needs to be celebrated with products everyone would be proud to wear. I’m working with a really inspiring artist from Tanzania and it’s a big focus for me. Beyond that I’m just making sure I’m making the best products and designs I can and bringing everything together. Aerosoul, Junglist Movement, Hip Hop Movement, Babysoul, Soulero Sista and Aersosoul Africa. Each one is its own brand but all under the main Aerosoul umbrella. We’ve had some great attention recently so it’s about capitalising on that and bringing everything together in-house. Fashion is also a very broad church. It’s meant you’ve worked with people from so many industries. Film, sports, not just music…

Definitely. I was raving a lot. I got my flat in London when I was 18 and the whole crew was 20 deep by then. Dev and Dave were doing beats all day, I was studying at London College Of Fashion. Then at night we’d be raving either in London or in Essex. It was an inspiring mix. The Versace, Moschino champagne vibe in London then ravers in countryside with baggy stuff, bright colours, all that. I was loving elements of both and wanted to bring the two together because I didn’t see anything for the culture. Something that represents who you are, that all our boys would resonate with and want to wear.Ahead of that, however, Leke will be taking over Fabric’s Room 2 on February 28 to celebrate the 20 th anniversary of Junglist Movement and his main brand Aerosoul. Just like the movement he’s been immersed as an integral figure in since day one (he was a founding member of Mixrace, an experimental rave/rap act who went on to be signed by Moving Shadow) the line-up covers all bass bases with a line-up of Aerosoul and Jungle Movement endorsed artists: Makoto, Kenny Ken, DJ Ron, Bailey, Zero T, AI, Seba and MCs Verse, Moose and 2Shy. Aligned with artists such as Degs, DJ Die, General Levy and Colette Warren, no brand is as entrenched in the foundations of this music and culture quite like Junglist Movement and no other aspect of the culture tells a story quite so personal as fashion.