Hard dubstep label Never Say Die announced this week the release of their final Never Say Die showcase Friday after a four year hiatus since shutting down.
Vol. 7 is loaded with around 20 songs from artists both new and established on NSD. The label boss, SKisM, described this showcase mix as both about new music and about history.
“I see it as two 45 minute sets with different vibes, but stitched together by a shared theme of legacy,” he wrote.
The mix contains tracks from all across NSD’s history, from their early days to their last release (ANGELWARE by MUST DIE!).
The London-based label has over 15 years of history behind it; their first release was back in 2009 with Ruffneck 09 ft. Navigator by Freestylers and Ctrl-Z; this release also features a remix by early-days Excision, who’s also been around since 2008.
Since then, the label signed and built the careers of names like Foreign Beggars/Vulgratron, Zomboy, Kompany, Eptic, Habstrakt, Ivory, Oddprophet, Badklaat and Nitepunk, to name a few.
The label’s YouTube channel has amassed over 46 million views since its launch and many revere it as one of, if not the most influential label for the dubstep genre.
The label earned a shoutout in the mainstream from Skrillex himself during his congratulatory speech at the 54th Grammy’s for inspiring him and for the work they were doing.
Which is why the label’s sudden closure in 2022 came as such a shock for everyone in the scene – artists, audiences and other labels alike. There was suddenly a huge gap left wide open and NSD mainstays flocked to other labels or founded their own.
“We’ve achieved everything we set out to do (and more) in this industry, and it’s time for the team to move onto other things,” the label wrote in a post on social media on Apr. 2, 2022.
“Never Say Die…my life my heart my blood,” Habstrakt said in a post on social media recently about Vol. 7 and the label. “I wouldn’t be half the artist I am today without Skism and our NSD family,
“Nostalgia is a beautiful thing and right now it’s driving me so hard, im way too inspired and energized and healed from this,” he wrote.
His first and last releases on the label were Sick Style EP in 2012 and his remix of MUST DIE’s LOL OK in 2021.
NSD’s sister label, Black Label, was also a great influence for the riddim scene and created a near equal shock when it closed up shop in 2021.
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Never Say Die Vol. 7 is out this Friday. In the meantime, listen to the 1:30h mix on SoundCloud by SKisM, or listen to the full catalogue on Spotify.
Author’s note: Personally, NSD has given me so much to listen to and has influenced my life in so many different ways – I think it’s safe to say I would not be here without Never Say Die as they really curated my taste in EDM and exposed me to so many of my favorite artists.
To see these visuals and the name on my feed again after just over four years of inactivity and change in the scene, I think it shows just how far the entire genre has come. I was wrapping up my senior year in high school when NSD shut down and I am now typing this as a recent ASU alumni. My knowledge of the genre has grown and evolved so much and this label was a catalyst for nearly everything I’ve done in this space since.
Thank you, Never Say Die.
Written/edited by Pedro Rojo
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