1980s origins During the 1980s, the focus of Miami bass tended to be on
DJs and
record producers, rather than individual performers.
Record labels such as
Pandisc, HOT Records, 4-Sight Records and
Skyywalker Records released much material of the genre. Unterberger has referred to James (
Maggotron) McCauley (also known as DXJ, Maggozulu Too, Planet Detroit and Bass Master Khan) as the "father of Miami bass", a distinction McCauley denies, choosing to confer that status on producer Amos Larkins.
MC ADE's "Bass Rock Express", with music and beats produced by Amos Larkins, is often credited as being the first Miami bass record to gain underground popularity on an international scale. "
Tootsee Roll" by 69 Boyz in 1994, "
C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)" by the Quad City DJ's in 1996 and "
Whoot, There It Is" by
95 South in 1993. Miami bass is closely related to the electronic dance music genres of
ghettotech and
booty house, genres which combine
Detroit techno and
Chicago house with the Miami bass sound. Ghettotech follows the same sexually oriented lyrics, hip-hop bass lines and streetwise attitude, but with harder, uptempo
Roland TR-909 techno-style kick beats. In 2007, contemporary hip-hop and R&B songs became more dance oriented, showing influences of Miami bass and techno, and are typically sped up to a "chipmunk" sound for faster tempos for dances such as juking, wu-tanging and bopping, usually only done in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties in south Florida.
Subgenres Miami bass has been influenced by the cultural history of its wide-ranging community with the evolution of
Cuban,
Dominican, and
Afro-Brazilian-fused sub-genres that include
Baltimore club and
funk carioca. Another subgenre of Miami bass is "car audio bass", which features an even more stripped down bass-heavy sound, tending to focus on either extremely hard
909 kicks combined with
sine waves or the classic
808 kick, or sometimes simply the sine wave by itself. Some artist examples would be
DJ Laz,
DJ Magic Mike,
Afro-Rican (as Power Supply),
Techmaster P.E.B., DJ Billy E, Bass 305 and Bass Patrol. == Stylistic differences ==