Moombahton Wiki

Moombahton is a subgenre of electronic dance music that can be described as “dutch house meets reggaeton.” Commonly produced at a tempo between 106-112 BPM, Moombahton is known for its use of chopped vocals, melodic build ups, latin percussions, and incorporation of other EDM genres, including Dancehall, Electro House and Dubstep. Moombahton has opened many doors for producers and has given rise to some of today’s leading EDM artists such as Dillon Francis and the father of Moombahton himself, Dave Nada.

The Origins of Moombahton

Search anywhere for the origins of Moombahton or the answer to “What is Moombahton” and you will sure enough learn of Dave Nada’s experience which birthed Moombahton.

Silvio Ecomo & Chuckie – Moombah (Afrojack Remix)

Dave Nada’s Remix of Moombah

In late 2009, Dave Nada (1/2 of Nadastrom) was DJing a high school “skipping” house party in his hometown of Washington, DC. Carrying a load of Dutch House records, Dave Nada decided to drop Afrojack’s remix of Silvio Ecomo & DJ Chuckie’s track “Moombah.” In attempt to appeal to his crowd’s groove, he slowed down the track from 128 BPM to 108 BPM, and the party went wild. He would continue the hype playing Sidney Samson’s “Riverside” at the same tempo. With such a great reaction from the crowd, Dave Nada quickly sought to make some edits and after putting a few online, Moombahton soon caught the eyes and ears of producers all over.

One of Moombahton’s key producers, Munchi, explains the early days and the role of a key player in the exposure of Moombahton, Nibootoo. Nibootoo should be credited as one of Moombahton’s hardest online promoters. In the genre’s earliest days Nibootoo traded countless emails back and forth with Munchi about how to bring exposure to Moombahton and posted every Moombahton edit he could get his hands on to a blog (now offline) and elsewhere online. He supported producers putting out Moombahton tracks, giving feedback where needed. With a genre being so new, having someone truly interested in bringing this genre to the forefront would be the push some producers needed to continue their dive into a new sound.

Producers internationally hopped onto the genre making their own edits, remixes, and original productions spreading Moombahton all over the web. In the US Dave Nada continued to perfect his style, putting records out via DJ Ayers and DJ Tittsworth at T&A Records and forming Nadastrom with Matt Nordstrom.

Notable producers include LA-native Dillon Francis, Munchi from Rotterdam, Heartbreak, and many of today’s prominent EDM producers. Diplo would soon give vast exposure to the genre by heavily promoting Moombahton tracks through his label Mad Decent throwing Moombahton block parties.

Sazon Booya – “La Bomba”

On June 14, 2011, Skrillex supported Sazon Booya’s “La Bomba” posting his track on his Facebook, exposing Moombahton millions of his followers, many who were unaware of the genre and many who heavily criticized it. Skrillex would continue to support the rising genre and would release his own “Reptile’s Theme” at 108 BPM.

With Dubstep being the most buzzing EDM genre today, many producers have brought elements typically unique to Dubstep tracks into their Moombahton productions. Because of it’s international growth and wide variety of producers, Moombahton will continue to evolve these upcoming years as producers put their own spin on the genre.