Wonky is the name given to a fusion of dubstep and hip hop (particularly glitch hop) which first developed in the mid-to-late 2000s. Along with those main elements it also has secondary influences such as idm and its namesake, wonky techno. It is defined by its off-kilter and unstable, wonky (hence the name) mid-range, with unquantised and offbeat hip-hop rhythms at dubstep tempos; this sound was at least partially influenced by and is often linked to ketamine use, as it reflects how the drug affects users and their ability to dance.
It first developed when hip hop producers influenced by J Dilla and Madlib (such as Flying Lotus and Dabrye) began experimenting with dubstep & IDM elements, and around the same time dubstep producers (notably those on Hyperdub and those associated with the purple sound) began adding said hip hop influences to their own productions. These two loose strands of early wonky would fuse together, resulting in the development of a fully-fledged genre during 2009.
One of the biggest and most notable wonky scenes is in Glasgow, centered around the LuckyMe collective and the Numbers club night and label; some of the genre's most notable producers, such as Hudson Mohawke and Rustie, come from this scene. Across the Atlantic, the big names are Flying Lotus and Starkey, who coined the genre's American synonym, street bass. The Scandinavian genre of skweee is also quite similar in sound, but has seperate roots. .
