Artist Spotlight: Michael Bibi & KETTAMA — "MYSTERY OF RAW" Is the Tech House Track of Summer 2026

Michael Bibi (born June 23, 1990, London) built his name the hard way. The son of blues guitarist Robin Bibi, he started throwing parties in 2011 under the Solid Grooves brand when no club would book him — a label he co-founded with PAWSA in 2015 that won Best Label at DJ Mag's Best of British Awards 2023 and recently celebrated its 100th release. His 2018 single "Hanging Tree," built around a Hunger Games sample, went viral and elevated him into the superstar DJ tier. By 2025 he was the Highest New Entry in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs poll and landed a cover interview with the magazine. His most recent single "Mobile Groove" — sampling the Nokia 3310 ringtone — confirmed his genius for culturally-loaded sample-flipping that resonates far beyond the club.

KETTAMA is Evan Campbell, born May 30, 1997 in Galway, Ireland, now London-based. He was DJing club backrooms by 17, and his 2018 debut EP Bucklyn Bridge on HOMAGE — and particularly the breakout track "B O D Y" — earned him support from Mall Grab and Annie Mac. He co-founded G-Town Records with Shampain as a platform for Irish electronic music, then in 2025 released his debut album Archangel on Steel City Dance Discs, which reached No. 6 in Ireland and charted across Europe. Summer 2026 saw him complete a nine-week Monday residency at Amnesia Ibiza, cementing his reputation as one of the hardest-working DJs on the White Isle.

"MYSTERY OF RAW" grew directly out of their first-ever B2B set at Tomorrowland in July 2026 — one of the most-discussed festival appearances of the summer.

Michael Bibi on Beatport

The track is built around one of hip-hop's most recognisable vocal samples: the hook from Wu-Tang Clan's "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" (1993), produced by the RZA, with verses from U-God and Inspectah Deck. That stark, confrontational delivery is lifted out of its original boom-bap context and threaded into a 130 BPM tech house framework that retains every ounce of its original menace.

Bibi's imprint is unmistakable in the low-end architecture: a punchy, compressed kick drives the track from the first bar, the sub-bass holding Ab Major with precision — pure momentum engine. KETTAMA's influence comes through in the sample-handling and arrangement: loop-based, hypnotic, patient. It builds tension across long four-bar phrases before the Wu-Tang vocal hook resets the room. Around the two-minute mark the track strips to hi-hat pattern and a filtered echo of the original RZA piano figure — a moment of real restraint that makes the subsequent drop land with twice the force.

At 130 BPM it sits at the upper end of tech house tempo, giving DJs flexibility to bridge toward harder sounds. It functions as both an opener-with-attitude and a genuine peak-time weapon — the Wu-Tang vocal carries enough cultural weight to move a room before the kick even comes in.

Buy "MYSTERY OF RAW" on Beatport

Three forces converged to put this at #4 on the overall Beatport Top 100.

First, the Tomorrowland B2B: Bibi and KETTAMA's debut live collaboration was one of the summer's most-discussed festival moments, and the ID they dropped — now confirmed as "MYSTERY OF RAW" — circulated on social media for weeks before the official release. Pre-save demand was already at fever pitch by release day.

Second, KETTAMA's Amnesia Ibiza residency through June and July 2026 gave him nine consecutive Mondays to test and refine this record in front of the world's most tuned-in clubbers. Tracks broken in that environment arrive battle-tested.

Third: the cultural collision itself. Wu-Tang Clan and tech house share almost no overlapping fanbase on paper — but the RZA's sparse, cinematic production philosophy and the underground electronic scene's love of repetition and hypnotic texture are more aligned than they first appear. CircoLoco Records — which operates in partnership with Rockstar Games and has long defined what it means to be underground without being inaccessible — is the perfect home for a record that bridges those worlds. This is also part of a wider 2026 trend: tech house producers are increasingly mining hip-hop's golden age sample archive, and "MYSTERY OF RAW" is the highest-profile result yet.

There's a version of a Wu-Tang-sampling tech house record that's a gimmick — this isn't it. Bibi and KETTAMA have too much combined experience to park the hook over a kick drum and call it done. The arrangement restraint, the low-end precision, and the genuine respect for the source material all signal two producers who know exactly what they're building and why.

The Wu-Tang familiarity draws people in. The production quality is what keeps them there.

Rating: 9/10

Built for late-night peak hours or a properly-building sunset set. Add it if you're working tech house, melodic tech, or deeper house with some edge — just give it the space it needs to breathe.

Buy "MYSTERY OF RAW" on Beatport — the essential high-quality download

Stream on Apple Music

Stream on Spotify

Free preview on SoundCloud via CircoLoco Records

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What genre is MYSTERY OF RAW by Michael Bibi & KETTAMA?

"MYSTERY OF RAW" is Tech House — a driving 130 BPM track released on CircoLoco Records on August 14, 2026, sampling Wu-Tang Clan's "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" from their 1993 debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

Where can I buy MYSTERY OF RAW by Michael Bibi & KETTAMA?

"MYSTERY OF RAW" is available to purchase as a high-quality download on Beatport, where it is currently #4 on the overall Top 100 chart. It is also available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud.

→ Explore more Artist Spotlights on SoundStashHQ

Image credit: iTunes / CircoLoco Records