O.B.F and Sr. Wilson's two linked EPs, Heavy & Loud (February 2025) and Firm & Strong (April 2025), released onDubquake Records, are built precisely for the session moment when the bass ceases to be heard and starts to be felt. Emerging from the fertile ground of Geneva's dub scene, O.B.F has understood the genre not as nostalgia but as survival for twenty years.
Producer/Selector Rico's militant, chest-caving stepper riddims, sharpened with modern digital detail, animate these two releases, giving Sr. Wilson an agile platform for a voice bridging classic reggae toasting and modern singjay technique. Together, the two EPs feel like dispatches from a fierce and globally entangled living culture. This culture includes Bucharest, when O.B.F & Sr. Wilson take the reins of Black Rhino Radios' 4th anniversary at Control Club on May 10.
Although O.B.F and Sr. Wilson have collaborated on single tracks in the past (for example, the 2016 crowd-favorite Rub a Dub Mood), this is the first time they have jointly crafted multiple consecutive releases building toward a larger project. For Sr. Wilson, a Barcelona-based reggae/dancehall singer, these EPs represent a breakout onto the international stage. They tie into his own catalog by reinforcing the rub-a-dub style and conscious lyrical approach he's known for, only now boosted by O.B.F's heavyweight production.
Lyrically and thematically, both Heavy & Loud and Firm & Strong are celebrations of sound system culture and resilience, delivered in Sr. Wilson's patois-inflected style. Heavy & Loud is, as the name suggests, an anthem exalting the "big, bad, heavy and loud" vibes that O.B.F is known to bring. Throughout the track, Sr. Wilson's lyrics praise the physical impact of reggae bass and the joy of a speaker-pounding session. Thematically, it aligns with a lineage of reggae/dub songs that pay tribute to the sound system itself, similar to classics like Johnny Osbourne's Firehouse Rock or more recent anthems by Mungo's Hi-Fi and Iration Steppas.
Firm & Strong, released two months later, takes a subtly different approach. Where Heavy & Loud exults in the act of domination, Firm & Strong is a hymn to resilience. Sr. Wilson tempers his delivery here. It is still rhythmic and commanding but shaded with warmth, reminding us that sound system culture is as much about holding space for the community as it is about blowing walls apart.
Both EPs follow the classic format—a vocal cut paired with its dub version (Baddest Dub for Heavy & Loud​ and Dub Firm for Firm & Strong​). Rico flexes his mastery of live-mix dynamics in the dub mixes, stripping Sr. Wilson's vocals into ghostly traces, pulling instruments into sudden dropouts and delay feedback, allowing him to go full dub engineer mode. These dubs are not afterthoughts but integral parts of the EPs.
The production is unmistakably O.B.F Stepper rhythms drive at militant tempos, low-end frequencies are tuned for seismic response, and digital synth stabs skate across the high end. Yet there's also nuance. On Heavy & Loud, the bass is a swaggering force, and the mix is engineered to jolt dancers into motion. On Firm & Strong, the beat leans slightly more roots-oriented, leaving space for the lyrics to unfold into a meditation.
Heavy & Loud and Firm & Strong are not throwaway singles but foundational stones. They establish an aesthetic language and claim territory in a scene that demands reverence and reinvention. Reception in the dub community has reflected this. Early radio spins, YouTube plays, and festival crowd reactions confirm that these tracks almost immediately entered the 2025 sound system canon. Heavy and loud. Firm and strong. The mantras are simple but feel like articles of faith in O.B.F's hands.
