Widely hailed as the don of the stateside drum & bass scene, Damien Higgins (Dieselboy) has garnered considerable renown in the genre. The first American voted into the U.K.-based Drum & Bass Arena Top 10 DJs poll, he was also the first artist in the genre to score a Billboard charting hit. Higgins gained his initial experiences in DJing at Pittsburgh-area college radio station WRCT, eventually settling in Philadelphia and becoming an important fixture in the hardcore rave scene there. A former drummer, Higgins was drawn to the intricate beat constructions of breakbeat-driven jungle and drum & bass, pushing its futuristic ethos of experimentation with new sounds and techniques. After a successful run of mix-CDs in the late ‘90s, he launched his own imprint, Human, releasing PROJECT HUMAN (2002), a surprisingly diverse album consisting of material from disco house and trance, to West Coast-style hip hop.