LK (Carolina Carol Bela)

"LK (Carolina Carol Bela)", sometimes referred to as "It's the Way", is a 2002 drum and bass song by DJ Marky, XRS, and Stamina MC which reached No. 17 on the UK Singles Chart. It has been described as "seminal" by NME, and samples Toquinho & Jorge Ben's "Carolina Carol Bela". Piri & Tommy have performed it in concert and cited it as an inspiration for their 2024 EP About Dancing.

"LK" was produced in 2002^[1] in XRS's studio^[2] after DJ Marky gave up on recreating the sound of Ed Rush and Optical's "Wormhole".^[3] "LK" was originally an instrumental, and samples vocals and guitar from Toquinho and Jorge Ben's "Carolina Carol Bela",^[2] the B-side^[1] of "Que Maravilha".^[4] The song's title, "LK", is a truncated form of "Liquid Kitchen", an epithet given to the song by DJ Marky after coming back from XRS's studio and walking in on his mother washing up.^[2]

After a tour in Brazil, DJ Marky returned to the United Kingdom to find himself inundated with requests to play "It's the Way", a title based on what Stamina MC had been freestyling over the record.^[2] Not knowing what they meant, he wondered whether they meant DJ Tactix's 1994 jungle track of the same name; after finding that crowds were singing Stamina MC's lyrics at performances, Stamina MC was brought into the studio to record an official vocal.^[1] This version was playlisted by BBC Radio 1,^[2] charted at No. 17 on the UK Singles Chart,^[5] and was performed on Top of the Pops.^[6] The track was played in the United States, which caught the attention of Jorge Ben's son Gabriel; the question of paying royalties for sampling "Carolina Carol Bela" was resolved when Toquinho approved of the sample.^[1] The track has been described as "seminal" by NME.^[7]

"LK" was the first song Piri & Tommy covered in concert, starting in 2021.^[8] Jeremy Abbott of NME thought their cover was a particular highlight of their performance at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2022, describing their rendition as "bouncy", and noted that observing "a rabble of enthusiastic teens flailing to a drum'n'bass classic released years before they were born proves that the old can still very much be gold".^[7] The pair cited the track as an inspiration for their 2024 EP About Dancing.^[8]