The band formed in 1993 as an outgrowth of the documentary Identical Beat, a film shot at London's Farringdon Community Music House, the site of a series of summer workshops designed to teach South Asian children the essentials of music technology. In charge of the workshops were tutor Aniruddha Das and youth worker John Pandit, also a noted DJ; with one of their students, a 14-year-old Bengali rapper named Deeder Zaman, they soon formed a sound system which they called the Asian Dub Foundation.

The Asian Dub Foundation is better described as a group that arose from a community rap organization. The different forms of music include toasting, dub, funky guitars and many other African instrumentals. One of their most influential tracks is named Strong Culture which gives the listener an idea of the Asian culture.

"Their distinctive sound is a combination of hard ragga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub basslines, searing sitar- inspired guitars and 'traditional' sounds gleaned from their parents' record collections, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics".