Indian hip hop
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| Music of India: Topics | |||||||||
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| Timeline and Samples | |||||||||
| Genres | Classical (Carnatic and Hindustani) | ||||||||
| Awards | Bollywood Music Awards - Punjabi Music Awards | ||||||||
| Charts | |||||||||
| Festivals | Sangeet Natak Akademi – Thyagaraja Aradhana – Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana | ||||||||
| Media | Sruti, The Music Magazine | ||||||||
| National anthem | "Jana Gana Mana", also national song "Vande Mataram" | ||||||||
| Music of the states | |||||||||
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Andhra Pradesh – Arunachal Pradesh – Assam – Bihar – Chhattisgarh – Goa – Gujarat – Haryana – Himachal Pradesh – Jammu – Jharkhand – Karnataka – Kashmir – Kerala – Madhya Pradesh – Maharashtra – Manipur – Meghalaya – Mizoram – Nagaland – Orissa – Punjab – Rajasthan – Sikkim – Tamil Nadu – Tripura – Uttar Pradesh – Uttaranchal – West Bengal | |||||||||
Indian hip hop is a blend of traditional Indian musical elements with hip hop music. This can be achieved lyrically (using one or more Indian languages), incorporating percussion (tabla, dhol etc.), other instrumentation (sitar, veena) or through the use of sampling popular Bollywood film soundtracks. Hip-Hop, being a global phenomenon, is perceived differently by the major branches of the South Asian diaspora. Artists from the United States often adopted Hip-Hop at an early age and made it an important aspect of their American identity. Conversely, artists from the UK and the sub-continent were first exposed to Hip-Hop as an American export.
[edit] US artists
As the popularity of American rap music has proliferated, so has the variety of approaches which US-based hip-hop artists of Indian heritage.
Two well received underground/independent rap artists include west coast artist Chee Malabar, who garnered widespread attention in academia through his involvement in the Himalayan Project. Another is New York-based rapper/producer the1shanti, who has collaborated commercially but remains under the mainstream radar. In addition, the latter was recognized by hip-hop's godfather, Afrika Bambaataa, as nifty aka lil pimpin for having been the first A-town hip-hop artist to spread true school rap values throughout India. Ironically, both Chee Malabar and the1shanti worked together during their studies at Penn State.
The most popular Indian Hip Hop artist in the world is Asoka. Asoka has worked with the world famous rappers, The Outlawz, originated by Tupac Shakur. He has also appeared on many major mixtapes, including some hosted by 50 Cent and G-Unit.
On June 16, 2006, in celebration of Tupac Shakur's Birthday, Makaveli Branded released a Mixtape titled The Underground Railroad. In this mixtape Asoka made an appearance alongside Shakur on the song "The Uppercut". Allhiphop.com reviewed this mixtape and stated it was one of the better 2pac CDs to have been released since his demise.
Kidd Skilly is another famous Indian Hip Hop artist. Kidd Skilly in 2007 released his first music video, Bhangra Chick. At the end of the video is a clip of Kidd Skilly's collaboration with Hip Hop star Akon.
[edit] UK artists
In the UK, S-Endz appeared on the scene in 2004 with the band Swami, who that year released an album entitled DesiRock that went on to become the biggest selling and most critically acclaimed album of that year.
Notably, the platinum sales and success of that album in India (when remixed and released there in 2005 under the name So Who Am I) means that S-Endz is one of a very small number of rappers of Indian decent, but born and raised in the West, to make any kind of impact in their cultural homeland. Interestingly, another person that can be said of is S-Endz's first cousin - British-Asian reggae dancehall artist Apache Indian. Both have had massive success working with renowned super-producers Diamond "DJ Swami" Duggal and his brother Simon "Subs" Duggal, who are also first cousins of both S-Endz and Apache.
Swami's success in India also led to S-Endz and DJ Swami featuring on the soundtrack to the hit Bollywood movie Corporate in 2005, alongside legendary Bollywood singer Kailesh Kher. In 2006, it was also revealed that S-Endz has joined US hip-hop collective Tha Havenotz, a group founded by the late Tupac Shakur. In Fall 2007, Swami released their new album Equalize, which features a collaboration with American hip-hop artist Pras Michel.
[edit] References
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