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Posts tagged “Sikh rappers

East West: The Brown Underground -6 (Mandeep Sethi)

Posted on July 6, 2010

Artist: Mandeep Sethi MC Name: Mandeep Sethi Reprezentin’: San Francisco, California A Little Taste: “Rhyme like your life depends on it/ Be honest when you’re rockin’/ But be cautious of your friends changing promise./ It’s coming around. It’s probably comin’ now./ So be ready. F*ing ready. With machetes and rounds.” – From “Boat of Hope” His/Story:  Despite his youth, 20-year-old San Francisco State University broadcasting and electronic communication major Sethi is no newcomer to the world of hip-hop. “I started rocking rhymes when I was twelve, recorded my first demo when I was 15, put out my first mixtape when I was 16, “ says Sethi. Just three years later, Sethi has gone on tour to Spain, the U.K., and India, with a world…

East West: The Brown Underground – 4 (Jagmeet “Hoodini” Singh)

Posted on July 4, 2010

Artist: Jagmeet “Hoodini” Singh MC Name: Hoodini Reprezentin’: Los Angeles, California A Little Taste: “The government’s been trying to burn Punjab/ Living in this hell, so we forgot that we should turn to God/ Forgot that we were kings, so they all took their turbans off/ But the revolution’s back and there’s no way that you can turn it off!” – “My People” from The Magic Show. His/Story: Growing up in L.A., the 19-year-old UCLA sophomore got grounded in hip-hop at a very young age. “All the way back in third grade, I was listening to Will Smith rhymes and writing some myself,” he says, laughing. “The first song I wrote in third grade was this track called ‘Smackaroo to Timbaktoo’ about this kid…

East West: The Brown Underground – 3 (Kanwar Anit Singh Saini a.k.a. Sikh Knowledge)

Posted on July 3, 2010

Artist: Kanwar Anit Singh Saini MC Name: Sikh Knowledge Reprezentin’: Montreal, Canada A Little Taste:  “The dance of the marginalized till my feet bleed like Rekha/ Play Ribs like xylophones balancin music and hunger/ I dance for 84, I dance for Darfur/ while they dance to duck ammunition during war.” – From “Technorganic” His/Story: Raised by a single father in Montreal, Canada from the age of 16, Saini, 28, was on track to study engineering when the then eighth grader was waylaid by a Smith & Wesson instrumental on Rap City. “It hit me like a ton of bricks,” he recalls. “It was ‘Soundboy Burial,’ and I heard that instrumental and my life changed. That was it. I was convinced this is what I…

East West: Brown Underground – 2 (Tanmit Singh a.k.a. Saint Soulja)

Posted on July 2, 2010

Artist: Tanmit Singh MC Name: Saint Soulja Reprezentin’: Washington D.C. A Little Taste: “One: stop and pause/ Say two: figure out your cause/ Say three: let’s get free/ The revolution starts with me/ Revolution makes lions outta cowards/ I’m a rebel to this world/ And I fight with a cause and if I lose my swords/ Imma fight with my paws.” – “Soulja’s Story” from the album, Soulja’s Rise His/Story: In addition to being a hip hop artist, the multi-tasking Tanmit Singh, 21, just graduated from Drexel University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and entrepreneurship. “The accounting degree is a fall back so I have something to make a living with,” says Singh. “The entrepreneurship degree I am using for both my music…

East West: The Brown Underground – 1

Posted on July 1, 2010

Socially conscious hip-hop from the days of Public Enemy and N.W.A. seems to have all but vanished, replaced with the glamour of being a “G” – complete with tales of sexual conquests, gold plated grills, non-stop parties, drugs, alcohol, and of course more “bling bling.” But there’s a revival bubbling up across North America – and it has its roots firmly grounded in South Asian America. From L.A. to Toronto to D.C., young men of the Sikh faith have taken up the mantel of hip-hop, writing powerful tracks about oppression, racism, and politics. Their music is informed by Sikh philosophies such as miri-piri, a religious tenet that advocates political and social activism to benefit society alongside individual spirituality. “I think it’s impossible to be…

Audio Slideshow: Four Sikh Hip Hop Artists At Jakara 2009

Posted on July 8, 2009


Check out this audio slideshow I created at Jakara 2009, with interviews and musical track snippets from four hip hop artists, who participated in Jakara 2009 in Fresno, California: Kanwar Anit Singh Saini a.k.a. Sikh Knowledge from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Kanwer Singh a.k.a. Humble The Poet from Toronto, Canada; Jagmeet “Hoodini” Singh a.k.a. Hoodini Singh from Los Angeles, California, and Tanmit Singh a.k.a. Saint Soulja of G.N.E.

Read, “The Brown Underground,” originally published in East West Magazine in 2009.

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