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September 6, 2007

Pride and Prejudice: How South Asians Relate To Hip-Hop

Madison Avenue, New York City, August 19, 2007 If you'da checked for me a couple Sunday's ago, I'da been standing on Madison Avenue cheering on the India Day Parade. Thousands strong, brown and proud, 60 years since a world witnessed us get free from British occupation non-violently and violently.

Here's what the India Day Parade sounded like.

The neighbourhood and professional association floats had Chak De India's nationalistic Girl Power theme song on high rotation with other Bollywood hits in between. Bhajans (our call and response gospel) emanated from the spiritual floats. DJ's and travel industry folks dug a Bhangra groove into the street soundtrack, interspersing insanely danceable tunes with the foundational Punjabi MC-Jay Z hip-hop anthem, "Beware of the Boys."

When a DJ float filled to the brim with young brown men going dumb in button ups veered into Fifty's latest, "I Get Money," the teenagers' kept right on singing, body motions seamlessly shifting from Bhangra's up-and-down crunk beats to hip-hop's back-and-forth thrust . As I watched, three African-American male on-lookers nudged each other and laughed. I bristled, and yet, I could relate to how it feels to have people bite. I wondered: What's the state of the relationship between South Asian's and hip-hop?

Who better to ask than rising Desi hip-hop artist, Chee Malabar who recently released his solo album Oblique Brown. Raised in India until age 12 years, Chee's family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where Chee became immersed in hip-hop during his teenage and adult years. A few days ago, Chee and I sat down over the internet to build on music, politics, and culture.

Chee, you're an establishged hip-hop head. Tell me a bit about your relationship to the art form.

Hip-hop, early on, pretty much informed me about America — how to talk, dress, think. Safe to say that all of my earliest notions about race, class and culture were informed by rap, [from artist's like] Ice Cube, NWA, Del and the Hiero Crew.

In SF, pretty much all my friends were listening to rap...round the time I got to high school, I started writing rhymes, but pretty much keeping them to myself, only later when I met my boy Ray did we start recording them and passing tapes out to our friends.

Beyond being a practitioner of the art, I am a huge fan [of hip-hop music]. I can honestly say that it is the single most cherished love of my life.

Chee, in your opinion, how does hip-hop treat South Asian folks and how do South Asian folks treat hip-hop?

I've never had any major issues with being South Asian in hip-hop. I feel that I am a representation of hip-hop culture and don't feel like I'm imposing or passing through or stealing culture.

I can't speak for South Asian emcee's everywhere cause I don't know what a lot of them do so I can't really judge, but if you're perpetrating some fraudulent shit, trust me, people are gonna call it out, that's the beauty of hip-hop, it police's itself in many things, unfortunately not all, but then again, neither do other genres of music.

That's real right there. Tell me, how would you like to see the developing genre of South Asians in hip-hop unfold?

As far as South Asians in hip-hop — or anybody for that matter — I'd like to see artists continuously pushing boundaries and ultimately being true to themselves, and not listening to what people say they should sound like or dress like. Hip-hop was based on individuality and the streets, urban culture used to dictate what MTV and the like played; now it's the opposite. I'd like to see that love and hunger in people's eyes again.

I hear that. Chee Malabar, any last words and how can people find out more about you?

Support independent artists!

To me, being an Indian hip-hop head means many things. It means I am constantly discovering the original soul songs that hip-hop samples from.

My parents music was and still is Lata Mangeshwar, Jagit and Chitra Singh (R.I.P), as well as bhajans, Bollywood, ghazals (our Quiet Storm), and Indian classical music (our jazz).

It also means that I cringe at the urgency with which we stylistically assimilate to the primary colonizing force of this era via hip-hop culture. But like Chee said, we aren't the only ones.

And mainly, being a hip-hop head and Indian reminds me of the reality that me and others like me, an emerging sector of the South Asian diaspora, are simply returning in our own way to what has been a part of our ancient, natural musical blood: storytelling over a heart starting beat.

What do you think?

• Posted by Roopa Singh at 12:01AM on 09/ 6/07
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