“In Bed-Stuy, this Bengali-American rapper brings in musicians from around the world to create fusion hip-hop, mixing traditional Asian, African, and South American roots for a sound uniquely Brooklyn.”
I love summer. I love music. I love backyard parties. I love Brooklyn. This is my ode to falling in love at first sight. Originally, I had released it as “the1shanti” and then yanked it out of circulation. I’ve been playing this out for the past two months and the reaction it has been getting has been amazing. For that reason, I’m re-releasing it as a free download. Hope you enjoy!
Recap video of Brooklyn Shanti performing live at Subsuelo’s The Global Bassment on April 19, 2013 ft. Mad Decent, Dutty Artz, Cumba Mela, The Lift & Peligrosa.
Online magazine, Pineapple & Milk, covers Brooklyn Shanti in this mini-documentary. Look out for features from Camp Lo’s Geechi Suede and Drop it Steady’s Jeff aka Baldi.
Note: Links for purchase and reivews at bottom of this post.
I’m super happy to announce the official release of my “Moner Alo” EP featuring Anoura via Dutty Artz. It’s been a tremendous journey, taking Bengali language music around the world the last two and a half years, and this time I make a stop in Africa – more specifically Sierra Leone – for the second song in the trilogy of work I’m presenting about being young and Bengali, fusing global sounds.
Nihal blessed me with a worldwide debut via BBC Radio One:
I went through a tremendous heart break last year. As some of you recall, I tried my best to put it into words and over music… It sucked. Although I had already painted some words about the matter, it wasn’t until I sat down with my roommate, Anoura, that the perfect expression came to me via a frank and sad conversation we had shared. She was on the outside looking in, and encouraged me to speak my heart from the perspective of love, not from the pain I was feeling. The perfect words weren’t in English. They were in Bangla and Spanish.
The original version of the track is produced by Chief Boima and Oro11, who released the instrumental previously as “Talking Drum” under the name Banana Clipz (also included on the iTunes release). A lot of people have asked why there is so much auto-tune in the song, and my answer is that Geko Jones had been playing A LOT of the new music coming out of Nigeria in our studio at the time of the recording, and in terms of style, I wanted to emulate the effect that I was hearing. Seeing that contemporary African music does use the effect quite heavily, I also wanted to create something which would fit in with the music which is popular at the moment in Africa, adding my special Bengali twist, and a bit of Spanish, via Anoura, for good measure. I was asking myself, “Is it possible to convey heart break even through auto tune?” I think the answer is: Yes. What do you think?
Geko Jones and I then quickly went to work on a video concept and we were off to the races, as we switched out camera man roles all around New York. WIthin 48 hours of me editing all of our collected footage, we had a video. What’s up with the shots of Anoura in red? We’ve left the interpretations up to the viewers. This is the first project Geko and I have released to the public under our collaborative moniker, Code Switchers. There’s more. We’ve been holding back, aiming to get this one out before anything else comes your way.
I logged onto iTunes to a pleasant surprise, finding that the EP was categorized under “New and Noteworthy”. It’s a good feeling…this being “noteworthy”. Nabin (my name) translates roughly to “always new” or “always young” or “forever youthful” (so TOUGH finding the correct translations into English) – so that part I’m sorta used to 
As if all of that weren’t enough, my friend Dub Sharma in India sent us a tremendous remix of the tune which didn’t make it over in time to release on the EP. For that reason, we’ve been working with Generation Bass to get the mix out as an exclusive this week so you guys can hear it!
I really hope you enjoy the release. Anoura, Chief Boima, Oro11, Sonora, Ashwin “AKS” Subramanian, Dub Sharma and I *literally* put our hearts into it.
Love,
Nabin
Links:
Purchase “Moner Alo” via iTunes
Generation Bass Dub Sharma Remix Exclusive
Sounds and Colours review
Urban Asian review
Sony India’s Zomba.in review
Update: Looks like the release made the front page of the Electronic section in iTunes as well…
Related show
Read MoreDirected by Code Switchers (Geko Jones & Brooklyn Shanti)
EP release February 19, 2013 via Dutty Artz
Update: The EP is now available via Dutty Artz, on iTunes here.
I’m pleased to announce that my next EP release, Moner Alo featuring Anoura, will be released officially on Dutty Artz February 19th. The release came together inspired by the Bananna Clipz track Talking Drum, which will also be on the EP. To celebrate, we let it loose via BBC Radio One this past week and the response has been tremendous! More on the release in the weeks to come, but for now I’ll let Nihal introduce the track formally to you:
Persian television program, ZirZameen, visits Nabin in his Brooklyn studio for a candid conversation about art, identity and inspiration. Also featured are his Dutty Artz collaborators, Geko Jones and Jahdan Blakkamoore.
Here’s a party mix I just cooked up for 2013 to bring it in the right way! Wherever you may be in the world, I’ll see you soon as I make my way from city to city during the next year!
Tracklisting
01. Dillinger – Cocaine in my Brain
02. Passa Passa (Brooklyn Shanti edit)
03. I Got Soul – Rack City vs Eric B. & Rakim
04. Tempos Insanos – Maga Bo ft Gnegao
05. Mouthful of Diamonds – Phantogram
06. Abrazame – Los Rakas x Uproot Andy
07. Bangla Bass – Nucleya, Mou Sultana, Brooklyn Shanti
08. Never Mine – AKS ft Shefali Maitra Kumar
09. No Heart – FERAL i$ Kinky
10. Nipsy’s Jam (What Would I Do) – Jon Kwest
11. Make Their Hearts Say Yeah – Nucleya vs Drop it Steady (Brooklyn Shanti edit)
12. Coolie High – Nucleya vs Camp Lo (Brooklyn Shanti edit)
13. Badd Indian – Apache Indian vs Mendez (Brooklyn Shanti edit)
14. The World Will Be Love – Mendez vs Jahdan Blakkamoore vs Brooklyn Shanti
15. Jo Ho Yaar Apna – Lata Mangeshkar x Kishore Kumar (Brooklyn Shanti edit)
16. Help You Wit Dat – Global Groove ft Q Tip & Brooklyn Shanti
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