by Suman Gupta
Birmingham-born Steven Kapur, known to music lovers the world over as Apache Indian, returns with a brand new track. The 50-year-old-singer-songwriter presents a track reminiscent of those thunderous years when ‘Boom Shaka Lak’, ‘Movie Over India’ and ‘Chok De’ rocked every club in every city in every nation
‘Punjabi Girl’ features Apache Indian dropping Punjabi lyrics to an uplifting dancehall melody composed and produced by Charlie Hype. Incorporated throughout the track are rap verses sung by India’s rapper Raftaar who has enjoyed great success with hits including ‘Baby Marvake Maanegi’, ‘Swag Mera Desi’, ‘Dhaakad’ and ‘Instagram Love’ and more recently Mantoiyat from Manto.
Apache states, “This song took me over a year to write and was inspired by my fans wanting some old school vibes again! I had fun with this song; using more of my Punjabi mother tongue flowing hard on an Indian dancehall beat.”
Upon reaching the final mixes of the song, Raftaar’s management, AK Projects and Apache Indian’s management, Sunset Entertainment Group got connected and discussed possible synergies between the two artistes.
Apache adds, “Raftaar’s lyrics and vocal delivery on the song adds a magic sprinkling that gives it yet another Hindi/Bollywood twist! We are also working on another track that I will feature on for him! Bless up Raftaar for his contribution!”
The original ragamuffin, an artist with an inimitable sound and style who undoubtedly paved the way for other Asian talent to reach out into the mainstream will be visiting Mumbai this month to shoot the music video with Raftaar.
Punjabi Girl is taken from Apache Indian’s long-awaited new album titled ‘On The Weekend’. Fans are excited because Apache returns to his original love – reggae – with this one, 27 years after he shot up the global charts with No Reservations in 1991. The album also features the late great Frankie Paul (RIP), Destiny, Cousin Vinny & El Feco Baker. Produced by the Legendary Jim Beanz & Charlie Hype with remixes created by Bangalore’s Argenil.
‘Punjabi Girl’ and ‘On The Weekend’ releases on the 28th September 2018 on the Sunset Entertainment Group label and will be available from iTunes, Amazon and all other digital stores. Listen to it on Spotify, Deezer and other streaming sites across the globe.
Apache Indian shot to fame fusing bhangra, Jamaican and English music cultures, and his style hugely impacted how dance music would be created over the years to come. The global music press found the brand of music to be unique, and a new word was coined to classify his genre – the bhangramuffin (sometimes also called the bhangragga), which widely defines a mix of bhangra, reggaemuffin and traditional dancehall.
