Punjabi Hit Squad: the Interview
By Ankur Sood

Revolutionary. That’s the one word that comes mind to describe the Panjabi Hit Squad (PHS) who just recently made their North American debut in Toronto with a giant lakefront performance at Bombay Nights. Since 1993, PHS have consistently pushed the sounds of anything and everything that has to do with South Asian “Desi” music combined with the sounds of urban music. Within the last decade they have continued to push desi talent and sounds to a mainstream level and successfully become a part of the revolution that is desi music. I had the opportunity to sit down with Markie Mark, Dee, and Rav of the Panjabi Hit Squad at an elegant downtown condo overlooking the lake that I just couldn’t give up.

Please note: this interview is from the conversations that was recorded and is the written transcripts of that interview without any major editing or changes.

Legend:
Markie Mark (M) = Green
Dee (D) = Blue
Rav (R)= Red
Ankur the Interviewer = Black

*****

I’m here with Mark, Dee, and Rav who are known as the PHS and are the critically acclaimed hosts of BBC Radio 1xtra’s Panjabi Hit Squad Desi Beats radio show, are award winning DJ’s, and are also the “ambassadors” of the desi beats from the streets. How are you guys doing? All right yeah?

(D) Yeah, doing great man, a bit tired but doing well!

Well it’s been a long time in the making, but finally you guys have landed in Toronto. What has you here eating our samosas and drinking our chai? What has you in Toronto?

(R) We’re here for a huge event called Bombay Nights that is showcasing us along with other desi talent. We’ve had a lot of requests through email to come check out Toronto for the last year and this is a growing scene that we’ve wanted to check out for a while and be a part of as well. Something that obviously we’ve done before in the UK scene, we just basically want to know the scene here.

(M) Just to touch a bit on that, like Rav sort of mentioned, we’ve seen development in the UK scene; the desi scene in the UK and we’ve been an instrumental part of that for over a decade, so we are looking for things in the North American market where we can help. Maybe we can be a part of that as well. For our radio show, we’ve got a massive North American listener ship, basically.

Well Mark, you are probably one of the biggest influences in the scene today for myself and have motivated me to do exactly what you do. However on a superficial physical level, anybody would look at you and say, “Oye, how does a white Caucasian male know so much about the desi scene and pronounce words better than some second generation Canadian-South Asians?” which is amazing! How did you get into all of this?

(M) Me, just from a young age really. In the Southall area, west London really; loads of Asians when I was growing up so, to get an influence from three or four years old listening to the music all this time.

Well apparently you guys have been doing this for 10+ years easily and have literally help shape the music scene, how did this all start for you guys?

(D) Well we started in 1993 and started the first ever 'Urban-Asian' nights, which was dedicated to R&B and Hip-Hop and the upstairs featured Desi Beats. That’s how it started, that’s how we started and brought it together and it was like the first ever club of its kind. We were just breaking boundaries; you can never get a club (gig) in London. Being Asian, you used just walk up to a door and they would be like, “Naw naw naw, you can’t get in”. Where as a couple of white people next to you, would walk in. A couple of black people next to you because they played the music or whatever, would get in. Asians, “No no, you lot can’t come in, you lot are going to start fights” and you would stand there and be like, “What?” So we had to bring something like this so Asians could come to our clubs and vibe off it because we used to get knocked (kicked) at so many doors you remember back in the day?

(M) It’s on records, during the 90’s with a lot of racism, I mean the way the club scene for Asians was back then we just didn’t have the club money. It was almost like community sort of events, you had these big “desi bhangra” dudes had like once a month. But we were from an urban angle; we listened to Hip-Hop and Raaga/Dancehall alongside with Bhangra. There wasn’t any club out there that encapsulated the way that we had grown up listening to music.

(R) It was one thing that, when we were all starting out. It was more of the band that was running the whole scene. You had the Alaaps and the Apna Sangeets doing their thing, you didn’t have DJ’s really do anything special, as those were all bands. So what we basically did was that we took their records and put hip-hop beats underneath them and tried loads of different things. Punjabi MC was the first one to put a vocal, Kuldeep Manak’s vocal over a hip-hop beat and when we used to play that in clubs, it used to hit the party off; then we knew we had something serious! I mean it was small then when we started, but it grew so quickly. Before you knew it, you had coaches coming down from the other side (of England), Birmingham and Manchester, everywhere…

(D)….Bombay Jungle and Limelight used to be the main point where everyone used to come from everywhere. The coaches caused roadblocks, you’d have a thousand people in the clubs and 800-900 people outside the clubs, you can’t get it in, was absolute mayhem!

(R) We were doing exactly what was urban then, it was literally just giving bhangra a different feel and a different flow. All the artists and all the bands that were out there, they didn’t understand and wanted to keep it all traditional. It was cool and we had no problem with it, we just were looking for a different angle. You got Panjabi MC, there was no other place where he could get his music heard, but through us. The “Mundian Tho Bach Ke (Beware of The Boys)” tune was the first place he took it was to us at Limelight on tape and we played it off the tape, which was just wicked! We were the first people in the world to play that and break it down and from there we just knew the album was going to be big. So that’s just a small snapshot of how we’ve come along.

Really interesting stuff! Well you guys are the hosts of your very own radio show which is highly rated on BBC 1xtra, how has that helped your name and the scene as a whole?

(M) Big time it has been really influential. We came at a time when BBC started looking at doing desi shows on their main radio stations like Radio One, where we did a show on 1xtra on Radio One, which is the national radio station. It was a massive cultural impact suddenly. People were suddenly realizing how much South Asians were contributing to UK culture, club culture and musical culture. The influences were coming from the States, like Missy, Timbaland, and the Neptunes. Everyone was using Asian samples so it was the right time for us. Made a massive impact throughout the station at 1xtra, when we first went in there we weren’t expected to do big things. We were once a month at first, and response was so big we moved to weekly and now we’ve moved to a prime slot on Thursday as well. It’s been a massive response and not just from Asians but from non-Asians at the same time and of course from across the world. Desi people are always emailing us from all over saying that, “This show is needed, there’s so many desi stations, so many desi television stations but, the way you guys are handling things is really original and you’re just breaking it down just the way you’re doing it.”

(R) We get emails from Canada, America, and Holland to name a few saying, "Please why not bring your show here?" We’re like yeah cool but that’s why we’re trying to move it forward so we can be the mouthpiece on a radio station and put it out, out there for everyone out there in the correct form. If it’s hot we play everything, in the club we play everything. You get DJ’s in clubs who only play their own music which is cool because that’s what they’re there to do, promote their music. With us, we’re promoting desi beats.

(M) The desi scene always has a lot of politics, but we’ve always been above that. We play music by anybody; if it’s hot we play it, doesn’t matter who it is.

(D) It’s kind of crazy; maybe that’s why we’ve been nominated for a MOBO award. Because we play everything, we play everything people want to hear. Being nominated for a MOBO award, which is the Music of Black Origin is like one of the biggest urban music awards in the UK, so it’s kind of wicked!

That’s wicked! Well Dee you’re probably the most energized and loudest personality I’ve probably ever heard on the radio but you’ve taken some of that energy and done some rapping on various tracks including the latest ‘Lean Back’ variation. Have you ever considered doing your own album or doing any other versus on future compilations?

(D) Do you know what it is? You can compare us, how can I put it? As the Neptunes, like you get Pharrell on a track, but he would never be rapping on a whole track. Basically I’m like the mouthpiece on a track for PHS, so when I rap on a track it’s not Dee and PHS, it is always just PHS.

Speaking of this new track, you guys are the ambassadors of desi beats and have a number of compilations under your belts such as Life After Death, The Streets, and Desi Beats Volume 1, which of course was under the Def Jam label. How did you guys link up with and get signed by Def Jam?

(D) With Def Jam it was kind of crazy, we knew this one guy and he was always looking at us at what we do. You know like those people who watch what you do out there but they never come up to you and say, “oh what do you guys do?” He’s been watching us for a little while so he approached us with a few remixes and wanted us to do a remix for Ashanti. We were like, “What? The R&B singer Ashanti?” Because there was never a time these things would happen. So we did a remix for Ashanti and they loved it, we did a remix for Mariah Carey and she loved it. We had conference calls with Mariah Carey, Ashanti, Keith Murray, and people like that so they just loved what we did and they knew our sound was right. Through this remixing, one day we went there and they pulled out this big fat contract and put it in front of us. Mark’s a lawyer now, so I gave it to Mark, I said, “Mark let’s read it, let’s sign it now.” He laughs and says; “I’ve never seen a contract like this before in my life”. They asked, “Have you got lawyers?” I said, “Yeah Mark, Mark’s our lawyer.” They found it amusing and said no you’re going to need some proper lawyers to look through this fat contract.

{M}(Laughs) Yeah that cost us. That contract cost us a lot of money to look through, but it was worth it.

What can we expect from PHS in the future musically, lyrically, vocally and production wise?

(D) A lot of things man, you can expect a lot. Like I’ve got my rapping, we produce, we got singers coming out. We’ve got a lady named Ms. Scandalous, her albums coming out and she’s going to be big. We just did a photo shoot a few days ago.

I think she’s really hot, is she single?

(D) Yes, yes she is (laughs), she’s single. We just did a photo shoot recently and her photo shoot is going to blow people out of the water. Her album is sounding wicked and is just going to be sounding crazy. We’ve got an R&B female artist that is going to be coming out very, very soon. But yeah, a lot of things are going to be happening.

Ok well you guys are probably used to routine questions, so I’m going to ask you simple questions and each of you has got to give an answer.

My favourite thing to do when I’m away from touring, the station, etc is _______?

(R) I listen to music.

(D) When I’m away from the studio? Ummm…

(R) He’s very friendly with the females. (Laughs)

(D) (Dee laughs)

(M) Me, I like sports, I like football. So I cheer on Chelsea whenever I get the chance, unfortunately it’s not often.

If I can meet someone in the world, whom I haven’t met already, who would it be?

(R) That’s so easy man, Dr. Dre man!

(D) Timbaland, or Pharrell actually. End of the month, I’m going to meet him at the MOBO’s hopefully.

(M) Probably someone like that, someone musically influential. They’ve been some of our biggest inspirations.

Last one, if I were stranded on an island with one CD, what would it be?

(R) Desi Beat Volume 1.

(D) (Laughs) that’s me man, Desi Beats Volume 1 as well. You’ve got R&B, Hip-Hop and can I get a bootleg CD from Southall Broadway? Because I’d tell them what to put on it. (Laughs)

Alright well getting back to business, a lot of Asian talent are getting recognition these days such as Jay Sean and Raghav; it’s not only in desi music but R&B and Hip-Hop as well. Where do we see this going? Have we reached the climax or still on its way up?

(D) I can say that we have not reached the climax; this is just the beginning. Obviously you’ve had Timbaland and Pharrell and people like that using our sounds. You’ve got all these Asian producers using their sounds and artists move forward using these sounds, there’s only one way it’s going to go and it’s going forwards.

(M) It’s all about foundations now, building foundations for the future. What you have to remember especially in the UK and even Canada probably. There’s enough South Asians in the UK, that even if South Asians are getting behind the record they can actually push something to number one. Call it the power of the “brown pound” or whatever, but it is the eventual factor. Our music has been selling for a long time, but it hasn’t been chart registered so it just doesn’t go into the charts. It amazes us as we’re used to playing our stuff to desi people, but now our sounds are growing to white people, black people, basically all people.

(D) It’s like we go in a club, I get on stage and I’m wishing there’s a handful of Asians there and they’re going to respond. We’re playing to a totally non-Asian crowd with black and white people. So we start dropping the bhangra and they go mental! If you know how to roll with a crowd and you know how to work a crowd, even though it’s in Punjabi and stuff but the thing is, everyone dances to beats.

(M) One time we were playing a gig in Cambridge University and some Indian kids started getting on each other’s shoulders doing bhangra dances and you look to the other side and you see some black kids doing the same thing.

(R) It just goes to show you, how if the music’s good and you put it across well, everyone’s open to it.

(M) We see some mad things all the time. Every week we have a guy who emails us and names the samples of the tracks we play. He’s a white DJ who hears Bollywood stuff from America and he names every single sample in every single Bollywood tune or Hip-Hop track.

(D) It’s like that Lean Back tune that we’ve done and Fat Joe heard it a few weeks ago and we weren’t expecting that at all. We sent out to quite a few hip-hop DJ’s in America and they were with Fat Joe and they played it and asked what he thought about the track. He was like it’s cool and was feeling it. It just shows you how far things can go when people could listen to it. You’d think Fat Joe would hear it six or seven months, he’s heard it in 2 weeks within us finishing the track. You know what I’m saying; we’re getting closer and closer to American artists. People need to know what Desi Beats is. “What is that? What do they call it? It’s got an oriental sound, that an Indian sound?” What people need to know is that our music is called Desi Beats.

(M) Hey what do you know? Maybe Fat Joe is probably going to be checking out areas like Brampton. (Laughs)

Well this is your first time in Toronto; can we expect you back for Round 2?

(D) Yeah man, we’re definitely coming back for round 2!

(M) Yeah the Bombay Nights thing was like the first of many things and it was a great response, it was a great crowd last night.

Last but not least, have you got any final words for the thousands of fans and readers for MyBindi.com?

(D) I’ve got a few things. Basically stick together, roll together, build a scene, everyone move forward together….

(R)…keep banging down the doors basically.

(M) Email us and get a hold of us if we can help out, whether it’s Canada, America or anywhere else, get a hold of us.

(D) Stick together, roll together and take it into the charts. If you’ve got an artist coming out and there’s 600,000 Asians here, all we want is 40,000 Asians to say, “Yeah! On the day or week of release, I’m going out there to buy it!” With that you will see the impact. It only takes few dollars or whatever…

(M)…..it’s happening in the UK and it can happen here now as well.

(D) All it is, we’re hear to guide you. We want Toronto to go the right direction, we want Canada to go the right direction and take it in the charts. It’s happening in the UK and it should be happening everywhere else. The London scene is a fashionable place, roll with the fashion Canada! One love!

****
The Panjabi Hit Squad can be heard 24/7 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/morestyles/ and by clicking on “Desi Beats”. You can hear them live on Thursdays from 5-7pm EST or 2-4pm PST or on repeat any other time during the week.

For additional information:
Website: www.panjabihitsquad.com
Email: info@panjabihitsquad.com