Rishi Rich Project: the Interview
By Ankur Sood

It’s not everyday that three of the biggest names in the Asian and mainstream music scene come to Toronto and are able to throw a free concert for their fans and would-be fans. When hearing about this I knew I had to jump at this opportunity and couldn’t take no for an answer. The music and scene is after all, passion! After weeks of deliberation I was given the exclusive up close and personal interviews with Rishi Rich, Jay Sean and Juggy D from the Rishi Rich Project.

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

Legend:
Rishi Rich = Green
Jay Sean = Blue
Juggy D = Red
Ankur the Interviewer = Black

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This is an exclusive with the Rishi Rich Project, I’m here with Rishi Rich, Jay Sean and Juggy D and manager Rob of course chillin at the Marriott. First thing I wanted to say was welcome to Toronto as it’s been a long time coming. What exactly brings you to Toronto?

Well um, we’ve been called over to perform at this event which is taking place at this massive South Asian event called Masala, Mehndi & Masti. We’re performing tonight, so for us it’s the first time that we’re here and we don’t know what to expect, but we hear that there are a lot of people liking what we’ve been doing recently so it should be a great night!

I know that that this event that’s happening at the Harbourfront, how did you guys hook up with Satya Arts who are putting on this Masala Mehndi & Masti event, how did it all come about?

Well, they contacted us through our management Rob and through 2point9.com.

Basically we’ve had calls from loads of different continents and different countries, as they’ve heard possibly just one major song of ours which all three of us were on which was “Dance With You” and that was out last year in the UK. It wasn’t actually serviced to any other countries but because of the fact it was on a Bollywood soundtrack, “Boom”, it went over to India. So India got a hold of it and they called us down to the MTV India awards and um Canada apparently, especially the South Asian community in Canada; and you know what it’s like, everyone has relatives around the world and I’ve got relatives in Canada you know what I mean. So it only takes one person to go back and say, “Hey there’s these guys in England who are doing this and blah blah blah” and so through the Internet community really, people kind of got a hold of our music and so our management got called down and they said look we’re doing a big festival and have been doing it the past four years and it’s gonna be massive so we would like you to come down. So we were like yeah man, sounds good. So that’s why we’re here man!

So Rishi, you are the man if you’d like to call it. You’ve hooked up with Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, and Mis-teeq just to name a few. Who’s been the most interesting to work with?

Truthfully, I’d say it’s these guys because it’s new and it’s fresh. It’s very close to my heart in a way because you know its like two young British Asians coming forward; there’s never been any artist like this in the UK. For me to be working with guys like this has been great. When I hooked up with Jay Sean and Juggy D it was for me, very exciting to hook up with two fresh unknown artists that weren’t known last year. Being in the studio allows for creative freedom when you’re working with artists. Don’t get me wrong working with Britney and Craig was great too. It was a great honour for me and I was so nervous but with these guys it wasn’t like, “You’ve only got four hours” like we did with Craig or Britney. I’m in the studio with Jay for a week, we just gonna be writing songs and that’s more exciting than anything. As a producer you can be really innovative, you can be creative and so definitely working with these guys and new artists that we’re signing up, for me it’s very exciting as a producer.

Well you mentioned new artists; can we expect you working with anyone else in the future? Any new, 'unheard-of' talent?

Definitely, I like to be known to work with new artists and bringing forward new artists. Once Jay’s album is finished, Juggy’s album is ready to drop in a couple of weeks and after that and myself and the 2point9 crew we’re always looking for new artists. I’m working on my new album and not only featuring Jay, Juggy and other artists but also new artists as well. It’s a great platform to launch, like when I was breaking into the music scene there was no one there to kind of help me, I had to do things by myself. Now if I can help someone, you know and it’s actually really helpful for me to be learning. When you got new artists in they’re kind of naïve and they want to be creative, so I think for us definitely 2point9 is known for working with new artists and that’s what we’re all about.

Is there anyone you want to work with or you haven’t yet?

I get asked that question and I always say Adnan Sami. Just recently I have met him when I went to Bombay and hopefully he’ll be featuring on my album. If that happens, that will definitely be the artist I’d love to work with. I’ve always been following his career since he came out and I think he’s a genius and if I do get to work with him that would definitely be a dream come true.

So there’s a possibility of Rishi and Adnan hooking up?

Definitely yeah! I’ve spent a couple of hours with him at his house and played him all of our material, got his opinion on what we’re doing and he loved what we’re doing and I love what he’s done. So if that happens, that’d be a great thing!

I’ve been following your stuff for years from your days on 2Kool to VR1, back in the day with your album “Simply Rich”. You said you plan on dropping another album sometime soon, when do you think and would we ever hear it on the North American side?

Definitely, I’ve been trying working on my album since last year but every time I work on a track these guys work on a track and put it on their album (laughs). Now that these guys’ albums are finished I’m focusing on the next and however long it takes to be working on my album and will hopefully reach North America and other parts of the world hopefully early next year if I can get myself into the mode.

Well you’ve got an amazing ear for talent such as these two next to you right here. What about getting talent from Toronto or Canada? We represent just as well as you lot in the UK.

Well definitely, I know there’s an artist I’ll be working with called Roach Killa from Canada. I just wish I were out here a bit longer so I could be working. I would love to book a studio out here and working with some new artists but I’m sure we’ll be coming again. It’s all about working with artists around the world and coming together you know, it doesn’t matter if you’re from Canada, America, or India, or UK; when it’s music, everyone’s one. We want to get together and work with different artists; I’d love to work with people from here. Yesterday we met an artist called Chaaya who I think is really great, got a great voice and stuff and could be possible hookups there. It’s just meeting the right people and spending some time out here and getting into the studios.

This is open to the rest of you guys as well, but how did you guys hook up?

Well I met Rishi in 2002. I met him when he was doing his album “Simply Rich” and I went down to audition really to be on the album. He was looking for a vocalist to complete the album, there was one more track to complete it and gave me the opportunity to feature on the album with a track that I co-wrote a guy called Daljit which was “Nahin Jeena”. There was a video for that and everything and the track went number one in the Punjabi and Asian charts for like six weeks. That was where I first met him and we started working on other projects and then Jay kind of came on the scene at the time, which then we did “Dance With You”

Yeah, it was through Rishi really. I was looking for a producer and Juggy was looking for a producer who just bumped into him. Ever since then we just thought we were gonna do one song together but because the brand The Rishi Rich Project became quite well established in the UK, we’ve stuck together and have been in and out of each other’s business all the time. I’ve written on Juggy’s album, Juggy’s done stuff on my album and we’ve done stuff on Rishi’s album.

I think the great thing is that people perceive us as the Rishi Rich Project but it’s like we’ve got three kind of careers here do you know what I mean? And three projects which is the Jay Sean album, the Juggy D album, and the Rishi Rich album and come together as the Rishi Rich Project. It’s really an interesting situation; you’ve got three Asian guys who are working together but, can branch off and can do their own stuff as well. It’s a whole kind of unit that we’ve got which is great you know, we help each other and write and produce on each other’s albums, which never used to happen. You never really had Apache Indian and Bally Sagoo collaborating and other artists doing the same. I think that’s something for us that we definitely want to do and help each other out and bring British Asian music forward. Like you said like working with people from Canada, we definitely want to bring music forward.

Well let’s move on to Jay Sean. The first thing I want to ask you and I’m sure you get asked this a lot, which is who the hell is Kamaljit?

Oh my gosh! (laughs). I actually get asked that a lot in England but from not here, you’ve obviously done your research; it’s all good! Kamaljit’s my real name. Obviously I’ve come out with the stage name Jay Sean. Since then I’ve done a song called “Me Against Myself” in which I’ve kind of answered that and I kind of played on it. That song is basically where I battled myself and it was kind of like um, a piece of work for me you know, I wanted to be different in what I wrote. That’s where kind I said in it, “You’re a fake cause Jay Sean ain’t even your name”. Since then I said that, I came out with “Who The Hell Is Kamaljit?” It’s a hip-hop track and it was nice to do some hip-hop material because a lot of people assumed I was only an R&B singer when I came out with “Dance With You”. Since then I really wanted people to know what my history was and I grew up from hip-hop you know, I was actually rapping before I was singing in a way, professionally. So that’s what I did and I like writing about songs like that where it’s about topics other than love and relationships and blah blah blah, so that’s it man.

Well you’ve got an amazing voice and can drop down some mean lyrics from what I’ve heard, but why the crossover? Why the crossover from rapping to R&B and singing?

Um, well with me I always believe hiphop and R&B go hand in hand and there’s a lot of people with an old school mentality where they’d be like, “you know if you’re into hiphop you can’t do anything else you know, hiphop, hiphop, hiphop!” I thought yeah it’s all good yeah and I understand the passion from which people see and regard hiphop, but for me I was just so frustrated with the way UK hiphop was heading and it seemed like no matter how much talent someone had in the UK, unless it was American hiphop just wouldn’t take off in the UK. So I just thought I’d spread my wings a little bit and do something different which is when I started with R&B. I haven’t let go of hiphop and I want people to see that you can do both and don’t have to be just and R&B singer or a hiphop artist you know and it’s possible to do both. Just like Lauryn Hill does or like Missy Elliot does.

Well, your singles “Dance With You” on the collaboration and now you’ve got “Eyes On You” which by the way got play on Toronto mainstream a few weeks back and is getting a lot of positive attention and as well as positive attention from the ladies as well. When can we expect all this hotness put together on a debut album?

Well the debut album is out in the UK on October 4th and as far I know it’s dropping internationally its dropping a month or so after that or very early next year as far as international is concerned. But you guys are definitely going to have it in your shops man, because it’s in my contract (laughs).

Juggy, I haven’t forgotten about you and I know you’ve been staring at my t-shirt the whole time, I know you want one! I’ll hook you up no worries! I know you’re from Southall, my home away from home, what’s it like growing up in the upcoming bhangra capital after Birmingham?

It’s been brilliant man! Southall is obviously known as like little India and stuff. For bhangra music, Birmingham was really well known and a lot of the big Asian bands came from Birmingham. So for me, it’s really nice for the fact that we’re all from London and from neighbouring towns around Southall. We’re kind of like playing a big part and giving back to Southall and to London and saying that this is our thing from London. Kind of like competition against Birmingham because everyone was like oh all the bands are from Birmingham and all the bhangra scene is in Birmingham, there’s nothing really happening in London but now there is now and it’s quite nice to represent.

Well apparently you’ve got a debut album coming out shortly, what can we expect? Is this going to be like stuff like you did on the Bollywood smash, “Hum Tum”? Or is this all-new Juggy D material?

No, well up until now before I did my album I’ve done a lot of features on remixes and stuff for example “Dance With You”, featuring on Craig David’s remixes, Mary J, Missy Elliot and stuff like that. All of that was pop bhangra, easy to listen to, easy melodies and easy to sing along to. The album has been given me the opportunity to talk about more deeper issues and show a bit of a different side to show what I’m about as an artist you know. There are tracks on the album, which kind of cater to everyone so we’ve kind of put the album out where the young generation can listen to it. People around my age and older can listen to it and even a couple of tracks for the like the older generation like my parents and stuff you know. We kind of try to aim at everyone in the market.

Ok it seems that we’re running out of time so I’ll try to run off a few more questions for you. Fill in this blank for me, “If I wasn’t a singer, artists or producer what would I be?”

A porn st--.. (laughs)! A doctor, which is what I was doing before. Yeah, medicine.

Juggy?

Probably business. Probably running my own business yeah.

Rishi?

I don’t know.

You don’t know? Off the top of your head what did you always want to do as a kid?

Me, I’ve always wanted to do music, I’ve always done music and done nothing else really. I mean I’ve always been into electronics and computers but from like the age of 4 I was learning music. I can’t do anything else so I’ve go to make this s**t work (laughs).

Well finally, can we expect you lot back in Toronto and hopefully get together and party it up?

Definitely man, definitely! Hopefully we’ll be out a bit longer so we could get to see Toronto and perform at a few of the different venues.

And last but not least, anything you want to say to the Canadian and North American fans and to the reader’s for Mybindi.com?

Just wanted to say thank you so much for your support already and hopefully we come down here again and see where we take it on the international level.

Yeah hopefully just watch out for all the stuff we’re putting out and for all the support and it’s a pleasure to be here and we’ll be back soon.

Yeah man, thanks! We’re here because of guys and you brought us down. So hopefully we’ll come down and again and keep brining you good music, so thanks for all the support! Peace!

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Support our artists and get your copies of Juggy D’s “The Album” out now and watch out for Jay Sean’s album out during the late fall season.

Check out www.2point9.com for more information.