redifflal
11-20-2014, 03:02 PM
Why is it not surprising that the most authentic South Asian versions of this is not coming from the most Westernized classes from New Delhi or Mumbai or the high cultured of Lucknow or Kolkata, but from Pakistani Punjab (Bohemia) and Sylhet (Fokir Lal Miah) in Bangladesh? Two opposite ends of the subcontinent, two potential origins of South Asia's genetic and cultural mix (SW-Asian vs SE Asian), both areas are independently Muslim majority.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsBZuOPHpIc
The following is simply my learning from years of scanning music worldwide, music outside of the pop mainstream, etc. The recent exposure of the subcontinent's elite urban middle class (a buffer class between Victorian ethics/culture and the traditional rural culture) and its offshoot diaspora in the Anglo-West (USA/Canada/UK) has created a new dynamic. A previously Anglophile/Europhile South-Asian group is exposed to a culture/mentality that is undoubtedly disproportionately influenced/formed by its element with origins in Sub-Saharan Africa. The idea (of who the dominant cultural force in the West is) can be debated back and forth between Afram ethos, the old Scots-Irish Western cowboy culture, etc, but either way, all these forces whether African or European in origin do stand in contrast to the white-collar snobbish culture of Asian elite groups seeking closeness to the Victorian ethics.
There is a difference in the Bengali I speak and write from Kolkata, and the Bengali of Fokir Lal Miah. The same difference probably exists between the Punjabi-Hinglish of Delhi, and the Punjabi of Bohemia. I can almost put my finger on it but I can't. It is not the courseness of the language. Yo Yo Honey Singh of Delhi uses plenty of curse words (Bohemia doesn't_, but still has no poetic content. There is something more, like an alpha-masculinity involved in the lyrics, which you are either born with, or you are not. Bohemia and Lal Miah are not products of Victorian upper-caste Hindu backgrounds in South Asia, but more rustic Muslim-dominated backgrounds (Bohemia is from a Sikh family but raised around Muslims), and only they are capable of lending their respective languages to the rhythmic poetry that rap music consists of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsBZuOPHpIc
The following is simply my learning from years of scanning music worldwide, music outside of the pop mainstream, etc. The recent exposure of the subcontinent's elite urban middle class (a buffer class between Victorian ethics/culture and the traditional rural culture) and its offshoot diaspora in the Anglo-West (USA/Canada/UK) has created a new dynamic. A previously Anglophile/Europhile South-Asian group is exposed to a culture/mentality that is undoubtedly disproportionately influenced/formed by its element with origins in Sub-Saharan Africa. The idea (of who the dominant cultural force in the West is) can be debated back and forth between Afram ethos, the old Scots-Irish Western cowboy culture, etc, but either way, all these forces whether African or European in origin do stand in contrast to the white-collar snobbish culture of Asian elite groups seeking closeness to the Victorian ethics.
There is a difference in the Bengali I speak and write from Kolkata, and the Bengali of Fokir Lal Miah. The same difference probably exists between the Punjabi-Hinglish of Delhi, and the Punjabi of Bohemia. I can almost put my finger on it but I can't. It is not the courseness of the language. Yo Yo Honey Singh of Delhi uses plenty of curse words (Bohemia doesn't_, but still has no poetic content. There is something more, like an alpha-masculinity involved in the lyrics, which you are either born with, or you are not. Bohemia and Lal Miah are not products of Victorian upper-caste Hindu backgrounds in South Asia, but more rustic Muslim-dominated backgrounds (Bohemia is from a Sikh family but raised around Muslims), and only they are capable of lending their respective languages to the rhythmic poetry that rap music consists of.