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Last month I put up a video for the song Brooklyn Shanti Theme from Brooklyn emcee the1shanti, who had been working with a kid I went to college with, Canyon Cody. The video generated a handful of positive responses via email, which in these days of the smartphone enabled, short attention span readership is something of an accomplishment. In any event, Shanti recently passed along word that he released the full album that the video was attached to, brooklyn circa 2012. It follows up on Shanti's previous self-titled album that was released as part of Rawkus' "Rawkus 50" project a few years ago.
Nineteen tracks deep, the album has one or two songs that suffer from beats that may be a little too forward-thinking (What We Hold On To, for example, sounds like a Drake beat that's been routed through an 8-bit NES emulator), but overall it offers up a pretty satisfying listening experience. One of the tracks includes a guest appearance from Mandeep Sethi, who we recently profiled for his collaboration with Deacon LF, and Shanti had this to say regarding their collaboration:
"I know Mandeep through Zulu Nation - I'm the Indian Bambaataa [He's not exaggerating.]. I was signed to Sony and Universal in Asia with a group called the Dum Dum Project, and we took hip-hop culture to India and other parts of South east Asia many years ago (2001-2006), Mandeep is the next generation."
Here's his collaboration with Mandeep:
the1shanti featuring Mandeep Sethi - So Cruel (right-click to d/l)
Lyrically Shanti seems to be at his best when riffing on his relationships with women, a theme that runs throughout brooklyn circa 2012. Here's perhaps the best example of it from the album:
the1shanti - MXT MSGS (right-click to d/l)
Shanti tells me that he's been collaborating with Canyon Cody on and off for the past year and a half, but has also been running his own label dedicated to releasing hip hop and other genres of music over in India. Cody and Shanti are about to release another project geared specifically toward India, and hopefully we'll have details on that in the near future.
In the meantime, you can download Shanti's brooklyn circa 2012 album, which includes the mp3 for Brookyln Shanti Theme, for free over on his bandcamp page. It's definitely worth checking out.
6/30/2011 6:30:00 PM posted by Fresh