In Tha House is now out in shops and iTunes!
The Third Specialist N Tru Skool album is also in progress
For all booking enquires you can email :
truskool@hotmail.co.uk
This is a message from Tru-Skool, please do not copy and paste the information below, this is an exclusive for this page and the Tru-Skool fan page only.
Yo people! I just wanna take this moment to talk about the old Panjabi Folk remixes – Panjabi Folk with grimy Hip Hop which were mainly done from the early to the mid 90’s.
I was a huge fan of this genre of music. The two main reasons for this were firstly; due to the fact that I was raised on Panjabi Folk music being played in the house, before I was even born and secondly; being part of a Hip Hop group playing the drums, rapping and also producing the beats- this was all before I ever considered being a Bhangra producer and also before the desi remix trend started.
Remembering the early 90’s, I recall being a HUGE fan of UK Bhangra, and also producing New York style Hip Hop. It was during this time that I decided to learn the Tabla, Dholki, Dhol, Harmonium and the Tumbi to get a desi influence as I could already play the drums and keyboards. It was inevitable that I was going to bring the REAL Hip Hop to the Bhangra which I enjoyed. However before I got my foot in there, artists such as ‘Death Jamm Productions’ and ‘Panjabi MC’ had just beat me to it with their Debut releases back in 1993.
Anyway, as Panjabi MC introduced the Folk remixes back in 1995 with his albums ‘100% Proof’ and ‘Magic Desi’, I didn’t think Bhangra could get any better as this was the type of music that satisfied my taste and people alike – the best of both worlds. By this time, I had really gotten into producing the UK style of Bhangra as I was a big fan of Sukshinder Shinda and all the other bands that were around at the time i.e. Safri Boys, Satrang, Jazzy B etc.
For me, this was the peak of UK Bhangra but after 1995, both Bhangra and U.S. Hip Hop had started to dilute its sound and presence. This caused me to cut down on purchasing Bhangra and Hip Hop albums.
Personally, I felt that there were two types of Bhangra – 1 – the type that the bands and producers like Shinda and Amarjit Sidhu were creating and 2 – the type that people like Bally Sagoo, PMC, Death Jamm, etc were creating. Since then, this has all died down. Myself and The Specialist have tried to recreate the old desi remix style, but with freshly recorded vocals. We never entered this industry to be big stars or to make commercial Bhangra. Our music is mainly produced to satisfy ourselves and the people who share our tastes and memories of that period. The other audiences have never been of any concern to us, neither have their opinions or views – We only targeted a certain audience. We appreciate and accept that Bhangra and its audience has changed but we want to make it very clear that out music is aimed towards people who are on a LEVEL!
FORTH COMING PROJECT!
Now, more to the point. I was recently approached by VIP Records to make a legal desi ‘remix’ album from the HMV/EMI (Sa Re Ga Ma) catalogue e.g. Kuldip Manak, Shinda, etc. Judging by what I have expressed above you’d have thought I would have jumped at the chance, but I just didn’t think there would be any point to it anymore. So instead, I agreed to ghost produce it along side my close friend Amo AKA ‘The Dhol Company’.
We were given a time scale of 2 weeks to produce a ten track album, of Panjabi folk tracks with new beats on em. But I became attached to the songs therefore started to put more effort into the project as a sign of respect to my favourite singers. The production was done on an extremely low budget however this was a passion lead project. I believe it is almost on par with the work done in the 90’s.
The end result is not quite to the standards of ‘Word is Born’ or ‘Repazent’ however it was not intended to be due to the time constraints and also because it was going to be ghost produced, however after CONSIDERABLE persuasion from VIP Records and close friends it will be released under Tru Skool n The Dhol Company.
I had many doubts about doing this remix album due to recognising that the majority believe that remixes are a thing of the past and is considered as something negative. To clarify two things - firstly the majority of this album has been reproduced with fresh production in terms of Hip Hop beats n elements. Secondly this album is aimed at the audience that wish to hear the old Panjabi folk with the 90’s Hip Hop vibe.
I am aware that this audience has diminished over the past decade but I am hoping this will cater to their taste, in the same way as ‘Word is Born’ and ‘Repazent’ has done.
I wanted to call the album ‘HMV IN THA HOUSE’ however due to legal reasons it is now called ‘IN THA HOUSE’. I shall give you a more detailed description of the album in the coming days.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS STATEMENT IS EXCLUSIVE TO THE TRU SKOOL FAN PAGE AND THE SPECIALIST N TRU SKOOL APPRECIATION PAGES ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT POST THIS ON ANY OTHER SITE.
THANK-YOU.
Suki AKA Tru-Skool.
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