Punjabi Boy points us to samples of chutney music from the Caribbean. Listen here.
It’s my first time listening in on this genre, and it’s wild. Sometimes it sets well-known Hindi songs (‘Jai Jai Shiv Shankar’) rendered in English to hyperkinetic calypso beats. Other times it’s creole music with snippets of Hindi lyrics and desi instruments. ‘Rum Shop’ by Dil-e-Nadan reminds me of Karmacy’s harmonium-infused rap track, ‘Euphoria.’ Other tracks remind me of the Bollywood hits redone as Broadway / West End songs in Bombay Dreams and Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral.
Rajendra Saywack dissertates:
Chutney was the name given to the pop/folk music of the East Indians that lived in the Caribbean region… In the summer of 1996, the dance hit, “Calcutta Woman” [by Sharlene Boodram] made its debut on the North American & European pop charts… its Wine Yuh Waist lyrics were constantly being sampled by American [DJs]…… Sundar Popo lept to fame with the song “Nana & Nani.” The song, almost comical in nature described the affairs of a grandfather and grandmother, perhaps his own… Sundar’s lyrics of “Nana drinkin white rum and Nani drinkin wine,” were heard just about everywhere…
The traditional West Indian Calypso was being merged into a new form of music called Soca… Chutney music was caught up in this change, which would later evolve it into a new style called Indian Soca… it was almost solidly dominated by Afro West Indians during its early days. Songs such as Baron’s “Raja Rani”, Mighty Trini’s “Curry Tabanca,” Sugar Aloe’s “Roti & Dhalpourie” & Sparrow’s “Marajin” dominated the Indian Soca scene…
Dhalpourie? Francophilic spelling throws me. Saywack continues:
Songs such as Crazy’s “Nani Wine,” Scrunter’s “Nanny” and Becket’s “Nanny Revival,” had become popular hits, not because of their lyrics about East Indian grandmothers, but rather because the pronunciation of the word “nanee” sounds too much like one of the Trinidad street names for vagina…The fact that most East Indians [in the Caribbean] don’t understand Hindi also makes their love of this music all the more interesting… “I cyan understan’ dis t’ing, but I mus’ hear it.”
Great. Now we’ve got two must-hear genres named after condiments.
