Hard Kaur (born Taran Kaur Dhillon born 29 July 1979), also known as Hardkaur, is an Indian rapper and hip hop singer, as well as playback singer in Hindi films; she is the first female Indian rapper. She was kicked out of a college performance for shameful unprofessionalism.
She was born Taran Kaur Dhillon in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where her mother ran a small beauty parlour in the house. When she was young, her father was burnt alive during 1984 Anti-Sikh riots and her mother's beauty parlour was burnt a few days after her father's death. Her paternal grandparents asked her mother to leave their house and wanted to keep only Taran and her brother with them. Subsequently she, her brother and her mother moved to Ludhiana to her maternal grandparents house, where they stayed for the next couple of years.
In 1991 her mother remarried an NRI and her family moved to Birmingham, England, where her mother started working and studying to eventually open a beauty salon. Meanwhile she did her schooling. After developing interest in hip-hop she started her musical career as a rapper.
Apache Indian is the stage name of the reggae DJ Steven Kapur (born 11 May 1967).
Born into a family of Indian origins, Kapur was born and grew up in Handsworth, West Midlands, a racially mixed area with large Black and Asian communities, home of reggae bands such as Steel Pulse, and by the early 1980s he was working with local sound systems and wearing dreadlocks. By the mid-1980s he had trimmed his hair and began to make a name for himself as a dancehall deejay, and he recorded his first single in 1990, "Movie Over India", initially a white-label pressing, until it was picked up by the reggae distributor Jet Star. The single mixed ragga and bhangra and was hugely popular among audiences of both genres. Two further singles followed in a similar vein, "Chok There" and "Don Raja", bringing him to the attention of the major labels, and in 1992 he signed a recording contract with Island Records.
With the collaboration of his cousins Simon & Diamond (Diamond aka DJ Swami), he introduced the new hybrid sound of bhangra raggamuffin – also known as bhangramuffin – to the world with his first album No Reservations, recorded in Jamaica and produced by Simon & Diamond, Phil Chill, Robert Livingston, Bobby Digital and Sly Dunbar) in 1993. It was followed by Make Way for the Indian, (produced by Sly & Robbie, The Press, Mafia & Fluxy, Pandit Dineysh and Chris Lane), which featured rapper Tim Dog and spawned the hit, "Boom Shack-A-Lak". By 1997 he had been dropped by Island and his next album,Real People / Wild East (produced by Harjinder Boparai) proved to be his most experimental and best album, and also featured more Indian elements than the other albums. In his heyday, he also made an appearance in the Tamil film, Love Birds, dancing alongside Prabhu Deva.
Karsh Kale (pronounced Kursh Kah-lay) is an Indian American musician, producer and composer, and is considered one of the pioneering figures in defining the Asian Underground genre by mixing disparate genres of music such as Indian classical and folk with electronica, rock, pop and ambient music. In addition to production, remixing, and DJ work, Kale is known for his tabla drumming and film composition.
Born as Utkarsha Kale on November 1, 1974 to Indian immigrants in West Bromwich, England, Kale was raised in Brooklyn, New York after his parents relocated in 1977. Kale took an interest in drums and eventually became a tabla player. Kale's father introduced Kale to a broad range of music, which included traditional Indian music, classical, rock, and even early hip-hop. From this broad range of influences, Kale, who was self-taught, developed his own style, which eventually led to his "electric tabla".
In 2000, Bill Laswell founded Tabla Beat Science, inviting Kale, along with Zakir Hussain, Talvin Singh, Trilok Gurtu and Sultan Khan. Together, the group released Tala Matrix that year. The album is considered to be one of the influential Asian Fusion albums to date, and the group embarked on a tour, of which one of the shows was later released on DVD.
Benny Dayal (Malayalam: ബെന്നി ദയാല്) (born on May 13, 1984)[citation needed] is an Indian singer. He is a member of the band S5 launched by the channel SS Music. Originally from Kerala, he has worked as a playback singer with many noted composers to produce successful soundtracks.
Benny Dayal's parents hail from Kollam district, Kerala. Benny was born and bought up in Abu Dhabi and completed his schooling there and went on to complete his B.Com from Madras Christian College. After his graduation from MCC, he did a diploma in journalism from the same college. He was working as Admin Assistant with RR Donnelley. He quit his job in BPO and decided to dedicate his career to music. Most of the films he sung are for A. R. Rahman in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam. He has since worked with several music composers including Harris Jayaraj, Pravin Mani, Yuvan Shankar Raja, James Vasanthan, Joshua Sridhar and Devi Sri Prasad.
Niladri Kumar (born 1973) is an Indian classical and fusion musician. He performed on the sitar from a young age and toured and released albums as an adult. He created a unique instrument, a modified sitar, which he named zitar.
Born to sitar player Kartick Kumar, a disciple of Ravi Shankar. He is considered a child prodigy. He started learning sitar under his father at the age of four. Kumar gave his first public performance at the age of six at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.
Niladri Kumar began his career with music directors Laxmikant-Pyarelal in late 1980s. He was part of the Masters of the Percussion tour alongside Zakir Hussain. Kumar has also worked with Jonas Hellborg and V. Selvaganesh on their album Kali's Son and with John McLaughlin on album Floating Point. Kumar has also worked with various music directors in Hindi cinema, including A.R. Rahman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Pritam. Niladri was conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi's Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, awarded to young musicians, in March 2007. Niladri has also won MTV Immies award for the Best Classical/Fusion Instrumental for his album If.