STYLEBHAI also known and credited as INDEE/INDIE/INDI Back in da mid’ 90’s Style Bhai blew up as a rapper in India and on the hot new Indi-Pop scene with his self-titled debut album and song “Style Bhai,” after getting inspired by de Don Raja Apache Indian who he met at Mumbai’s ambassador hotel. The legend Apache Indian liked Stylebhai’s demo lyrics and rapping style and inspired him to keep working and advised him to get better production. Style Bhai recorded his three song demo with music arranged and produced by musician Suresh Mendoza at his awesome studio Glam Slam. Stylebhai shopped his demo songs around at labels but there were no takers because they had either signed rappers or had a full roster. Style Bhai had a meeting with Magnasound earlier but they already had two rappers and just as he was about to leave to NY after two months of shopping around his demo he decided to call Magnasound once more. Head of A&R Madhav Das spoke with him and called him in again for another meeting and a re-listen because he was intrigued. Madhav spoke with the label head Shashi Gopal and the deal was sealed the next day! Magnasound promoted Stylebhai as a ‘whole new attitude to Indian rap’ and put him up on billboards in all the major Indian metros and got the song and video to play on radio and Channel V, MTV Asia, Zee Tv and B4U and a host of other channels.
“Stylebhai,” the debut song featured singer Sagarika (singer Shaan’s sister) on the chorus with music produced/arranged by uber cool new duo Salim-Sulaiman. The album went gold with strong sales. Singer Shaan and his sister Sagarika’s debut were on Stylebhai’s first album! The great Shankar Mahadevan also featured heavily on Style Bhai’s debut album singing melody filled sholkams, alaaps and chorus vocals long before he formed his amazing group Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy. (Full circle years later Shankar’s son Shivam featured on a children’s rap song composed by Style Bhai called, “Take it Easy Yaar,”) The ‘Style Bhai’ music video shot by Pritish Nandy’s newly formed company PNC was directed by his son film maker Kushan Nandy. Stylebhai’s song and video were an instant hit, making him the first real dope desi rapper on the scene and it was followed by another song off the album inna reggae stylee called, “Sweet Ragga.” His next release was the first remix album from India by music producer Raju Singh on a platinum plus 15 lakh copies sold (yup 1.5 million physical units) album, “Roop Inka Mastana,” sky rocketed by the Shaan & Style Bhai mega-hit single “Roop Tera Mastana Remix.” India’s beautiful, glamorous stunners Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai had just taken the paegent world by storm winning Miss Universe and Miss World so Style Bhai wrote and sang, ‘De woman with de black hair an’ skin so sweet, de color of de Earth de color of wheat, universally respected, worldwide accepted, beauty and de brains with a heart dat’s connected mi say Roop Tera Mastana, woman u drive mi crazy an’ I ur deewana.’ The song still gets rotation on air and radio and was also nominated for an MTV International Viewer’s Choice Award. After the Magnasound label went defunct, Style Bhai moved on to big, badass Bollywood. He was called over by label mate Anu Malik Ji! to record some rap for his film songs. Style Bhai had the great opportunity to have lunch with legendary actor Feroz Khan Ji (the Nawab!) and his son Fardeen who wasat the time entering Bollywood as an actor. Feroz Khan Ji had nothing but praise for Style Bhai and his work ethic being in Bombay from NY on his own and making moves. Years later Style Bhai sang the rap in a film song called ‘Ishq Hai Jhootha’ starring Fardeen Khan called, “Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina,” directed by the cool dude Suparn Verma.
In 2004 Stylebhai, using his new writer/composer name Indee, he starting dropping hot reggae/rap on A-list music director Pritam’s multi –platinum mega hit tracks. You have danced to these hit Pritam film songs thatStyle Bhai has co-composed (where mentioned) written, and sang English rap/reggae parts on: Credited as Style Bhai and/or Indee/Indi/Indie and he co-composed the following three mega hit tracks: “Love Aaj Kal,” – Music by Pritam, Style Bhai. Style Bhai penned and composed the chorus lyrics (only) for the super mega hit song, “Twist.” “Billu Barber,” – “Love Mera Hit Hit’ – Wrote and composed the opening two lines of the verse that repeats in the song. Style Bhai is not YET credited by Eros music as a writer/co-composer on the song “Kismat Konnection,” – ‘ Aai Paapi’ – Music by Pritam, Style Bhai composed and wrote the chorus lyrics for this Pritam hit. Credited as Style Bhai. Composed/lyrics/sang English/Hindi reggae/rap portions on the following tracks credited either as Stylebhai/Indee: “Ready,” – “Character Dheela” Still Not Credited by T Series on it. “De Dana Dhan,” – “Baa Mulaiza” with Mika Singh, Dominic Cerejo. “Singh is Kinng,” – ‘Talli Huaa’ with Neeraj Sridhar and Labh Janjua, Hardkaur (Jay Dabhi mix!) “Fight Club,” – ‘Yeh Khuda’ with K.K. This was the title track for the film. “Garam Masala,” – ‘Chori Chori’ remix with Labh Janjua. “Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina,” – ‘Ishq hai Jhoota,” with Sunidhi Chauhan, and Kunal Ganjawala, ‘Akhian na Maar,’ with Sunidhi and, ‘Yaaron,” with Sonu Nigam Bhai! and Shaan my awesome platinum bros.“Chocolate,” – ‘Halka Nasha’ remix with Sonu Nigam bhai, “Bheega December,” with the always fierce Sunidhi Chauhan, “Dhoom,” – ‘Shikdhum – the bedroom mix with cool dude Kunal Gangawala and Gayatri Iyer. “Iski Topi Uske Sarr” – ‘Punjabi Punjabi’ Style Bhai’s first rap in a Bollywood song. Music by Anu Malik Ji.Style Bhai also dropped some hot ragaa on a Punjabi pop track titled, “Akh Dha Nishana,” with singers/sisters Mallika/Jyoti and also featured in the video.
Other Films/Pop albums: Film “American Blend,” – ‘Spicin’ up your Life’ with Suzanne D’Mello, ‘Nach Nach with Sonu Nigam bhai, ‘Dhol Baje’ with Daler Mehndi paaji! Abu Malik! More recently he collabed with world famous singer Quino from Big Mountain Band on a song by Shibani Kashyap called, “24 Hours Irresponsible” and did a 3 city tour with them in India.
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