Steven Kapur
(born 11 May 1967), known by the stage name Apache Indian, is a British singer-songwriter and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
DJ. He had a series of hits during the 1990s.
He is best known in the
UK for the song "
Boom Shack-A-Lak
"Boom Shack-A-Lak" is a 1993 song by British musician Apache Indian. It was included on his EP ''Nuff Vibes''. The EP gave him his biggest hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart in 1993. The song and EP were al ...
", which reached the top ten during August 1993.
Biography and career
Born into a family of
Indian origins, Kapur was raised in
Handsworth, Birmingham, UK, a racially mixed area with large
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
and
Asian communities, home of reggae bands such as
Steel Pulse
Steel Pulse are a roots reggae band from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, and were composed of David Hinds (lead vocals, guitar), Basil Gabbidon (lead guitar, vocals), and Ron ...
, and by the early 1980s he was working with local
sound systems
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
and grew dreadlocks.
By the mid-1980s he had trimmed his hair and began to make a name for himself as a
dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...
deejay
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
. Apache 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
Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music.
Wayne Sm ...
and
bhangra sounds 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
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
.
With the collaboration of his cousins
Simon & Diamond, he introduced the new hybrid sound of bhangra
raggamuffin
Ragamuffin or Raggamuffin may refer to:
Film
* ''The Ragamuffin'', a 1916 American silent film by William C. deMille
* ''Ragamuffin'', a 2014 film directed by David Schultz about Rich Mullins
Music
* Raggamuffin music, or ragga, a reggae and dan ...
– also known as
bhangramuffin
Bhangra () is a type of non-traditional music of Punjab originating in the Southall area of United Kingdom. It is a type of upbeat popular music associated with the Punjabi diaspora in Britain. The style has its origins in the folk music of Pu ...
– to the world with his first album ''
No Reservations'', recorded in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
and produced by
Simon & Diamond, Phil Chill,
Robert Livingston,
Bobby Digital and
Sly Dunbar
Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie.
Biography
Dunbar began playing at 15 in a band called ...
in 1993.
It was followed by ''
Make Way for the Indian
''Make Way for the Indian'' is an album by the English musician Apache Indian, released in 1995.
The title track peaked at No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart. " Boomshackalak" was a hit in the United States.
Production
The album was produced in part ...
'' (produced by
Sly & Robbie
Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separat ...
, The Press,
Mafia & Fluxy
Mafia & Fluxy are a British reggae rhythm section and production team, consisting of the brothers Leroy (bass) and David Heywood (drums), whose careers began with London reggae band The Instigators in 1977. They backed Jamaican artists on UK to ...
, Pandit Dineysh and Chris Lane), which featured rapper
Tim Dog
Timothy Blair (January 3, 1967 – February 14, 2013),Margaret Eby"Rapper Tim Dog slapped with arrest warrant on suspicion of faking own death,"''New York Daily News'', May 22, 2013. better known by his stage name Tim Dog, was an American rapper ...
and spawned the hit "
Boom Shack-A-Lak
"Boom Shack-A-Lak" is a 1993 song by British musician Apache Indian. It was included on his EP ''Nuff Vibes''. The EP gave him his biggest hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart in 1993. The song and EP were al ...
". By 1997 he parted ways with Island and his next album,
"Real People" (produced by Harjinder Boparai) was signed and released by Warner Bros. Sweden and proved to be his most experimental album, and also featured more Indian elements than the other albums. By 2000, Apache had parted ways with Warner; he later signed to US management company Sunset Entertainment Group, which would lead later on in 2013 for Apache to collaborate on an album with hit producers Jim Beanz & Charlie Hype (both also signed to Sunset Entertainment Group).
Lyrically, Apache Indian usually sings in
Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English wo ...
. He has written songs about serious topics, such as "Arranged Marriage", "Aids Warning", and "Election Crisis". as well as lighter songs such as "Boom Shack-A-Lak", "Jump Up", "Girls Dem Fiyah", and "Celebrate".
Apache Indian has
recorded with Wreckx 'n' Effect, the United States
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
topper
Sean Paul
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques OD (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican rapper and singer who is regarded as one of dancehall's most prolific artists.
Paul's singles "Get Busy" and "Temperature" topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the ...
,
Maxi Priest
Max Alfred "Maxi" Elliott (born 10 June 1961), known by his stage name Maxi Priest, is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion. He was one ...
,
General Levy
Paul Scott Levy (born 28 April 1971), also known as General Levy, is an English ragga deejay, regularly employed on studio tracks by drum and bass DJs. He is best known for the track "Incredible" which he recorded with M-Beat. A remixed versio ...
, Brian and Tony Gold,
Frankie Paul
Paul Blake (19 October 1965 – 18 May 2017), better known as Frankie Paul, was a Jamaican dancehall reggae artist. Born blind, he has been dubbed by some 'The Jamaican Stevie Wonder'.
Biography
Born in Jamaica in 1965, Blake was born blind bu ...
,
Shaggy
Shaggy may refer to:
People
*Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer
* Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse
* Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspor ...
,
Yami Bolo
Rolando Ephraim McLean (born 1 October 1970), better known as Yami Bolo, is a Jamaican reggae singer.
Biography
Yami Bolo grew up in postal zone 13 of Kingston. His first professional job and exposure was with Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion C ...
,
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...
,
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...
, Sameera Singh,
Asha Bhosle
Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur
and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the ...
and
Pras
Prakazrel Samuel Michel (; born October 19, 1972) is a Haitian-American rapper, producer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the hip hop group Fugees, alongside Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill. After the Fugees, he earned two ...
of the
Fugees
Fugees (; sometimes The Fugees) is an American hip hop group formed in the early 1990s. Deriving its name from a shortening of the word "refugees", the group consists of Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill. The group rose to fame with i ...
,
Malkit Singh
Malkit Singh, MBE ( pa, ਮਲਕੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ) (Malkit Singh Boparai; born c. 1963) is an England-based Punjabi bhangra singer. Born in Hussainpur and raised in Nakodar, he moved to Birmingham in 1984. Singh was the first Punjabi singer ...
, and with
Jazzy B
Jaswinder Singh Bains (born 1 April 1975), better known by his stage name Jazzy B is an Indo-Canadian Punjabi singer and songwriter.
Early life and career
Jazzy B was born in Nawanshahr, Punjab, India. When he was five years old, his family m ...
on the album ''Dil Luteya'', StereoNation, Sasi the Don, Bally Sagoo, Raghav, and Jim Beanz.
"Boom Shack-A-Lak" is featured in several Hollywood movies, including ''
Dumb and Dumber
''Dumb and Dumber'' is a 1994 American buddy comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly, who cowrote the screenplay with Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin. It is the first installment in the ''Dumb and Dumber'' franchise. Starring Jim Carrey and ...
'' and ''
Dumb and Dumber To''. It is also featured on the soundtrack for ''
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'', along with artists such as
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...
,
The B-52's
The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, p ...
,
2 Unlimited and
New Radicals and the movie ''Threesome''.
In 2018, he co-hosted the
Brit Asia TV Music Awards
The Brit Asia TV Music Awards, also known as Brit Asia TV World Music Awards or the abbreviation BAMA, is an awards show that is held annually in the United Kingdom since 2010 (except in 2016), usually in October. The awards show is produced by ...
with
Preeya Kalidas
Preeya Kalidas (born 21 June 1980) is a British singer and actress. She played Amira Masood in the soap opera ''EastEnders'', from 2009 to 2012. She released the single "Shimmy" in July 2010, taken from her proposed debut album ''(I'm Over It) ...
.
His single "Om Namaha Shivaya" is on the
Putumayo World Music compilation album, ''World Reggae'' which is a collection of reggae tracks performed by artists from around the world.
Apache Indian was nominated for a
Ivor Novello award for best contemporary song for "Arranged Marriage", and nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for his debut album ''No Reservations'' in 1993. Apache Indian was also nominated for the
Central Britain Media and Arts Asian Jewel Award in 2004. Apache was presented an award at the Asian Media Awards in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
UK for his talk show ''Real Talk'' (featured on
Brit Asia TV) in 2013 and in 2014 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award also at the Asian Media Awards. In late 2014, Apache received a lifetime achievement award from Brit Asia TV.
[
Apache Indian did a limited release of his album "It Is What It Is" (IiWiI) in the fall of 2013 on Universal India. The album's first single "Celebrate" was a collaboration with Canadian pop singer ]Raghav
Raghav Mathur (born April 2, 1981), known professionally as Raghav, is a Canadian singer. He has released three studio albums: the debut '' Storyteller'' in 2004, ''Identity'' in 2009, and '' The Phoenix'' in 2012. His most known commercial succe ...
and producer Jim Beanz
James David Washington (born August 26, 1980), known professionally as Jim BEANZ, is an American vocal producer, songwriter, actor, singer and record producer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is signed to Timbaland Productions and Sunset Enterta ...
. The album was written and recorded in Philadelphia at the Sunset Entertainment Group headquarters, featuring production from Jim Beanz, Charlie Hype, TroyBoi and J.Nick.
He was awarded the British Empire Medal
The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...
(BEM) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to music and young people. and performed at the closing ceremony for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in his hometown of Birmingham.
Apache Indian Music Academy
In November 2013, Apache Indian opened the Apache Indian Music Academy at South and City College, in his hometown of Handsworth.
Awards
*Best Newcomer British Reggae Industry Awards 1990
* UK Asian Music Awards
The UK Asian Music Awards, also known by the abbreviation UK AMA, was an awards show that was held annually in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2012. The awards show has been produced and broadcast by B4U Music since 2008. Awards winners were deci ...
– Best International Success 2003
* UK Asian Music Awards
The UK Asian Music Awards, also known by the abbreviation UK AMA, was an awards show that was held annually in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2012. The awards show has been produced and broadcast by B4U Music since 2008. Awards winners were deci ...
– Outstanding Achievement 2005
* UK Asian Music Awards
The UK Asian Music Awards, also known by the abbreviation UK AMA, was an awards show that was held annually in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2012. The awards show has been produced and broadcast by B4U Music since 2008. Awards winners were deci ...
– Lifetime Achievement Award 2011
* Brit Asia TV Music Awards
The Brit Asia TV Music Awards, also known as Brit Asia TV World Music Awards or the abbreviation BAMA, is an awards show that is held annually in the United Kingdom since 2010 (except in 2016), usually in October. The awards show is produced by ...
- Lifetime Achievement Award 2014
Discography
Apache Indian has sold over 11 million albums worldwide.
Albums
Singles and EPs
References
External links
*
*
Apache Indian
interview at Solid Pulse
Apache Indian
chart hits at UK Official Charts
Apache Indian
interview at Vh1 India, 2013
Apache Indian entry
at ''Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apache Indian
1967 births
Living people
Island Records artists
English male singers
English songwriters
British rappers of Indian descent
English reggae musicians
English people of Indian descent
English people of Punjabi descent
Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands
Recipients of the British Empire Medal
British male songwriters