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MS Scandalous drops her debut album
after nearly a year in the making & well worth the wait!!
Ft The vocals talents of Jaspinder Narula & the newly signed
Alyssai, alongside her own mighty vocals, Ms Scandalous drops
her debut album, which can easily be marked as one of the best
albums of 2005 so far!
“Sajana”is one for the wedding circuit, while Aaja
Soniya & “Spread Love” are already making waves
in club-land! While “Gal Sun” is another tune which
will be blaring out all the car stereo’s thru out the summer
!
Also the fact that the video for Aaja
Soniya / Spread Love peaked @ # 4 on MTV base & is also on
rotation on various music channels inc Channel U, MTV Base, Star,
B4U, Zee & Sony, to name just a few!
Overall a quality album with not a single
filler on it!
It’s hard to believe that Ms Scandalous
has only featured on one track to date.
But when you consider that appearance
was on Panjabi Hit Squad’s ‘Hai Hai’ - the second
biggest Bhangra record of the past two years after Panjabi MC’s
‘Beware Of The Boys’- then you realise that here was
a debut with a difference. The collaboration with Hit Squad ensured
she blew up big-style first in the Asian club-scene, and once
the version-excursion of ‘Hai Hai’ appeared on Def
Jam’s ‘Desi Beats Vol.1’ then Urban music heads
also got to know. Before long the ‘Hai Hai’ video was
the #1 most requested on Channel U and was put on heavy rotation
by MTV Base and MTV Dance.
2005 promises much more with the release
of the Ms Scandalous debut album ‘Ladies First’ which
will showcase her as a major new UK talent.
Now 20 years old, Scandalous has found
lyrical inspiration easy to come by in putting down verses for
the album, starting with the area she grew up in – Southall
in West London:
“They don’t call Southall
‘Little India’ for nothing. On a Saturday afternoon
on Southall Broadway you feel, with all the bazaars, street-traders,
mango sellers and sari shops that you’re in the middle of
India” Scandalous says.
“But then you might hear some Hip-Hop
out of someone’s ride and you realise this is West London,
this isn’t a Bollywood film, this is real. This place where
I grew up has made me who I am and gives me a lot of inspiration
for my lyrics. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere
else, this is me. I’m proud of my roots”.
Southall was the starting point for
Scandalous career - in her late teens she held down a Saturday
job working in a Asian Record Store and would get talking to
all the DJ’s who would come in to buy fresh tunes. A chance
meeting with Panjabi Hit Squad one afternoon in 2002 resulted
in an impromptu performance that saw her put pen to paper later
that week. It wasn’t a hard decision for her to make.
“Even before I signed to Hit Squad
I rated what they were doing, and for a local crew to sign to
Def Jam was a big thing… I already related to what they
are doing and how they go on. As a unit they are taking an Asian
sound into Hip-Hop in a credible way, and there aren’t many
Artists in our scene capable of doing that”
And there haven’t been many Asian
female artists capable of doing that.
“Since ‘Hai Hai’ came
out two years back there hasn’t been any Asian female rapper
to come through and really do main. Serious props to the likes
of Jay Sean and Raghav for getting as far as they have –
but it’s been more than 20 years since an Asian female artist
has had a record on Top Of The Pops. With the support I have
behind me I’m hoping to take it there.” |
