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When Timbaland dropped Missy Elliott’s Get Your Freak On it kickstarted a trend of Indian and Arabic samples in hip-hop. Meanwhile in London, a group of producers and artists were inspired by Timbaland… and were also using the exact same sample CD. They were blending Bollywood tunes with hip-hop and came to be known as the Desi Beats scene, with artists like Jay Sean, Panjabi Hit Squad, Rishi Rich and Panjabi MC breaking through.

When Timbaland touched down in the UK a few years later, his first port of call was Southall, sometimes known as ‘little India’ and the heart of the Desi Beats scene.

In this episode we hear from Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Romesh Ranganathan, Rav Patti from Panjabi Hit Squad and Jay Sean.

Archive used in this episode:
Jay Sean, NPO FunX
Timbaland, Timbaland Youtube
Missy Elliott, Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast

Presenter: Ashley Walters
Producer: Emily Dicks
Written by Emily Dicks
Technical production: Ant Danbury
Additional production: Dari Samuels, Tommy Dixon and Zayna Shaikh
Editor for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio: Andy Worrell
Commissioning producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan
Commissioner for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Music: Will Wilkin
A Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio production