Apache Indian – Famous Punjabi

A pioneer Indian reggae artist who mixed both world of the Jamaican rap and Punjabi Bhangra in his songs and presented it to the global audience is Steven Kapur also known as Apache Indian . Apache Indian was born on 11 may 1967 in Handsworth , Birmingham , UK . There have been many Bhangra artists and artists of Indian origin from Birmingham as there is a huge south Asian as well as black community there . But Apache Indian was one of the first artists to hit the top of UK charts and make a major impact on the trends with his hits in the 90’s . Early in the days Birmingham had the reputation of producing reggae artist and bands such as , ‘Steel Pulse’ . By the early 1980’s Apache Indian was working with local sound systems and rocking dreadlocks . In 1990 he went on to release his first single , ‘Movie Over India’ , which at first was a white label release but was later picked up by England reggae distributors , ‘Jet Star’ . The single consisted of him mixing elements from reggae and Bhangra . The track was appreciated by audiences of both genres . In the same year Apache Indian won the ‘Best Newcomer British Reggae Industry’ Award . Two years later ‘Fe Real’ went on to hit the 33rd spot on UK charts . Then in 1993 he released many singles out of which ‘Chok There’ , ‘Don Raja’ , ‘Arranged Marriage’ , ‘Boom Shack-a-Lack’ and ‘Nuff Vibes’ were cult hits and brought him to the attention of major labels . Also the same year he came up with his first album ‘No Reservations’ in collaboration with his cousins Simon&Diamond which was recorded in Jamaica . Apache continued his career with more single releases in 1994 . ‘Music Relief’ and ‘Wrecxx Shop’ went on to consolidate the 12th and 26th position on UK charts respectively . 1995 saw Apache Indian come up with two singles , ‘Make Way for the Indian’ in which he collaborated with Tim Dog and ‘Regamuffin Girl’ which featured Frankie Paul . In 1997 Apache Indian released another album under Island Records titled , ‘Real People / Wild East’ . The album was his most experimental album and had more Indian elements than the other albums . He went on to release many more singles over the years such as , ‘Om Numah Shivaya’ (2005) , ‘The Israelites’ (2005) , ‘Ruff n Ready’ (2008) and many more . Apache Indian usually sings in Jamaican patois, and is known for his sharp social criticism . In his career he has collaborated with many international artists such as , ‘Blackstreet’ , ‘Boyz II Men’ , ‘UB40’ , ‘Sean Paul’ , ‘General Levy’ , ‘Shaggy’ , ‘A. R. Rahman’ and many others . Reggae singer ‘Sean Paul’ , who has topped the Billboard charts with many of his singles , toured the U.S. with Apache Indian . Apache Indian’s single , ‘Boomshackalack’ was featured in five different Hollywood movies, including ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and also was the soundtrack for ‘Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed’ . In terms of awards , Apache Indian has won three UK Asian Music Awards . The first one for being the ‘Best International Success’ (2003) , followed by ‘Outstanding Achievement’ (2005) and the last being for a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ (2011) . Apache Indian is not fluent but can speak a few words of Punjabi . Therefore he has collaborated with several Bhangra artists . Some of these collaborations were with artists such as Preet Harpal(2006,’Teriyan Adawaan’) , Aman Hayer(2007,’Ground Shaker2′) , Punjabi by Nature(2009,’Sohni Lagdi’) , Jazzy B(2005,’Romeo’) , Miss Pooja(2012,’Gabroo’) and Malkit Singh (2003,Midas Touch 2) .