Nivla

Picture the Taj Mahal with a New York City Skyline behind it spray painted on a brick wall in The Bronx. Musically, that represents Hip Hop Artist Nivla, A New York City bred emcee of Indian decent. Nivla embraces his roots and masterfully fuses Indian sounds with Hip Hop. We all remember Jay-Z and Punjabi MC's infamous Hip Hop - Indian collaboration a few years back. The road hasn't been an easy one, but already Nivla boasts credits from some of the giants like Interscope Records, MTV, XXL Magazine, FOX, CW, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, 2008 NFL Superbowl, 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2008 USA Basketball Team, Nike, Frito Lay, Doritos, Just Blaze, Sean Paul, 92.3FM (NYC).

Yet and still, Niv recalls performing at a Wycleff concert where he was taunted at with racist remarks from the crowd for being Indian. Evidence that racism still exists in our society and a possible sign that Hip Hop isn't ready for an Indian voice, despite the recent accomplishments of "Slum Dog Millionaire" (winner of eight Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, five Critics' Choice Awards, and four Golden Globes) and R&B artist Jay Sean, who's single "Down" recently made him the first Indian artist to reach number one on the Billboard charts in the US.

However, we've heard the Indian influence in so many Hip Hop songs; Timbaland's "Indian Flute", Erick Sermon and Redman's "React", Slum Village's "Disco", and Truth Hurts' hit song "Addictive" just to name a few. Still, is Hip Hop ready for an Indian Voice?

In this day and age Hip Hop is not only a lifestyle but a form of expression musically, physically, materialistically and verbally. Hip Hop is a relatively young culture and more recently we have had the pleasure of seeing the genre expand and evolve with smaller sub-genres and cross over with bigger and different ones as well. We are currently witnessing history as our culture matures and is helping birth other genres like Reggeaton in the Spanish culture and Bhangra in the Indian culture.

Hip Hop is ready for an Indian voice, heck... Hip Hop is ready for the millions of voices around the world. We have been yearning to show the world who we truly are and what beautiful forms of art we can contribute to history. Who better to start with than with India who have over 1.1 BILLION people in India... 4 Million Indians in UK, 2.5 Million Indians in The US and about another Million in Canada.

Check Out Nivla www.nivlamusic.com