How Rap Came to Bollywood
Pitbull, Snoop Dogg, Akon — the delightful, strange trend of American rappers in Hindi cinema.
The 2008 movie Singh is Kinng — spelled with an extra “n” due to the advice of a numerologist — is your typical masala flick, with exotic locations, singing in fields of flowers, and Akshay Kumar. But one thing sticks out about this otherwise ordinary movie: its promotional video features Snoop Dogg, dressed in traditional Sikh attire. Turban, sherwani, the whole shebang.
“Akshay and Snoop D-O-double G,” raps “the Doggfather,” in front of a green screen image of the Taj Mahal (he’s actually in Chicago). “Singh is king. This is the thing. You know what I mean? Follow me, listen to me for a second. Singh is the king. Check the record.”
Chacha Snoop, as some fondly call him, isn’t the only American rapper to have ended up in Bollywood: Nas, Ludacris, Akon, Pitbull, Will Smith, and will.i.am have all brushed shoulders with the industry. But because these collaborations are so rare, they feel even more miraculous and bizarre when they do happen.