WTF? How does it explain that? Were you dropped on your head as a baby?

voke titters and guffaws with your ignorance.

well — illuminati is right that new rap elements in desi bollysongs are straight lifts off US hits (some of which are insult to good rap and hip-hop themselves) rather than any modern interpretations of indigenous traditions. and even bolly was very US popular music inspired. for instance: helen, in a documentary, claims she regularly went to the US, bought records, watched shows in vegas and new york, and basically modeled her outfits and dancing on what she was in vogue here. shammi’s exuberant elvis-styled moves and current bollywood’s horrendous english rap lyrics ( with not a shade of the wit you find in american rap and hiphop) are much different in valence from ashok kumar rapping railgaadi (which you might say is in the indigenous tradition) or contemporary indian bands who fuse indigenous folk or classical music with their western inspirations (eg advaita and swarathma)

jyotsana, your frothing is, as usual, so unbecoming.

Jyotsana and Kush – such apologists for Shammi. I am sure Shammi is embarrassed by this now. Regarding Elvis taking African-American music, what’s new about it? Been happening all through – Elvis to Vanilla Ice to New Kids on The Block (they took the New Edition stuff unabashedly) to Eminem to Sean Paul to Amy Winehouse and Duffy. There’s so much rap in Indian pop music now that its not even funny (or too funny, depending on your POV).

Illuminati, there’s only so much (not much) you can glean by looking up Shammikapoor.com/net etc., Next time read the whole page before you come here and evoke titters and guffaws with your ignorance. Rap too, scatting, taan, bol, nattuvangam, dialogue as song, has been around for a very long time in Indian song and dance. Indian popular musicians are simply reminded of their own vocalising tradition by modern rap.

Jyotsana and Kush – such apologists for Shammi. I am sure Shammi is embarrassed by this now. Regarding Elvis taking African-American music, what’s new about it? Been happening all through – Elvis to Vanilla Ice to New Kids on The Block (they took the New Edition stuff unabashedly) to Eminem to Sean Paul to Amy Winehouse and Duffy. There’s so much rap in Indian pop music now that its not even funny (or too funny, depending on your POV).

buffalax is neither forward, nor reverse. it just is. there are still some countries where singng oblahdi-oblahdah will get you threatened with flogging [sotto voce] or worse .

As if Elvis, and early version of Beatles were very original.

They completely owe it to African American Music – blues and gospel in the case of Elvis

AtComment2 – Jyotsana, you didn’t know the dance is Shammi’s spaz version of Elvis? He has done this in many movies and has publicly acknowledged that his dance is Elvis inspired. Those 4 extras are the Beatles imitators – to add insult to injury.

Elvis inspired Shammi to develop a non-Indian classical/non-Western formal dance routine, at a time when heros didn’t do much dancing in India, except of the rustic kind. That’s all. Shammi’s style is entirely his, and unique for a person a of his bulk. No bulky actor has acted (and been emulated) as a dancing hero. Let’s forget that Elvis never wrote anything and often rendered songs by African-American artistes (who were required to sign them away to make any money at all) although not as extensively as Pat Boone (who admitted many times to not knowing what his songs meant). Shammi worked on his songs and even got Rafi to adapt to his manner. For Shammi dance was an unlikely way to carve out a niche for himself during a period dominated by method actors.