4. Supa Dupa Southall

Available for 67 days

When Timbaland dropped Missy Elliott’s Get Your Freak On it kick-started 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 BBC Audio: Andy Worrell Commissioning producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan Commissioner for BBC Music: Will Wilkin A BBC Audio production.