Unafraid to dispense social commentary that ranges from satirical to inflammatory, the Himalayan Project is the essence of underground music and the sound of things to come.
MCs Chee Malabar and Rainman of the Himalayan Project represent the evolving voice of the hip-hop generation. The duo’s personal narrative takes listeners from Bombay to New York, with stops in China, Europe, San Francisco and South America. From the first generation to the second and beyond, their story is America’s Next set over a hip-hop soundscape.
Wince at the Sun, the Himalayan Project’s latest full-length effort, contains songs ranging from socially conscious to battle to conceptual. The intellectual content of their songs defines the Himalayan Project, as their lyrics have found their way into the curriculum for university classes that focus on South-Asian identity and pop culture. The Himalayan Project’s lyrics have also been cited in Samar Magazine and PhD dissertations on hip-hop’s influence on the formation of South-Asian identity in America.
To further spread the group’s message, the Himalayan Project will be featured in the hip-hop documentary “Brown Like Dat”, by NYU Film School student Raeshem Nijhon, who documents South Asian participation in hip-hop.
When did the Himalayan journey begin? Rainman and Chee Malabar founded the Himalayan Project in 1994, while attending high school in San Francisco, CA. The group’s name pays homage to their ancestral roots in India and China-the Himalayan Mountain Range straddles the borders of both countries.
By 1998, Rainman and Malabar developed reputations for ripping mics on their respective college campuses-UC Irvine and Penn St.-and decided to collaborate on a 4-track demo. The demo featured beats courtesy of DJ Cheapshot, who has produced tracks for artists such as the Beastie Boys, Linkin Park and Styles of Beyond. The demo laid the foundation for the bicoastal sound the Himalayan Project would develop over the years.
In 2001, the Himalayan Project began working on their studio-produced debut with producer Scott Koozner. The collaboration resulted in The Middle Passage, born out of the inspiration of the 2001 Nobel Prize winner for literature-V.S. Naipaul-and homage to their diverse roots in San Francisco, Boston, Philly, India, Southern China and South America.
The Middle Passage received a positive response with critical reviews from cdbaby.com, altrap.com, The Weekly Dig (Boston), The San Jose Mercury News and urbansmarts.com. This attention allowed the group to perform at Asian-Pacific American cultural festivals such as Diaspora Flow (St. Paul, Minn.), Diasporadics (New York City), Nightingale: “Guerilla: Words” (New York City), Artwallah (Los Angeles), as well as traditional hip-hop venues. With Wince at the Sun on its way to audiences, the Himalayan Project’s journey will inevitably continue.
