London-based rapper and TV presenter, Shizzio, has created a brand new movement on the music scene called BURBAN. Shizzio disliked the media constantly referring to artists on the scene as urban desi and has now created BURBAN instead which stands for & brown and urban’. So now people are not meant to refer to artists as ‘urban desi’ but ‘BURBAN’.
The movement was officially announced by him at the Brit Asia Music awards on October 1st 2011. It has gained recognition and support from other Asian artists also. He performed on stage with all the artists that supported the movement at the awards show, such as Menis, Metz’n’Trix, Kazz Kumar, RKZ, Swami Baracus, Raxstar, KanDman, PMG etc.
Well known media entrepreneur, Terry Mardi, also filmed one of his notorious video diaries about the whole concept of BURBAN. In the video Shizzio says,
‘’It’s a corporal restructure of our industry as we know it, rebranding per se. There’s so many artists around us right now that have been on the scene…and we’ve all united and decided we’re all tired of what the media has given us, this stigma, this name and it’s been around for years and it’s not helped no-one, so we’re rebranding it…it’s a fresh start…’’
Hopefully, this new movement will help give more credibility and respect towards Asian artists on the urban music scene. We look forward to hearing more from the world of BURBAN and will keep you all updated!
By Harvi