Maybe the Grammys won’t suck this year??

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A few weeks back several news sites reported that the Grammy Awards next month will feature a performance by an Indian American pop singer (who I had never heard of) named Reggie Benjamin:

Keep your eyes above the waist please.

Pop singer Reggie Benjamin, the first Indian American to win a Hollywood deal, is all set to perform at the Grammy awards next month.

Benjamin, who has also filmed a music video in Hugh Heffner’s fabulous Playboy Mansion, said his success was a lucky coincidence, coming as it did with an increasing American interest in Bollywood.

“Suddenly, it is cool to be Indian,” Benjamin, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, told IANS.

To become a Hollywood pop singer was an unusual career choice for Benjamin who was studying to be a chemical engineer. His persistence paid off when he was signed on by music industry mogul Kerry Gordy. [Link]

Here is the thing though. I can’t find any mention of an impending Grammy performance by Benjamin, either at the Grammys website, or his own. Diligent readers, am I missing something? Is this some kind of scam? You can check out some of Benjamin’s music here.

What I do know however is that an Indian Buddhist monk named Ngawang Tashi Bapu is nominated for a Grammy in the ‘Best Traditional Music Category,’ and that the Grammy website backs it up:

Devotion his sole purpose, he chants for the ideal he reveres. And now this Buddhist lama’s divine melodies have transcended the walls of his monastery in the remote Dahung township of Arunachal Pradesh to bring peace to audiences far away in the West.

Ngawang Tashi Bapu, who has been nominated for a Grammy in the ‘Best Traditional Music Category’, says he is surprised. “But when it is fate, you cannot avert it,” he told The Indian Express over the telephone from Dahung. ”I consider myself lucky.”…

Popularly known as Lama Tashi, the 38-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk is based at the Centre for Himalayan Culture and Studies at Dahung, about 350 km from here…

Finding an eager reception in the US, the Lama’s chants are collected in Tibetan Master Chants, a CD produced by US-based author Jonathan Goldman, who has written the book, Healing Sounds. [Link]

I can’t help but wonder what the video would look like if Lama Tashi and not Benjamin had filmed his music video at the Playboy mansion.

32 thoughts on “Maybe the Grammys won’t suck this year??”

  2. I canÂ’t help but wonder what the video would look like if Lama Tashi and not Benjamin had filmed his music video at the Playboy mansion.

    Valley-girl Master-bedroom chants.

  3. ugh. this guy AGAIN!?!?

    Pop singer Reggie Benjamin, the first Indian American to win a Hollywood deal

    Ok, let’s define “hollywood deal” because if it’s a card deal of 3-card-Monty then perhaps this hasn’t been totally fabricated. However, a recording contract or a film deal…well that’s a different story. His website lists his “record label” as club2xrecords. But if you go to club2xrecords.com it’s a redirect to the oh-so-gorgeous Reggie Benjamin site. Something doesn’t smell right around here, and I’m not talking about the hing, people. Yeah sure there are some pictures of Brown Fabio and Berry Gordy’s kid hanging out in front of some platinum records but I think the missing caption there was Kerry Gordy saying “Thanks kid, I’ll walk you out now…”

    The only time Reggie Benjamin and Grammy should EVER be used in the same sentence, is with the words “will NEVUH get a” in between.

  4. because I can’t let this go… AFAIK Kerry Gordy has worked at a few labels- Motown Records, Warner Brothers Records, and also at Paisley Park Studios. He has his own company (eponymously titled) and none of these companies list Reggie Benjamin as an artist with a development deal, nevermind an album contract.

    Where’s ANNA? I need somebody to call bullshit on this.

  5. The article quoted seems to be some sort of PR by his agent – it shows up intact in multiple Indian newspapers. This story, OTOH, feels a bit less astroturf although just as fluffy.

    The author doesn’t get that 12,000 people isn’t much for India:

    If we were in India, lunch with Reggie Benjamin would be a very big deal. Something along the lines of meeting all five Backstreet Boys at once. “I can’t walk through the airport there,” he says, shaking his head in delight and disbelief. “I can’t walk anywhere by myself without getting mobbed.” There were 12,000 people at his last concert in India, most of them female and screaming for him to take off his shirt. They knew every word to his hit song, “Hurry Up.”

    But still gets a dig in:

    Call it the David Hasselhoff principle: Fame isn’t really fame if it doesn’t happen in the United States.

    Here’s another bit of gentle snark:

    Reggie Benjamin wants to be really famous. Like Indian-version-of- Ricky-Martin famous…. He’s already mastered the art of the entourage.

    Here’s the fluff that I cut above:

    He’s got a shot at it. His album, “2x- centrix,” will be released here Tuesday. MTV will air videos from two singles–“Hurry Up” and “Turn.” “Entertainment Tonight” and Billboard magazine have already done stories about Benjamin and his music. So now he’s just waiting, getting ready for what fame will be like and practicing his lines.

    Here’s something for DD:

    Right now, he says, he’s getting ready to shoot his next video. What, exactly, does that involve? “Well,” he says, “it’s mostly about The Look thing. You know, working out.” Benjamin’s daily workout is more than two hours long. It includes 90 minutes of tap dancing, which is great cardio, and some stretching and weight lifting. It’s keeping him lean, subtly muscled and very hungry.

    And finally, the stereotypical ABCD quote:

    In case you haven’t gathered this, Benjamin is a thoroughly American kid who just happens to have Indian parents. Before he started performing there, his last visit to India was when he was 5. “I remember seeing a lot of poverty,” he says of that early trip.

  6. Oh, believe me yaar, the Grammy’s will suck this year if we have Reggie Benjamin performing. I’m not simply against his type of music, mind you, Rap and Hip-Hop make up the majority of my music collection, but his music his bad, his voice is worse, and he reminds me of that random rap you hear in Hindi songs. Believe me, its far from Ludacris. They ain’t G’s. The United States is just getting into India, why ruin it with this guy?

  7. I read about this guy years ago in India West, and they made it seem like hes on the verge of being some great American popstar. He’s so cheesy and people are not going to be into him or his music.

  8. DD, you piqued my curiosity and I did a search of my own… Reggie makes audacious claims about having had worldwide hits that have charted on Billboard (except in the US)… having sold 30,000 copies of one of his singles in 3 days with no promotion (!!)… a quick search of Billboard.com and other industry sites showed zero hits on this guy.

    I think you might be onto something, he sounds like a self-hyped phony.

    I have to find more productive pursuits, this is true timepass. 🙂

  10. Maybe “all set to perform” means waiting by the phone, ready to perform if called upon!

    That the difference between…um…Don Juan and me. ‘Cept DJ got called to perform more often.

  11. I’ve never heard of this guy, but if anyone would like to carry out a personal interrogation, I’d be delighted to so do. 😉

  12. “Chocolate chip, honey dip, can I get a scoop? (please)”

    I second Sin, I don’t know about his music, but….mmmm mmmm mmmm

  13. Here’s something for DD: Right now, he says, he’s getting ready to shoot his next video.

    Yeah I got called to be in his “Turn” video. I don’t know how to type this in a way that does it justice, but I’ll start with Loo-HOOOOOOOO-Surr. 😉 On the serious tip though, it was presented to the dancers as a Sukhbir video. A little further probing revealed it was a Reggie Benjamin video, but that the song featured Sukhbir. Then the story changed and it was a Reggie Benjamin song and Sukhbir was nowhere in the equation. Several skanky costumes, Playmates, and a ridiculous contract– which included a clause that one was responsible for getting to all locations and if one did not attend all days of shooting, location TBD, they were financially liable for the entire production cost… ahem, if you change the shoot to be in Mauritius and I’m responsible for getting myself there, that’s a problem– later, I was like F** this, the song sucks anyway (see previous linked Brown Menudo comment. oh wait, Menudo IS brown…)

    It’s bad enough to have no talent, but to be a no-talent that does shady business… well that’s just egregious

  18. AMON, just like Prince, minus the songwriting ability, funk, marketing sense, individualism, singing voice, entourage, talented posse of backing-babes, sexiness and charisma. Just like him otherwise.

  20. DD:

    lol Key phrase: looks like

    (They both make me feel sorta gay when I look at them)

  21. I used to see this clown (Reggie) in Chicago back in the day (96-97). He used to roll with the Milli Vanilli look with another desi guy. Rumor was that he used to own this club in Chicago then called Stardust (called RedNoFive now) then sold that to do music. He is 5 foot something tall and is always wearing some wacked out clothes. Since then I have read about ten articles on him, mostly from Indian press praising him and his exploits which seem questionable. Some of them could be true. Playing in India in front of thousands isn’t that hard to do. Most shows feature a dozen performers so for him to sing one track at some mela etc. is possible. I recall his website years ago having a picture of his mom in a sari with a few playmates. It was classic. I also recall him doing a PA one night at some club in Chicago on a Wednesday but I have never seen any legit performance in Chicago or here in LA.

  24. His “music” is unbelievably bad. My ears hurt and so do my eyes. The first thing that has to change is the godawful hairstyle; better still fame should elude him for life.

  25. this may be off topic

    But wasn’t Kim Thayil the lead guitar player of Soundgarden the 1st Indo-American with a major record deal and a #1 album on the billboard charts Soundgarden-“Superunknown” on March 26,1994. They won 2 grammy in 1995 for that record.

    Soundgarden sold over 20 million albums with most of those albums sold in North America, yet Thayil was ignored by his own people.

    Also didn’t No Doubt play on the grammy’s a few years ago.

  27. I’ve seen ‘press’ about this guy for more than a year, but I’ve never seen him actually do anything.

    BTW, how can I listen to his music? I’ve been trying to, but the music samples link don’t work on his page. I don’t f-ing get him. Is the whole musician thing just a front?

  28. Reggie is a complete fraud.He has scammed many people.He wrote on his invitations to the Playboy Mansion party that Pam Andersen , Patrick Swayze and many celeberties would show up.That was a scam.He has had many civil suits over frauding people in nightclub deals.Just check some with the DuPage County Office where he lives with his Mom.He hasn’t sold crap and pays for publicity.I guarantee he won’t be performing on the grammys.Just another Reggie scam.

  29. Anyone see if that joke Milli Benjamin was on the Grammys.He is as real as a Milli Vanilli song.

  30. OK, in regards to this reggie benjamin, guy, I am not trying to be a HATER, BUT THIS GUY IS WHACKED, I KNOW OF HIM, FROM THE CLUB SCENE, HE IS A HUGE BULLSHITTER!!!!!!!!!!. His website is a joke, I remember him saying he owned a percentage of a club downtown and then seen him driving around in a chevette, like those 6,000 dollar cars, I mean this guy is a really big liar!!!!!, U see him in every newspaper s the first indian POP STAR, BUT NEVER HERE ABOUT HIM OUTSIDE, TRUST ME HE IS A LIAR, I CANT STAND LIARS LIKE THAT.

  32. Reggie release of his release of his release is now number#1 in Nigeria.It also redebuted #3 in Guam and #6 in the Torra Borra mountains of Afghanistan.Word has it Osama himself is a big Reggie fan.