Via Ultrabrown, below is Jay Sean’s new video, “Down.” Jay Sean recently signed to Cash Money Records, a major hip hop/R&B record label in the U.S. The new song was, pretty recently, up to #18 on the Itunes overall chart (and #9 on the Itunes pop chart).
(Warning: do not watch this if you are allergic to Autotune, Lil Wayne, or both at once.)
The question is not, “do you like this?” (Judging from how picky people are, I have a feeling many readers won’t.) The question is, rather, is this track Jay Sean’s “ticket”?
Personally, I prefer Raghav when it comes to Brit-Asian pop singers:
Incidentally, here is Phillygrrl’s account of a recent Jay Sean show in Philadelphia. (I didn’t go; past my bedtime)
Don’t mean to nit-pick but Raghav is Canadian-Asian 🙂 Even though the Queen is still the head of the country… Britain can’t claim the fame of Canadians :)hehe.
I saw Raghav at some Indian cultural event once. Fat aunties were dancing to his Desi hip hop (he had some black hip hop dancers shuckin and jivin behind him, not bad).
As for Jay Paul, Sean Paul, Jay Sean, whatever…..nice eyebrow threading!
if i recall his previous video featured Bip Bas in a limo and a chic soho soiree or something. if that didn’t deliver him i don’t see how this will. indeed, now it looks like he’s at some netip after-work thing. he’s going backwards and he has to compete for america’s curry apetite with the emerging bollywood juggernaut.
i suggest he put eva longoria in a saree and roll the dice.
Forget the threading. It’s the waxing that sets off the song!
Too busy dancing to Raghav to notice the link. Thanks! (And in my post I didn’t mention that Jay Sean does occasionally DM his Twitter fans. Which was pretty cool!)
After watching Bruno I wonder if Jay Sean gets the bleaching treatment in the down stairs area?
I’m with you on that Raghav tip, Amardeep. The boy sings like a dream. I once came second place to him in a bhajan competition in Calgary. Fact.
As for Jay, he seems to have Raghav beat with the ladies.
Jay Sean caters to a different vibe than does Raghav, I think. I like both. But since Jay Sean is incredibly HOT and the song is catchy…I vote down!
In Bradford you can fling a rock (not at all an unusual activity in this neighbourhood) and it will hit a car bleating Jay bhai’s latest.
i actually like this track. it is quite catchy. i personally like jay sean more than raghav. Jay Sean is trying to break into the US market, which is huge considering there aren’t any really big south asian musicans in this country. he is still making similar music to what he has always made and he is becoming sucessful at it. good for him. so i’m not really sure why people are hating on him.
The fact that people can tolerate Lil Wayne’s “voice” is beyond me.
Jay Sean is Green Lantern !!! Er, Brown Lantern!!! that glowing ring is off the chain!
they play this on the bbc asian radio station obsessively! it’s actually quite a solid entry into the mainstream hip-hop/r&b arena. nothing spectacular, but i guess it’s kind of catchy and has a sound that is pretty common in that genre of music.
btw jay sean has become pretty pumped up since i’ve last seen one of his videos – perhaps a pre-requisite to hip-hop?
Amardeep, Jay Sean is a very talented guy.
First of all, he writes or co-writes all his own songs. And in the area of RnB he is a very talented songwriter. He’s also got a good voice and is good looking – so its the whole package, really.
This track has a very commercial / pop vibe simply because he wants to make a splash in the American charts with his first official release there, good luck to him. Signing for the Cash Money label has made him. They have big plans for him.
Personally I think its a breezy RnB pop track, and you see the harder side of Jay Sean on his collaboration with Birdman which is an absolute banger and will be his next single — Written On Her
Either way, its not bad for a Punjabi boy called Kamaljit Singh from London. Good luck to him. He’s going to be massive in America, and that is only going to be groundbreaking for UK and American Indian artists.
That was about five years ago, and he’s had loads of tracks done and dusted since then.
He gave an interview about how he was dumped by his record label after his first album and he then took control, started his own label, released and produced his own music, played gigs to pay for his own videos, and now his tracks have tens of millions of hits on youtube. So when Cash Money discovered him they related to how he made himself, did it in his own way, and became big in the UK, Europe and beyond. And they just wanted to take him to another level. Which with their backing, he will. They make stars.
He’s a really nice fella, I’ve met him at gigs a couple of times, if you ever hear him being interviewed, he’s got a really good sense of humour, is down to earth and humble too. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
So Jay Sean is on Cash Money/Universal. He must be getting paid in cocaine and weed like weezy.
Sigh. Manju, I have a sneaking suspicion what I think/feel will not matter to you, but I feel obligated to link to my usual request to please let that word die out of the English language, no matter what the layers of usage are.
though there is something vaguely hilarious about visualizing the phrase literally.
Nice Raghav link. Thanks !
wow. i never knew that. i’ll switch to Tsunami.
ticket to where? Haven’t you heard…the music industry has collapsed. Dr Dre used to get 200 grand+ a beat now he’s lucky if he gets 20.
Jay Sean is a Punjabi-British version of Usher.
Bah. This is whack. Haven’t heard anything else by Jay Sean but judging from this I won’t waste my time. Autotune is waaaayyy played out.
If you wanna big up a desi hip-hop musician who deserves some real kudos, check out Lushlife, an Indian MC/producer out of Philly.
There is room enough in the inn for Lushlife and Jay Sean. No brown men doing RnB or Hip Hop zero-sum equations in my universe.
Lushlife is good though, thanks for the heads up.
You can do the same here in NYC and Jersey and hit a car playing Weezy. Doesn’t make me like him.
I haven’t slammed down the gavel on Jay Sean yet, though – I’ve never been crazy about the UK desi pop/r&b acts, but I’m giving him a fair chance. Let’s see what happens.
well i just cant say in words or even emoticons how happy i am that an indn boy is making waves in amrika. (he is now #11 on itunes top songs btw). I dont see how him and Raghav compare, not that Raghav isnt good or anything, but their style is way different. And for those of you who keep callling his stuff hip-hop, well iTunes classified him as “pop” well this song at least.
Yo Joolz, I wish a brown man all the best in cracking the big time, but I just wish Jay Sean would spend less time working on his impressive pectorals and more time writing songs that weren’t quite so annoying. That said, there’s no accounting for taste, and this is the sort of stuff that blows up, particularly if he garners a buzz from his desi fanbase. The choreographed dancing may seem laughable to this cynical adult, but 12-year old girls love that shit.
Eh, could never really get into Jay Sean even while being seriously into the desi brit scene, even when he did team up with big dogs like Rishi Rich, his presence on a track always seemed…just wrong, not to mention the way he sounds when singing in any language other than english, this track was no exception. He may be perfect for the American pop/RnB scene, that is fleeting and of little substance. All being said, I damn sure don’t mind looking at him though! ; )
Lushlife is desi. Ohhhh. Thanks for the tip, y’all.
he’s currently at #2 on the itunes charts. and the track has now been picked up by most major top 40-radio stations in the nation… represent!
raghavs bullshit….anyway the guy aint singin no more and our jay is still goin strong……..so i guess we know whos the better one……peace out
Update: just heard “Down” on Sirius Channel 1 — thats the Top 40 station.
This is his worst single, but I’m happy he’s getting success.
Down is no 2 in the us billboard charts :O Onl lost out to bep with i gotta feeling :O
Very heavy rotation on the top 40, hip hop and ‘mix’ radio stations in Chicago. Hearing it at the malls while shopping as well. This guy’s got some traction.