Jaubi – Lahore State Of Mind

Limited to 500 copies!

Flight from New York to Lahore with layover in London 

On the surface New York, Lahore and London may appear to be very different cities. Despite their distance, and with a closer look, there are some similarities. 

New York, 1994. Nas released “Illmatic”, one of the most important Hip-Hop albums in the history of the genre, which undoubtedly has had a profound impact. Nasir Jones’ album is a bitter reflection about living in Queens, during the ‘90s. The iconic track, ‘NY State of Mind’ produced by DJ Premier, depicts life in the Ghetto, shooting, drug dealing, and survival, the brutal honesty delivered by this track has made it one of most important tracks about NYC. 

Lahore, 2016. Drawing some parallels with ‘90s New York, Lahore, a city struggling with terrorism, poverty and a drug epidemic. In this bustling city, the experimental ensemble Jaubi, famed for fusing traditional Hindi music with Hip-Hop and Jazz, were sitting together with their instruments. In home conditions with one mic, faced with NAS’s classic and a desire to translate the story to reflect the struggle of living in the big Pakistani city. The result of combining the main theme produced by Dj. Premier with musicians talents is a spiritual journey through the streets of Lahore. 

London, 2018. Social unrest, Grenfell Tower, and growing difficulties with knife crime. Here, Al Dobson Jr, one of the best music Producers in this part of the world decided to make a meta-remix of the Hindi-Jazz track ‘Lahore State of Mind’. The remix is a ‘deconstruction of reconstruction from deconstruction’. Isn’t that complicated as it sounds... Al Dobson Jr deciding to recreate Dj Premier’s steps, which used a sample from Joe Chambers “Mind Rain”, but using Jaubi’s samples instead. 

The journey from New York, with a layover in London and finally arriving in Lahore takes form as a seven inch single released by Astigmatic Records.