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General Zooz Su Real Present Indian Wine Connecting India And Jamaica
General Zooz Su Real Present Indian Wine Connecting India And Jamaica
General Zooz and Su Real present Indian Wine, a Project that has connected India and Jamaica through music and dance. Dancehall music, a subgenre of Reggae, has been booming in India, taking over dancefloors and even influencing Bollywood music. As a founding member of Reggae Rajahs, Mumbai-based General Zooz has been at the forefront of this movement, collaborating with professional dancer and choreographer, Jahnavi Sheriff to present the music, dances, and culture of Jamaica to Indian audiences.
Calling on his compadre, Delhi-based DJ/music producer Su Real, known for introducing new genres like Trap and Moombahton to the Indian soundscape, was the perfect match to take the style to the next level. The two have been frequent collaborators with General Zooz contributing vocals to Su Real’s last two albums “Visa On Arrival” and “Twerkistan”. The pair have also put a live stage show together that has performed most recently at festivals like VH1 Supersonic 2020 and India Bike Week 2019.
Public Release on 26th June. Available for exclusive release on 25th June.
Jahnavi Sheriff: “The Indian Wine is a dance step that combines hand movements from Indian classical dance, with winding or “wining”, a technique of moving your hips commonly used in Jamaican dance. I picked up the use of the hand movements thanks to a teacher of mine , Brinda Guha, and then as I delved deeper into the Jamaican style of Dancehall, these hand gestures flowed naturally into my dance, giving birth to the “Indian Wine.” There’s just a sense of grace when you use your hands and dance!”
“I’m trained in both Bharatnatyam and Dancehall so combining these two dance forms was always something fascinating for me. The concept of this video was to give space to each dance style individually and then bring them together as one. We used some of India’s most talented professional dancehall and Bharatnatyam dancers. While the two styles couldn’t be more different from each other in some ways, in other ways they are actually quite similar!”
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“The popularity of Jamaican dance in India has exploded over the last few years. I have worked closely with a lot of these dancers for some time now and Ms. Sheriff and I had been talking about creating an Indian dancehall step with a song to accompany it for a while. One day while we were hanging out in Ms. Sheriff’s dance studio, she showed me the Indian Wine and I loved it. Su and I put the song together in a matter of weeks and India’s dancehall anthem was born!”
The official music video was directed by General Zooz and fellow Reggae Rajah Rahul “Ziggy” Gairola. It was shot on location at Lodhi Garden and Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi. Choreographed by Jahnavi Sheriff, the video features 20 dancers including Mumbai’s Smash Dem Crew. The choreography juxtaposes dancehall moves with the classical Indian dance of Bharatnatyam, paying homage to our cultural roots while jumping hips first into an exciting future of cross-cultural adventure.
