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The Brown Boys, consisting of our very own The Urban Nerd (Raj
Jhaveri) along with Sam Hasan, Omar Mirza, Khurram Ansari Mehtabdin,
Atif Waseem Khan and Shuja Shafqat, will be premiering their music
video “Give Me Kati Roll (Tonight)” at 10 PM EST tonight on
UrbanAsian.com!!
It will be also featured on MTV Desi and AVS TV on Star Plus!
We were able to find out more about this eclectic group of comedians and musicians who, like your average Desi, are involved in the medical field. The Urban Nerd (Raj) is a very successful Biotech entrepreneur and scientist. Omar and Khurram are finishing up their last year of Medical School. Atif just completed medical school and is currently matching into Psychiatry. Shuja is in the middle of his Plastic Surgery residency, and Sam Hasan (who happens to be a talented musician) is in his second year of medical school. Talk about a smart group of guys!
Urban Asian’s The Urban Nerd, Raj Jhaveri, gave us a little insight into the thought process behind their “Give Me Kati Roll” parody.
What was the inspiration for this song? Why Kati Roll and why Ne-Yo and Pitbull’s song, “Give Me Everything (Tonight)?”
We all love Kati Roll. I think there’s not a single brown person that doesn’t know or like Kati Roll. If you’re in New York or London and you’re Desi you’ve tried Kati Roll at least once, it’s famous here. Sam and I were in the car when we were discussing to do some kind of parody song during one of our weekends off in summer. While we were talking about it, the radio started playing the Pitbull and Ne-Yo song “Give Me Everything (Tonight)” and Sam just started randomly started singing ‘Give Me Kati Roll Tonight’ instead of Ne-Yo’s lyrics, so it just started from there. Later that week, I just put down lyrics about the typical Desi experience at Kati Roll, and how there’s always a line around the block even at 3AM! It gets so rowdy sometimes that they even kept a bouncer there! So everything in the song is based on real experiences at Kati Roll and the things that actually happens when you’re there late night after partying in NYC.
What made you escalate this to a big time music video?
I’ve always been known to be super hyper, jumping around, and just present myself as some silly guy. I’m already doing Youtube videos and I have the whole The Urban Nerd alter ego going on, so why not make the song big. There are some big stars on Youtube like Niga-Higa & Kev Jumba, and a whole production crew out in California called Wong Fu Productions that are extremely popular, so we wanted to form the “Desi” version of that. Our original inspiration came from The Lonely Island from SNL in regards to funny music videos, so we just thought the song was so great we had to make it into a video. There aren’t really any Desi Youtube stars besides Jus Reign, AK Amazing, Diary of a Bad Man, and neither of them are from the U.S.A. We wanted to take it up a notch with this music video because we really are a crazy bunch.
You’re such an eclectic group of friends from all over, how did you all meet?
Omar and I are both from Cincinnati, Ohio and we knew of each other, but never really met. Last January I had a huge birthday/charity party, and I had DJ Flawless in New York to be one of the DJ’s for the event. DJ Flawless and I met through concerts and events that I used to throw in Boston. Omar and the rest of them came to the party to see DJ Flawless and some other mutual friends that were there. I also knew about Omar’s Youtube Videos, and I was one of his fans, so after we met we did a video about our adventure to go see the Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never” movie in Times Square. The other guys all knew eachother through the Pakistani community. I believe they met through APPNA, an organization created by the Pakistani community for Pakistani’s to connect, and as well as ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America. Atif also lived in the same building as Omar and Khurram, who were roommates at the time. Sam and Shuja were friends through music, and Shuja also grew up with Omar and Khurram through APPNA. We all ended up meeting at Omar’s one day and did a live UstreamTV performance for our fans/viewers. We all just got along and clicked so well, so our friendship started from there. Some people call it a “Bromance,” we call it “Brohabattein.”
What kind of response do you all expect to get from this video?
People who know about Kati Roll will hopefully laugh. We want people to laugh, and hopefully get the song stuck in their head, since it’s super catchy. We hope the video goes viral among our Desi community. We also hope to get a positive response, and if there is a lot of positive support maybe we can continue making new comedy videos. We want to show everyone that even though we all have busy lives, we can still take the time to have a little fun.
Sam Hasan is an amazing musician, so here is just a taste of what the “Kati Roll” track will hold! Check out Sam Hasan’s cover of “Tonight” by Enrique Iglesias!
And to get a taste of the crazy, just take a look at Omar’s parody of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” if you don’t fall off your chair laughing we’ll change our name! It’s that ridiculous!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbxgLfvpNTE
