Readers of Keep on Pushing often ask if I intend to write a part two and if so, whose stories will I choose to help illustrate the ongoing struggles to battle injustice and wage peace in our time through song? Well, one of the first artists that always comes to mind is Tjinder Singh of Cornershop. Officially in business since 1991, Singh and his collaborator Ben Ayres fuse hip hop, Beatles-styled pop and Punjabi folk jams to tell Singh’s own story as an artist of color, originally from England’s industrial center, the Black Country. Earlier this year, I pointed readers toward the Cornershop single, “Milkin’ It,” a tribute to golden era hip hop artists with a video clip featuring turf dancers in Oakland: Sometimes it takes a filmmaker and a musician from England to hip you to what’s happening in your own backyard… After digesting that, I ended the year interviewing Singh for Stir, a new online magazine which aims to build a world wide community of activists. Actually, Singh and I traded emails and he told me a bunch of stuff about his life and art. I hope you’ll read it: I’m calling it my first interview for Keep on Pushing Pt II, potentially subtitled, People Power in the Eleventh Hour. But until then, here’s a slice of Cornershop with French singer, Soko: it’s featured on Urban Turban, the new collection of recent singles and collaborations.
Filed under: Interview, Brimful of Asha on the 45, Cornershop, People Power in the Disco Hour, Stir, Tjinder Singh, Urban Turban
Denise Sullivan 