The album that started it all for Rukus Avenue turns 10 years old this fall.  It was certainly an album that changed the landscape of South Asian music in North America.  It was the first release of many new styles of music at that time. As Rukus Avenue prepares for its 15th anniversary this fall, lets take the time to reflect on this great album called Passage to India.

It was the first album to feature Punjabi hip hop, Gujurati hip hop, and was the premiere of one of Desi music’s iconic hip hop groups called Karmacy.  The Rukus Avenue debut album was a cornucopia of music, ranging from Hip Hop to Bhangra and Bollywood.  The album was also the debut of artist Kanwar Gill, a pioneer of Punjabi Hip Hop and noted Indian crooner CJ.

The album was produced and conceived by Sammy Chand, Rukus Avenue’s lead producer.  Sammy spoke at a panel in Washington DC with Bally Sagoo, Gitesh Pandya, and Nisha Ganatra in 1999.  Sammy met up with Gitesh after and they discussed music for Gitesh’s upcoming film titled American Desi.  The two along with Piyush Pandya and Deep Katdare, decided to use the title track Passage to India by the group Karmacy in their now iconic film American Desi.  The now famous film launched the careers of many young South Asian actors including Kal Pen.

The song Passage to India was featured in the closing credit of the song and later went on to be heard worldwide.  The success of this song launched the group Karmacy into stardom, and stamped them as the first major South Asian hip hop group with true international identity and success.  The album also featured Karmacy’s most famous song titled Blood Brothers, which later went on to be a very successful hip hop track that was recently covered by singers in the famous Zee TV television show Indian Idol.

Passage To India is available on iTunes and features Karmacy, Kanwar Gill, CJ, Bunita, Amar Tooray, Vishal, and producer Sammy Chand.  It is considered a timeless classic around here – perhaps you can check it out too.