The Kangna Tera Ni hitmaker is back, this time with Woofer, a single with Snoop Dogg
If you grew up in the 2000s, you'd have to be living under a rock if you didn't dance to Dr Zeus's "Kangna tera ni, sanu kare ishare", especially at weddings. And, though it has been 14 years since its release, the song continues to be popular. He may not have been able to recreate that magic again, but Dr Zeus, aka, Baljit Singh Padam has been busy. In 2014, he worked on Ragini MMS 2's chart topper Baby Doll and then Lovely from Happy New Year. Now, he is back with a big-ticket song that ought to help him wrap up the year with a bang.
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Zora Randhawa, Snoop Dogg and Dr Zeus
"We have been working on Woofer for a year. It was tough putting it together. First, we wanted rappers like Honey or Baadshah. Later, we decided to try our hand at something bigger," he says, when we meet him at the Andheri office of BeingU Music, the Mumbai-based boutique record label that has released the song. "I knew someone in LA who had worked with Snoop, so we called her, and she said 'yeah, I could make this happen'. After a few negotiations, he was on board." And so, Woofer, featuring UK-based Punjabi rapper Zora Randhawa (known for hits like 22DA), Snoop Dogg and actress Nargis Fakhri, came to be.
The track and the video (in keeping with typical American flashy rap style), are impressive — catchy, danceable and very addictive. "What I wanted to do was create a song that was a world fusion of sorts. When I met Snoop for the first time, he said, 'Indians are my brothers'," laughs Zeus. "But truly, we love all kinds of music. Despacito, which is in Spanish, was such a big hit here. So, why can't the world like Punjabi or Hindi music. So, there was Snoop, Zora [who sings in Punjabi], me [who is based in London] and Nargis, who is from Brooklyn, and so had the accent I needed. All of us made the song global." Getting Snoop on board though was a coup, and Zeus and Zora are still finding it hard to believe that he is in the video as well.
"It would have been beizzati if he hadn't been [in the video]. Our Punjabi fans wouldn't have let us have it," he laughs, "but he was so cool. He had fewer nakhras than us. He just wanted some drinks for his friends in his room, and chocolates." For now, they are hoping Woofer will blow up in India, before they take it to the US and start pushing it. Zeus also had plans to be the "king of Bollywood", he says. In 2014, he had accused Meet Brothers for taking all the credit for his song Baby Doll. "I had a bad experience, and I went back and didn't come back to India until now. But today, I am in a 'mujhe ab dikhana hai' phase. You need to depend on your talent, and the audience will do the rest."
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