International Villager is the debut studio album by Yo Yo Honey Singh. The album containing 14 tracks was officially released on 11 November 2011.[1] It was one of the first Indian rap albums to reach commercial and mainstream success.[2]
From 2009-10 onwards, while producing music for several Punjabi artists, Singh had simultaneously started work on his own debut studio album. Singh being an award winning music producer in Punjab for 3 years, wanted to create an album which would be according to his own thought and his own taste. In an interview with Radio City, Yo Yo Honey Singh stated that the song "Brown Rang" was originally written for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh. He claimed that he co-wrote the song and created its beats with Dosanjh in 2010, and had even offered him the opportunity to sing the track. Diljit denied stating that the track had parts of English and was too futuristic for him. Singh then took it to Jassi Sidhu who sang it on a higher scale than what Singh had conceived for the track. At last, Singh himself performed it.[3]
In December 2024, Speed Records released the original music video for the track "Angreji Beat" from the album, which was originally shelved by Gippy Grewal and Singh due to the music video's supposed transgressive nature. The two instead, chose to release a low budgeted music video instead involving a story of Fake Singh and Gippy Grewal called upon to a marriage function to perform.[4]
The album catapulted Singh to superstardom. The album's hit track, "Angreji Beat," became an anthem for party-goers across India and beyond. Honey Singh soon became a household name, with his songs dominating the charts, whether it was in Bollywood films or independent releases. Tracks like "Brown Rang," "Dope Shope," and "Desi Kalakaar" showcased his versatility as an artist, blending different musical styles and languages to create music that was uniquely his own.[5][6][7]
International Villager became one of the highest grossing Punjabi albums of all time in 2015.[8] One of the album's track "Gabru", featuring J-Star, quickly climbed to the top of the Asian music charts, including the official BBC Asian charts.[9]
The track "Brown Rang"'s music video was released on 28 February 2012 and became YouTube's most trending video of 2012. It won the top spot in the list of YouTube's most watched videos of 2012 in India with over 10 million views. The song has received over 600 million views on YouTube.[10][11][12][13]
The track "Angreji Beat" from the album, featured in Saif Ali Khan's 2012 Bollywood film, Cocktail.[14]
By 2012, Singh set a record for the highest fee ever paid to an artist for a Bollywood song, reportedly receiving ₹7 million rupees (US$84,000) for tracks in the movies Cocktail and Mastaan. However as film Mastaan got shelved he eventually sang his first Hindi song in Cocktail.[15][16]
Awards
MTV VMAI award for Brown Rang[17] Brown Rang song was awarded as best video song of 2012.[18]
Controversies
In an interview with Raaj Jones of OYE! 104.8 FM on 16 June 2015, Badshah discussed the work he had done with Honey Singh, including the song "Brown Rang." He stated that he and Honey Singh co-wrote the track together.[19] Badshah in recent years has gone back on this claim and has instead stated to have written the entire track and also accused Singh for not giving him proper credits for the track in several podcast and interviews.[20] Badshah also allegedly left Mafia Mundeer a few months after the release of the album, while also stating that Singh was instead only focusing on his own career.[21]
Singh has denied these claims reiterating that the song "Brown Rang" was originally written for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh and was co-written with Dosanjh in 2010 while its entire music was produced by Singh himself. Singh also clarified that Badshah was never a part of Mafia Mundeer as he was not a talent picked up from the streets and instead was just a client for him.[22]
Former member of Mafia Mundeer and fellow rapper, Raftaar split from Mafia Mundeer due to credit-related problems, most notably for the track "Dope Shope" from Singh's album, which Raftaar claims writing the rap part.[23] He also appeared in the music video for a few seconds and alleged that his scenes were also cut.[24]
After the release of Singh's track "Party With The Bhoothnath", Raftaar released his track "Swag Mera Desi" in 2013 with Manj Musik. The line in the track "Ab yeh karke dikhao" (transl.Now try to do this) from the song was interpreted as a subliminal directed towards fellow rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh,[25] who used the same phrase in his song. This led to a dispute between the two rappers in media.[26]
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