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Well here she is, with 260 hits on YouTube and 5 on Vimeo, our early endorsement of Kazz Kumar, and the video ‘Dirty Word’.  We mentioned her previously here.

OK so here’s the first artist since Jay Sean to get the full commentary from me…(see his here and here)

Firstly, let me state this, Kazz Kumar could be as big as Jay Sean and I love her as an act (British-Asian media types re-read that line when you get pissed off below).  I’ve seen her live at Bombay Bronx, but I don’t know much else aside from her being with a desi-group called Sona Family who didn’t really make music for me.  Eitherway, she is where Jay Sean was, in say 2004.  Her voice is good, but you can bank on it being great in the future depending on the songs she builds her sound around.  Her look is cutting edge, but there’s not much edge left to cut since Lady Gaga picked up a blade in 2008.  Her look is sexy fashionista, but not sex instigator, which is where the real marketability comes in (see Beyonce, Prince, Usher, Shakira, etc).

All the above aspects show potential, but one thing puts her ahead of her (albeit few British-Asian) competition.  She took a risk on a jagged pop song and delivered on it well, without pulling the tabla-sample fusion bollocks that most of her, now behind, peers lean on.  She is fundamentally a strong artist, and as such, if the points above are executed on, she could be 2 years away from her due double-platinum singles.

The video is very good, directed by the keen eye’s of rising production team Amit&Naroop (disclaimer, we know Naroop).  After 3 views, I still don’t get what’s going on for the first 36 seconds (compared to the excitement of the beat dropping that is).  That aside, Amit&Naroop did well to steer away from the cliched ‘Hollyoaks-at-best’ acting / club scene / girl stares suggestively shots, and as such gave Kazz some real mainstream visual appeal.  At times, her sex appeal does get lost in the dark shadows, and there are a few too many shots of the dude and clips for the overall narrative, but the shots with the background dancers are MTV standard.  I was pleased to see in the last few seconds that there is potential for a follow up video, as I think these guys would put together a crazy 3 parter over 3 singles.

So where does this leave us?  Well not much further than we were two paragraphs ago.  It’s a very good pop song, video and talent to put out at the beginning of a new decade, and there is no reason why mainstream radio should not play it.  Hopefully the asian industry and DJs will describe, and introduce, her correctly to mainstream audiences (yes, I mean Bobby Friction, Brit-Asian and the incurable tumour that is the AMA’s).  I really hope that this isn’t where it starts and ends, because if Kazz is supported correctly, there is a host of female Asian acts like Serese and Jaya, that can sing, and would be able to follow suit, thus creating an economy for Asian female pop acts.  (BRAINSTORM)  If fact a girl on girl shake off song/video between Kazz and Jaya on the premise of Beyonce and Shakira’s ‘Beautiful Liar’ would surely be as ground breaking as this year can take…  let’s see… lovesoul has our fingers and toes crossed.