Sup y'all its time for me to hit you with the biggest and freshest news happening in the Asian music scene.

Firstly all many of you who read my news articles regularly, know that I always like to hit off with some Panjabi MC news, and this month is no expectation. This man can do no wrong at the moment, this time he's hooked up with Destiny Child's lead singer Beyounce to remix her latest release Me, Myself and I, with a desi make over. Its been getting some good radio play on Asian stations and on English stations, the mix will feature of her UK single. Its been reported that, boyfriend Jay Z recommended PMC to her after his collaboration on the Mundian To Bach Ke remix.

Now for my big exclusive for the month, the first boys of bhangra B21 are back with a brand new album. The album, named sarcastically as "Three's are crowd, Twos company" a blatant dig at ex member Jassi Sidhu who's enjoyed great success this
B21 duo	year with his debut album. The 8 track album features only 3 new tracks and remixes of previous B21 hits such as, Darshan, Jawani and Chandigarh, is due for release on the 25th of January with the desi mix of Shake What Ya Mama Gave Ya. Also it is being released under the Envy/Roma label, which may explain the Jagpal/Zeus collaboration for Shake
What Ya Mama Gave Ya. Its yet to be seen if they will experience the success they enjoyed in the mid and late 90's, with many fans crossing over to the sounds of Jassi Sidhu.

When you think of the garage MC group Pay as you go, bhangra and Punjabi lyrics don't leap to mind. However the UK based group have set up surprise collaboration with the king of bhangra himself, one Mr Malkit Singh for their new track Jugni. Malkit pelts out lyrics from his original Jugni with some serious MC flow over the tumbi by pay as you go. The odd couple got together through some work by Ravi Bal while producing Malkit's new album Midas touch II. The golden star is headlining the New Years Eve bash at ascot rave course this year so make sure you catch him there. DJ Dev managed to catch with Malkit recently, click here to view the interview.

Now a treat for all you North American desi`s out there, RDB have been touring and promoting their latest release Unstoppable, which feature appearances from E=MC, a long serving rapper with the RDB crew. RDB have confirmed that they have signed a production deal with a mainstream label to push out a mainstream release of E=MCs debut solo album to the US market. He's the first Asian rapper to go mainstream in the US. Check out the RDB North America site for more details (P.S sit tight for the biggest Asian rapper to hit the scene, Maximus, more about him later!)

Jay Sean is looking to follow up to his huge debut appearance with a track called 'You Don't Know Me' The track is a dig at the state of the music industry, and comments on how being Asian is the flavour of the month. The track is probably too political to be released as a single, although Tigerstyle have provided an additional desi mix, which for me is a huge improvement on the original. Doh Point Noh's other star, Juggy D is busy working on his solo album, and it is reported that Timbaland may be dropping some beats for him - not confirmed though.

Another rumour circulating is that Eminem has signed the 1Shaanti to perform a couple of tracks. The 1 Shaanti have been representing hard Stateside, and if this could lead to a deal with Shady Records, it would be huge news. Other news stateside is the teaming up of Bikram Singh with Shakti for a tune called 'Do the Thang Thang'. The track has made a massive impression over there, and again Tigerstyle are currently in the studio working on a remix.

The mainstream's fascination with desi remixes has also continued. This time Nelly Furtado has got a group called Josh to provide a desi remix of her tune 'Powerless.' Bee2 has also jumped on the mainstream bandwagon, and done a remix of Timbaland and Magoo's track 'Cop That Shit'. Panjabi Hit Squad is continuing their onslaught on the mainstream with a track with Fatman Scoop. Also watch out for some more tracks from the very talented Raghav.

Timbaland & Magoo who are no strangers to desi beats as they were the duo that were the genius behind the desi beats in Missy's 'Get u're Freak on.' In their latest album 'Under Construction II' which is out now, they have come up with two brand new desi mixes called 'Indian Flute' & 'Naughty Eye.' They feature the vocal talents of 'Raje Shwari' who does not disappoint! The Unique Corporation (the label) even approached FNIK PR to promote the album within the Asian community across the board. The move no doubt represents a growing recognition in American Urban music circles that the Asian population in the UK represents a massive market for their music.

Timbaland with Raje Shwari

There's also news on the Kray Twinz. The guys, who seem to be a bit upset that they were not given any credit for their contribution to PMC's hit tune - 'Mundian Tu Bach Ke.' The twinz supported the popular Sean Paul on the UK leg of his tour. The Krayz also recently appeared on Marc Ronson's video, and are involved in a number of productions for some Hip Hop artist stateside, including The Pharcyde. They have actually been given album deals to produce songs rather than deals to produce remixes. It will be interesting to see whether any of their sounds are influenced by their work with P.

That's all for this month. The Desitunes4u.com team and myself would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, see you in 2004.