Following the release of his timely PBS “Street Level” Documentary, renowned artist and all round creative shares his new single release “Lingo” alongside rapper and producer, Jay Prince.
Language is an important concept for Anik Khan. As an immigrant kid who learned his mother tongue of Bangla before English, he’s no stranger to switching up his slang depending on the situation. On “Lingo,” Khan takes a more playful approach, recruiting Jay Prince for a feel-good jam that sounds as Queens as it does East London.
Khan expertly flows on the Dominique Sanders produced track while keeping it relevant to the realities of his own life. “I’mma f*ck this Trump sh*t, I can’t fly through customs but I still fly through custom,” raps Khan as a reminder about his fight for U.S. citizenship which was recently chronicled in the PBS documentary. “Lingo” is the first of a four part video series which showcases the unseen faces, stories and beauty of the global diaspora.
The Priya Minhas directed video explores the phenomenon of South Asian children winning Spelling Bee tournaments in the U.S. According to the NYT, the last 25 of the last 31 winners have been of South Asian descent with much of it being attributed to the multilingual, educated nature of immigrant families. “Lingo” follows the journey of a young Bijoy Khan (played by Mohammed Arnob), as he navigates an unexpected list of words chosen by Anik and his fellow judges. Bijoy’s victory is a nod to the children of immigrants who master a language that isn’t always their first and then go on to create new dialects of their own.
Immediately catching the attention of key tastemakers to date with his wordplay and creativity (THE FADER, FORBES, BILLBOARD, VICE) and many stand out moments achieved in his career to date, (he was one of the faces of Spotify’s Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month campaign), all eyes are on the unique talent as he continues to write his own narrative on what a legendary artist of toda
y should be.
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