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Former 'America's Got Talent' host lets us in on what he has in the works musically & chats about his latest single, "Hold On."

 

So the single that was just released, that sounds like nothing I've heard, but a hit. What's the plan for that?

When I dropped “Hold On” and when I created it in the studio, I wanted to do something completely different. Everybody has been on that Caribbean vibe. Ed Sheeran just did it. We've been watching Drake and Bieber and Rihanna all move to it. I wanted to do that bounce, but with a different cultural spin to it. I've been enthralled in the dancehall culture for the last few years before that stuff even started jumping. I was telling people that dancehall was coming and that it was going to be crazy. Then it happened. I knew that pop culture was going to embrace it, and I got that feeling again with the world of Bollywood. It's something that we all know has been around, but I just have a feeling that it's coming.

I had the opportunity to go to Mumbai to shoot the video. There are one billion people over there on their own wave, on their own frequency. As Americans a lot of times, we get so self-centered and we think the world revolves around us and that we are the ultimate power. It's not like that. There are billions of people around the world that are moving the way they want to move, and that was my concept. This is a song about living life the way you want to live it and having a good time. That's where the vibe came from.

It's been taking off online in a major way, and it feels organic. DJs have been vibing to it and doing their own remixes. Tiësto is working on now, same with Eva Shaw, but the regular track just feels so right.

Going back to what I said about how the music industry operates now… You let the fans dictate how they want it, and you provide it for them. The fact is that this is the one that reared its head, so we are just going to keep pushing it. Young people have been responding to it like crazy, making their own videos and dancing to it. At the same time it has the vibe where you could hear it all over the radio and in commercials. It's been in a few commercials. It's going in the direction we want it to go in.

What was the impetus to go into Bollywood culture?

I've been studying that world for a while now. Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Eastern philosophies, it's all been really attractive to me. The music... I love a vibe. I referenced the Beatles, when they had the opportunity to go over there they did the same thing. I connected to that. I want to jump on that frequency and figure out how I can get my chakras in line.  That's how it started, and then I started hearing the music, started falling in love with all of the women. It's a sexuality you don't get to hear in every style of music. I think you hear it in dance and you hear it in the Indian culture. That's what resonates with people. Sometimes in pop culture we borrow, but we never pay homage or say where we got it from. I'm in this world, I'm researching, I'm learning, and it would be really dope to actually bring something together.

It's just such a beautiful culture. The young people… It's how positive they are. Spending time over there, they're such a peaceful, loving, nurturing people. Nobody's hating, nobody is in disarray. It feels different. It's weird to speak on it, but when we go over there, as many people as there are over there in the class system that is definitely different from ours… But it still feels like it's all love. Even the people who are lesser than when it comes to finances, they still have beautiful spirits and they are rich in their culture. You don't get to experience that as much in the States, so I was hoping to borrow from that and bring that back home and that idea when creating the song.

Who is the female vocalist on that?

She's awesome. She is a 19-year-old lady by the name of Sahiba I signed to Ncredible. You know I always have my business hat on. Her tone was so crazy, and the fact that she was organic to the culture.

Is she Indian?

Yeah. She's in the video too. It felt right, it felt authentic. Even with her speaking Hindi at the beginning of the record, we were like, “Yeah, you have to put that in there!” That's a lot of people’s favorite part of the song. I have no idea what she's saying, but they love when she says it. And that's when you know the people want to learn about new cultures.

I think we're going to start a new wave with this. I think she's going to grow to be a humongous star. I consider myself something of a curator when it comes to finding talent. Somebody that I discovered dropped an album recently, Kehlani. She did her thing. I thought, I have to follow that up. I'm always on the lookout for and scoping for new talent. Giving people opportunities. I don't even wish to benefit off of anything they do. As an artist, all I want to do is light the flame and pray that once I light their candle they light another candle until the whole world has been enlightened. That's the goal when I try to get on my euphoric artistic speak. Ultimately, as a businessman, it’s about being able to feed the industry with new and exciting and different things. I have yet to see a female pop star with the Indian background really take over. I think she could do it. I'm hoping that this record opens many doors.

 

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