Mushtaq Omar Uddin

Mushtaq Omar Uddin (born 14 August 1973), also known simply as Mushtaq, is an English music producer, singer, songwriter, and former lead vocalist for British hip hop group Fun-Da-Mental when he was known at the time by his stage name MC Mushtaq.

As a young boy, Mushtaq joined the community band Joy Bangla as a drummer where he met brothers Sam (State of Bengal) and Deeder Zaman which led to the foundation of the Asian Underground movement provided British Asian youth with a homegrown alternative to the more standard/mainstream Asian dance music fodder of the time, bhangra and Bollywood.^[1][2] The collaboration became a regular on the UK electronic music scene through the Nineties and gained more prominence in the new millennium after gaining the attention from the likes of Icelandic singer Bjork and UK trip hop group Massive Attack. The group included Producer and DJ Sam Zaman, his brother Deedar and MC Mushtaq. State of Bengal took off when Zaman composed his best-known track to date, “Flight IC408[1],” which appeared on the 1997 Talvin Singh-helmed compilation Anokha ”“ Soundz of the Asian Underground. The compilation also included another track by Zaman, "Chittagong Chill".^[3]

In the summer of 1993,^[4] Mushtaq met Aki "Propa-Gandhi" Nawaz and joined Fun-Da-Mental as the lead vocalist under the stage name of MC Mushtaq.^[5][6][7] This is the band who have mixed rap and hip-hop with qawwali singing from Pakistan or Gypsy music from Rajasthan, and recorded albums with titles like Why America Will Go To Hell.^[8] The bands first album Seize The Time Album was released in 1994 and peaked at No. 74 on the UK Albums Chart. The New York Times concluded that, "if their hard-edged music reflects a growing sense among nonwhites that they have little choice but to abandon traditional passiveness, it also reflects a broader and complicated effort to find an identity that transcends their Britishness."

During the 1990s, Mushtaq started his career as a "beat maker" in New York for a number '90s hip hop groups, including Cypress Hill, House of Pain and Souls of Mischief. On his return from America, Mushtaq co-wrote and produced several R&B albums. In 2001, he worked on Damage's album Since You've Been Gone, he co-wrote and produced the tracks "I Don't Know" (featuring Emma Bunton), "Good Folk", and "Maria" (featuring Kele Le Roc), and co-wrote "So What If I" (featuring Iceberg Slimm). He co-wrote and produced Mis-Teeq's album Lickin' on Both Sides, including the track "B with Me".^[9] Mushtaq worked on Liberty X's album Thinking It Over, Mushtaq co-wrote and co-produced the track "No Clouds",^{[citation needed]} and co-wrote the track "Saturday".^{[citation needed]}. He produced several tracks from Tyler James' 2005 album The Unlikely Lad,^[10] including the single "Foolish",^[11] and the track "Best for Me" (featuring Amy Winehouse). Mushtaq co-wrote and produced the song "Take Your Time" from Simon Webbe's 2006 album Grace.^[12][13][14]

Mushtaq joined in a collaboration with the Specials fun boy Terry Hall; stated as "Two of the pioneers of multicultural British pop are back with a daring, thoughtful set." by the Guardian^[15] Mushtaq co-wrote and produced the album The Hour of Two Lights with Terry Hall, released in August 2003.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

Mushtaq co-wrote and produced Amy Winehouse's 2003 album Frank and 2006 album Back to Black, including a remix of the song "Back to Black".^[21] Mushtaq produced Skepta's 2012 song "Hold On", the track "Des Mots" (featuring LFDV) from Kery James's 2013 album Dernier MC,^[12][13][14] a and 2013 song "On My Way". Mushtaq co-wrote and co-produced Tich's 2013 song "Dumb".^[22][23]

On 24 July 2000, Mushtaq's debut solo single "That Feelin'" was released by Mercury Records. This was followed by his debut album released later that year. The album features blues, reggae, funk and classic rock.^[24]

In 2004, Mushtaq worked on most of Raghav's 2004 album Storyteller^[25] and 2012 album The Phoenix^[26] including Let’s Work It Out,Can't Get Enough, No; Bad, Bad, Bad and Ain't Nobody^[27] The album reached No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart.^[28] In 2023, Mushtaq started working with Raghav again after 20 years since Storyteller album was released. He produced Raghav's first come back song since Desperado Raghav's Indo-Canadian's new come back song featuring fellow desi-origin artist Tesher. Produced by Mushtaq, the song samples R.D. Burman's "Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko" (from the 1973 film Yaadon Ki Baaraat) and while it was too done-before for Raghav, the artist says his producer convinced him because they were using the oft-lesser heard Rafi vocal portion for "Desperado".^[29] The song which was released in April 2023 garnered over 36,054,388 views on Spotify alone. Besides being a certified hit on the popular video sharing platform, the independently released song managed to pave its way into everyone's heart through.^[30] Mushtaq followed with release of Chingari featuring Indian Rapper Divine. The song celebrated Indipop sensation from the 2000s in collaboration with Raghav and Divine, which samples a couple of lines from Kishore Kumar's song Aadmi Jo Kehta Hai from Amitabh Bachchan's 1974 film Majboor.^[31] In February 2024 Choro was released on all social platforms.

Mushtaq was born in London to Bangladeshi and Iranian parents.^[9] He attended Quintin Kynaston Community Academy and studied sociology at Maria Fedeilis. He later received a scholarship at Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study contemporary composition. Mushhtaq is a Muslim.^[18][20]

• Asian Underground
• British Bangladeshis
• List of British Bangladeshis