Light Years Ahead by Stoic Bliss

"Light Years Ahead" or "Alok Borsho Durey" is the debut album of the pioneers of Bangla hip-hop, Stoic Bliss. The Bangladeshi-American hip hop band released this album in June 2006 from G-Series in both Jewel Case CD album and Cassette formats. Following huge popularity that the album garnered, it was followed with a paperback release to meet the demands. In fact, Light Years Ahead sold well over 250,000 copies in the first 10 months, marking the very positive reception of hip-hop music in the Bangla music scene. It spawned timeless hits like "Abar Jigay ??" (which became a pop culture phenomenon among the "dhakaite" lingo of the mid 2000s), "Mayabi Chokh", "Party at PianoHouse", "Sheshbarer Moto", "Chow Mei Fun" etc. Even though the key members of Stoic Bliss are singer Kazi, rapper Ac1D who teamed up with the emerging music producer of the NY bangla music scene, Rajib Rahman aka Double R, the album featured other artists as well who are given full recognition as band members. Kazi was known by underground music legend Arafat Kazi aka Futhman (of The Watson Brothers/The Attempted Band fame) through a friend. Futhman introduced Kazi to none other than Bassbaba Sumon (of Aurthohin fame) and G-Series. Futhman even interviewed Kazi on "Rock-Link", a TV show by G-Series. The album garnered a cult following and spawned of the Bangla hip-hop movement, with other hip hop bands and artists quickly coming to the mainstream music scene. Freestyle rappers started gaining huge popularity and Stoic Bliss was deemed as the pioneer of this movement. Light Years Ahead really lived up to it's name, as it was something never seen before and really shook up the underground rock focused Bangla music scene. The members of Stoic Bliss also collaborated with Fuad Al-Muqtadir in many of his albums. According to the album sleeves, the entire album was composed with one instrument, a "Korg Triton". All songs of Light Years Ahead were recorded at WARFARE recording studio and was a Double R production. The design of the album sleeves and posters were done by Imtiaz of Stoic Bliss and Humayun Kabir of Shomoloy. According to the band, this album is meant to shut the mouths of people who didn't think hop-hop can come out from Bangladeshis. The album was sponsored by Djuice, the popular youth-oriented wing of leading telecommunications company, Grameenphone.

The music of "Badman Returns" is inspired from "The Hata'z Anthem" of Kane'z Beatz Productions. "Abar Jigay ??" is Stoic Bliss' minute attempt at trying to recreate Sean-Paul's classic "Deport Dem" and it is also where the music is inspired from.

The lineup of Light Years Ahead consisted of the following:

Kazi: Vocals/Arrangement/Lyrics/Co-Production
Rajib Rahman aka "Double R": Drums (Percussion), Bass, Keyboard, Guitar, Recording, Mixing & Mastering
Anwarul aka "Rul": Rapper/Lyricist
Sean aka "Ac1D": Rapper/Lyricist
Nayeem aka "Xtro": Rapper/Lyricist
Bappy aka "B1shop": Rapper/Lyricist
Tizzy Montana aka "Taz": Rapper/Lyricist
Shuvo aka "Fly": Rapper/Lyricist
Mana: Vocals/Lyricist, credited as the "First Bengali Diva"
Sanjin: Lonestar State (Texas) member
Fuhad (AQ): Known as Mr. Best Buy
Imtiaz: Graphics Designer

The album is available for streaming on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4g8kw4qWmOlhHRclai1b3b

"Abar Jigay ??" is available for streaming on G-Series' official YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB1ADZSYLbE

Track List:

01. Intro
02. Abar Jigay ?? - B1shop, Tizzy, Ac1D & Kazi
03. Party at PianoHouse - Kazi & Ac1D feat. Mana
04. Chow Mei Fun - Tizzy & Kazi
05. Prem... Mrittur Por - B1shop feat. Kazi & Mana
06. Mayabi Chokh - Rajib & Kazi feat. Mana
07. Sheshbarer Moto - Kazi feat. Ac1D
08. Badman Returns - Ac1D feat. Kazi
09. Bangladesh - Fly feat. Kazi
10. The Epitome - Rul, B1shop, Tizzy & Ac1D
11. Roktim Shinghashon - Kazi
12. Deceptive Measures - Xtro feat. Kazi
13. Eto Raag ? - Kazi
14. Bloopers

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