ShahidButtar.com / Music /

Scroll down for free music, or to see some of the venues I've played.

Get Outta Your Chair

My debut CD, Get Outta Your Chair, includes socially conscious and reflective rhymes over funk, house, R&B, traditional hip-hop and soul tracks from several producers, including Thunderball, Starpeople and Bomani "D-Mite" Armah.

Free Music

If you're looking for music right now:

• Download "Thought Crimes," produced in spring 2008 by DJ Space Frequency
  
• Listen to "Every Experience Happens for a Reason"
  
• Check out the video for "Bumpin in My SUV":

• Here's a live set I did at Sam's Pizza in Northampton, Mass in May 2009.  The set starts to pick up around 1:30 and includes three songs.
  

Where I've Performed

I've kicked rhymes for crowds as large as 50,000, and as small as one. DJ crews I've rolled with include Sol System, Opel Productions, Global Groove and Pink Mammoth -- I am always down to throw around a little sound to help represent the underground.

Venues I've played include:

• In DC: Art-o-Matic, Bar Nun, Bohemian Caverns, Bossa, Busboys & Poets, Chief Ike's Mambo Room, Cafe Citron, G-40, HR-57, Mocha Hut, Rendezvous, Rock & Roll Hotel, Sanctuary, Science Club, The Studio Theater and Velvet Lounge
• in NYC: Le Souk, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Sin Sin, and White Rabbit 
• In SF: 1015 Folsom, Mars Bar, Lipo Lounge, The Lookout, Love Fest, Pink, Shine, the Urban Art Farm and Wish
  
• The Opulent Temple, Garage Mahal, Pink Mammoth and Sol System camps at Black Rock City, NV (the sight of Burning Man), as well as the Playa Del Fuego mid-atlantic regional burn and off-playa Burner-themed parties in Denver, DC, New York and SF

Beyond traditional music venues, I also play peace & justice events.  I've performed as part of:

• The 2004 Operation Ceasfire concert in DC 
• The 2007 "Make Hip Hop, Not War" tour in Baltimore and Boston
• Rallies all over the country on issues ranging from climate change and Franken-foods to international peace and living wages.
• Government institutions, including the Old Post Office and The World Bank in DC, and City Hall in SF.
• The 2006-07 ShantiSalaam tour, which visited 13 cities across South Asia.

More Free Music

My music explores numerous overlapping themes, but for the sake of simplicity, I present them here in categories:

• socially relevant tracks
  
• sentimental tracks
• instrumentals
  

If you've got any feedback on my music or writing to share, or if you'd like me to speak or perform at an event, please drop me a line via email....

All content on this site is freely licensed under a Creative Commons License.