In a follow-up album to last year’s The World’s Gone Mad, Los Angeles born and Bay area based Sikh hip hop artist Mandeep Sethi comes out strong with a gypsy influenced concept album “Poor Peoples Planet”. Produced by X9 of Xitanos Matematikos, Poor Peoples Planet samples heavily on quotes and concepts of the spiritual speaker Jiddu Krishnamurthi whose words can be heard weaved throughout the album. The Poor Peoples Planet official album release party is THIS THURSDAY, January 20, 2011 at the Rockit Room in San Francisco. The party, officially named “A Night of Conscious Hiphop,” is co-hosted by Ras Ceylon and will have live performances by Mandeep Sethi, Ras Ceylon, Unity and Sinista-Z.

At only 22 years old, Sethi has already developed a strong base of followers having appeared on stage with artists such as Ziggy Marley, Murs, Dead Prez and RZA of the WuTang Clan. A member of Afrika Bambataa’s Zulu Nation as well as a member of the hip hop crew Xitanos Matematikos (Mathematical Gyspies), for Sethi the microphone represents a catalyst of change rhyming with lyrics of social consciousness and cultural awareness. Sethi has taken hip hop to his Indian roots, collaborating with local artists like Delhi Sultanate of BASSFoundation (Delhi) and Reggae Rajahs (Delhi) as well as co-founding alongside BBoy Heera the India based B-boy/creative collective Slumgods. Poor Peoples Planet was inspired by the gypsy hip hop teachings of Xitanos Matematikos (Mathematical Gypsies) and the idea of worldwide wandering gypsies originating from Punjab in the 11th dynasty. Imagined as a concept album, Poor Peoples Planet musically links the relationship between gypsy music, Punjabi music, and hip hop culture. These influences can be heard in every song on the album, from the haunting “I’m free” mantra laced song Cagebird to the head nodding Krishnamurthi sampled tribute to Punjab on Ragamvirtuoso.

“We are a people that have been forced out of our land, forced away from our culture, and forced away from our language,” says Sethi. “By nature we are gypsies wandering these plains trying to reconnect with our culture and reclaim what was once ours.” The single “Moving Swiftly:: Guerilla Tactics” off of Poor Peoples Planet can be heard below:

“If by the end of the album you are inspired to join the movement to take the resources, cultures, and people back from appropriation,” says Sethi, “Then our mission is complete.”

Poor Peoples Planet trailer for Mandeep Sethi