walking upstream…
Jasmine Sandlas
Jasmine Sandlas is an Indian-American singer and songwriter, born in Punjab and raised from her early teens in Stockton, California, where Punjabi folk music met West Coast hip-hop and R&B in equal measure. She built an underground following with 2007's "Muskan" and a 2012 Sony Music debut, Gulabi, produced by and featuring rapper Bohemia, before crossing into Bollywood playback with 2014's "Yaar Naa Miley" alongside Yo Yo Honey Singh and the string of Punjabi-pop hits that followed, "Illegal Weapon" and "Sip Sip." Known for a sultry, full-throated vocal delivery over dhol-driven dance production, she continues to move between Punjabi singles and Hindi film soundtracks, including 2025's Dhurandhar.
the sound in question
2017
Illegal WeaponJasmine Sandlas
walk the tributaries ↓
Bohemia2000s · Desi hip hop / Punjabi rap / Hip hop
Bohemia produced Sandlas's 2012 debut studio album Gulabi and guested on its lead single, 'Adhi Raati,' pairing her vocals with the laid-back, half-sung Punjabi-English rap cadence he had pioneered years earlier on Pesa Nasha Pyar. That hip-hop-inflected, code-switched delivery — and the West Coast-adjacent production she has cited as a formative influence from her Stockton, California upbringing — recurs across her catalog's rap-adjacent verses.
listen: upstream & here
2006
Kali DenaliBohemia
2012
Adhi RaatiJasmine Sandlas
listen forBohemia's unhurried, half-sung Punjabi-English flow over sparse, bass-heavy production on 'Kali Denali,' versus the same call-and-response cadence and bilingual code-switching the two trade on 'Adhi Raati.'
Yo Yo Honey Singh2010s · Punjabi hip hop / Bhangra / Hip hop / Bollywood
Sandlas has named Honey Singh among her favorite artists, and it was his 2014 Bollywood duet 'Yaar Naa Miley' (from Salman Khan's Kick), built on the Auto-Tuned, trap-hi-hat Punjabi-pop template he had already made commercially dominant, that gave her her mainstream Bollywood breakthrough and set the hooky, club-ready Punjabi-pop mode she carried into 'Illegal Weapon' and beyond.
listen: upstream & heresource: StarsUnfolded — named inspirations (Surinder Kaur, Shiv Kumar Batalvi) and favorite musicians (Yo Yo Honey Singh, Dr Zeus, Arijit Singh, Babbu Maan) ↗
2013
Lungi DanceYo Yo Honey Singh
2014
Yaar Naa MileyJasmine Sandlas
listen forThe Auto-Tuned hook-writing and dhol-trap fusion Honey Singh had already made his signature on 'Lungi Dance,' echoed a year later in the melodic runs the two trade on 'Yaar Naa Miley.'
Surinder Kaur1950s · Punjabi folk
Sandlas has named Surinder Kaur — the 'Nightingale of Punjab' — as one of her two named childhood inspirations, from her school days in Punjab before her family emigrated to California. The open-throated, full-chest belt of classic Punjabi folk singing that Kaur helped define surfaces underneath the Auto-Tune and dance production of Sandlas's own hooks.
listen: upstream & heresource: StarsUnfolded — named inspirations (Surinder Kaur, Shiv Kumar Batalvi) and favorite musicians (Yo Yo Honey Singh, Dr Zeus, Arijit Singh, Babbu Maan) ↗
1943
Maavan Te DhiyanSurinder Kaur
2007
MuskanJasmine Sandlas
listen forCompare the sustained, unadorned high belt Kaur uses on a folk number like 'Maavan Te Dhiyan' to the layered but still full-throated hook-singing Sandlas does over the boliyan-tempo dhol beat on her own early single 'Muskan.'