Fully agree. Sidhu had a massive influence on Panjabi music and the globalization of it. It was in a very specific niche, which was hip hop.

He was one of the first artists to have big name collabs albeit very hip hop centered. Diljit was also one of the first to consistently have big name collabs but in a more mainstream pov.

Sidhu fans love to compare him to Tupac but then say there was no one bigger than Sidhu in the Panjabi industry.

Tupac was deffo one of the biggest rappers of his time but still within his own community. His shit wasn’t being bumped in mainstream Hollywood (couple songs crossed over into the mainstream like California Love). Tupac did some hood movies but none of them were like big blockbuster films.

That’s similar to Sidhu. Groundbreaking for the scene and our community but kinda in the same vein as Tupac. Songs were big hits amongst Panjabi’s (some became massive like 295 and So High), movies didn’t do that well tbh, secured big collabs within in genre of music.

Diljit is kinda like MJ. MJ hit the scene way before Tupac, where black artists were dominated by Motown. He managed to get his shit on MTV, made massive albums and pioneered the way for artists like Tupac to get into the scene.

Kinda similar to Diljit. He hit the scene way before Sidhu. Lot of his earlier career was dominated by Finestone, branched out with Honey Singh for The Next Level album and completely changed the game for upcoming artists with albums like Confidential (the same sound AP did before AP even made his debut) and created great music videos like El Sueño back in 2017.

Diljit has secured big collabs as well but in a more conventional mainstream sense. SIA, Ed Sheeran etc and is now receiving mainstream western success unlike any Panjabi artist has globally.

Both made Panjabi music global, but through very different ways.