Rap has gone global but there's still very few instances where the realms of rap and world music meet. Merging hip-hop with classical Indian music, Grand Tapestry bridges that gap featuring Eligh, an independent hip-hop artist known for genre experimentation, Alam Khan on the 25-stringed fretless instrument called the Sarode, and their diverse collective of collaborators.

Alam is the son of the late legendary Maestro Ali Akbar Khan.  Ali Akbar Khan was known as the greatest Sarode player of modern times, and is responsible for bringing Indian music to the west.  These two artists and collective came together to create an epic tapestry of sound; 16 songs of cinematic beauty. Listen with your eyes closed, mind open, and find yourself in a wondrous state.

20 years before the emergence of STS9, NASA sent Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 on a mission to the farthest reaches of the solar system and beyond. Each of these probes was equipped with identical Golden Records, special messages attached to what Carl Sagan called “a bottle launched into the cosmic ocean.” They contained numerous images and sounds from throughout the world, pieces of music from various cultures, a map identifying the location of our planet, and other information for whomever, or whatever, might find them.

While the Golden Records included greetings in 59 languages, they made no mention of nations and borders, wars and rivalries, or anything else that divides us. What they did mention was life, love, peace, birth--the things that bind us to one another and to the planet we call home. 

The Universe Inside is a reflection of this message. It is a story about human identity and the magical truth of who we are, where we’re going, and our place in the Universe. It says we are one, made of stardust and the forces of nature that evolved over billions of years. Connected by the sun, moon and stars, we are the living, breathing conscience of the Universe. 

"We are one, made from dust of the stars / down here we bear the weight of the pain and the scars / just want to live with nothing to hide / every one of us a universe inside."

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