The most popular hip hop group in faraway Bangladesh makes its music in a small second-floor studio in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Kazi of Stoic Bliss

Kazi, the central figure of the group known as Stoic Bliss, is a 23-year-old student at New York's Tauro College.

KAZI: "What I wanted to do was give like a history of Bangladesh in a nutshell, within a four and a half minute song. You know, a big picture of the current situation, the shattered state our country is in right now."

The track, "Bangladesh" is one of the few from the group's first album, "Light Years Ahead," that features lyrics in English. Stoic Bliss is part of a new wave of South Asian hip hop which includes a handful of groups that rap in the national language of Bangladesh. Bangla, or Bengali as it's known here, makes the group unusual but also presents the musicians with a challenge.

ACID: "Rapping and Bengali never went. If people said rapping you can't say Bengali right after that. It never existed."

Sean Khan, stage name "Acid," is the group's primary rapper. He came to the US when he was 7 and lost touch with his native language and culture. He says he rapped with his friends on the block, but always in English, until he met Kazi.

ACID: "Kazi really helped me out a lot and actually bringing back my heritage. You know where I was from and what not. And I started speaking more of the language and what not."

Sean's verse is featured on their hit single. The title "Abar Jigay" or "Say What" in English is slang used by youth on the streets of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka.

The one responsible for the quick club beats and throbbing bass lines is Rajib Rahmin, also known as Double R. At 27, he's considered the elder of the group.

RAJIB: "I play all the equipment and scratch with the finger, with the keyboards, one by one. And then I do the recording, mixing, and mastering all the, I do all things."

Rajib shows off his home studio. A drum set, keyboards, and multiple computer monitors crowd the small space. A narrow closet has been converted into a vocal booth. The pungent scent of curry and other spices fills the house from the kitchen. Stoic Bliss is rehearsing for an upcoming show at a college in Virginia. Rajib plays a new track.

Although he largely sticks to an American style of hip hop producing, Rajib does add elements of Bengali music. He says his mother, a trained singer in Bangladesh, was influential.

RAJIB: "She had a little school, you know all the kids used to come and learn classical things. So I used to go and sit there and watch all the time. And after a while, like 9 years old, I was singing by myself and my mom was like, 'Wow, you have a good voice.'"

Downstairs Rajib's mother, Parveen, drags an old instrument from beneath the staircase.

PARVEEN: "This is called harmonium."

It's a small keyboard with bellows at the back like an accordion that is commonly used in traditional Bengali music.

After a moment, she calls Rajib down to join her and play the tabla, or drums.

It's the first time that Sean has heard Rajib's mother play and he's ready to put her sound into the group.

ACID: "Honestly, I had never heard Aunty play like that. We could actually work on something like that, based on since we're doing cultural hip hop, Bengali hip hop. We could bring back that old school classic type, put that on a hip-hop beat and put that classical hip hop voice going up and down and it's going to be buggin out! It's going to be crazy!"

But Rajib's mom is a bit reluctant.

PARVEEN: "I'm getting old now. This hip-hop is for young people, not for old people!"

A week later, the band is the headliner for an arts festival put on by Bangladeshi students at George Mason University. After students in colorful saris perform a traditional dance, Stoic Bliss takes the stage. Sean and Kazi look like typical hip-hoppers from Queens, with their baggy pants and Yankees hats cocked to the side. Many in the crowd of about 200 sing along to the group's familiar hits, and dance like crazy to this new song that goes from English to Bangla and back again at lightning speed.

A 19-year old student named Mindy says she hears something new in Stoic Bliss' style.

MINDY: "Not like the older Bengali music that's really slow you can't move to it but this is more up to beat so I think it'll be more popular amongst the people in our generation."

Their first album has caught on in Bangladesh, selling close to 250,000 copies in just 10 months. Stoic Bliss hopes their second album is also well received. The group plans to tour Bangladesh for the first time this August, to release their new CD.