Music premiere: Maxim Behar, Big Sha, and Lil Sha with their new song - "PR We Are"

Host (Diana Radeva): In the next few minutes my guests will be some people who, honestly, I admit I could hardly imagine seeing making a song together. This is PR specialist Maxim Behar, Big Sha an absolute legend, especially for people who were born in Varna like me and Lil Sha Misho's son. Hello and welcome. I'm so glad I could catch you in Bulgaria and not in Chicago and include you remotely.

Big Sha: Thanks for the attention, thanks for the invitation. It's a pleasure to be here.

Host: How did you get together to do a joint song?

Maxim Behar: There are things in life that happen without you even expecting them. About a year ago someone attacked Misho on Facebook and I defended him. He messaged me on Messenger and said, "Thank you so much. I am indebted to you. You protected me." I told him it was okay, we could do a song together one day. Occasionally Big Sha would text me from Chicago to ask when we were going to do the song.

Host: So, you insisted?

Misho: Well, it was in the order of things.

Maxim: At one point he texted me, "We're in Sofia. I've booked a studio. Let's record." And so, it happened.

Misho: Yeah, we got together and literally within 10-12 hours we were standing in the studio and the magic happened. Because when you make music it's not like carrying bricks and building a house. There's no exact math, there's no exact recipe. It happens with magic.

Host: Tell us what the first reactions were. It was just the premiere of this video a few days ago.

Maxim: It's a rather untypical role for me. Lil Sha produced a great beat and we wrote the text together. The night before the recording I told Big Sha that I was super worried about what we were going to do the next day. He responded that everything would be fine, I just needed to take my good mood and show up with it. At first, the lyrics were in Bulgarian, but then we decided that it would be best if we did them in English. Just three days ago, the song was promoted to New York’s biggest R&B radio Hot 21 and they loved it. I hope that it is well received as it is tightly related to my PR business /

Host: And basically, what was the challenge for you to participate in a song first with your father and second with a guy who has absolutely nothing to do professionally with music up to this point?

Lil Sha: At first, I cringed a little, but when we got in the studio and when we caught the whole vibe it literally all happened in no time. The whole process was very natural. It all happened beautifully.

Host: You're the youngest among us here and you certainly have an observation of what's being listened to around the world. Does such a song written in our latitudes have the potential to gain worldwide fame?

Lil Sha: I have a feeling it could. Because of my beats, I listen to a lot of American music, I listen to all different music because I want to be inspired. I'm looking at this song that we did together now and I'm mixing styles. We have a singer from Nashville named Sarah and she's on the song too. She took out a bridge. It's a rap song but the bridge spiced it up a bit.

Maxim: I ran into Sara quite by accident in a little metropolitan pub where she was just in town for a night, and she was singing country. She currently has 4 Grammy nominations in country music. She's from Nashville. The other morning, I was shooting some reels and I tagged her. She texted me to thank me. At one point I told her, "You know I have a song and I'm looking for a female voice for the bridge.". She told me "Send me the song.". So I did. She then replied to me that she was only involved in writing her lyrics. Lil Sha is very right here - there was and continues to be great chemistry and we get along beautifully. Lil Sha and I text each other on Instagram because he doesn't respond elsewhere.

Host: Do you write in Bulgarian or in English?

Lil Sha: In English and Bulgarian. More in English.

Host: How did this chemistry and magic happen?

Big Sha: Maxim and I have known each other for a very long time. He played an important role in my life and in changing my character. He has helped me in very serious moments, for which I want to thank him. I am extremely proud that we had the opportunity to do this. The song became very cool. I want you all to hear it. It's already spinning in America on Hot 21. We're already trying other radio stations to get into it. But Hot 21 is one of the best radio stations for R&B and rap music in New York.

Maxim: The song is on all platforms. It's on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music. It's on over 45 platforms worldwide. And listeners will have their say here. The beautiful thing about platforms is that when you go to Spotify or YouTube and you can see how many people have downloaded it, how many people have listened to it. That's the most accurate assessment. But we really want to get into the US charts, and I want to be very explicit here that this is a Bulgarian song. It was made by Bulgarians, it was recorded in Bulgaria, and it is in English because we have said many times in this studio how important it is for Bulgaria to have a good image abroad. Especially overseas. How important it is for Bulgaria to be more recognizable. Little by little, step by step, we should build a positive international image of Bulgaria

Host: You've been in Chicago for how many years?

Big Sha: 9 and a half. Almost 10 years.

Host: Now how are you different? What are you teaching Lil Sha?

Big Sha: I don't teach him, he teaches me. Because he was lucky enough to grow up in a country where personality comes first. Every man walks with his head held proudly high. That's something I'm trying to push here among my friends. Every man must believe in himself because the thing I've come to understand about America is that the smallest bolt in this machine is just as important as the hands on the clock. Because without the smallest bolt, the hands won't tell the time. So, we must walk with respect for every single person and every single person should walk with their head held proudly high.

Host: And in your eyes, what does Bulgaria look like? You have grown up in America.

Lil Sha: Yeah 9 years I would say that's half my life. I can say that there are nice things. There are some bad ones too. I can say I like nature, and I like the people. It is nice for a vacation.

Maxim: This is one of the goals of our project. To show that things can be done in Bulgaria. Of course, of the three of us here, I'm the only amateur.

Host: You went to the Camino, then I watched you in a film that you were shooting. Now in song, I don't know what might follow. Are you going to become a political candidate?

Maxim: No, never. It hasn't even crossed my mind and I know there are examples like that. It's important to do things that are interesting to us, that are nice and that can give us an appreciation of the world. You've made a bad song, no one's going to take it off you and no one's going to listen to it. You made a good song, it's Bulgarian and a lot of people listen to it and see it. Moreover, in Bulgaria, it's a big drama when we make pop music. I say this as a consumer of course, not as a person who deals with music professionally. We are focusing on a genre that stays only behind our borders.

Host: Well, however, this pop star is Vasil Naydenov. This pop star is Bogdana Karadocheva and endless other people who are great and sing great.

Maxim: Respect to all of them. But we must present Bulgaria with its other face - the young people who sing a different style of music that can be listened to outside the borders, just like Lil Sha. That was the reason. The guys know I came to the studio with lyrics in Bulgarian. And the three of us sat in the studio in the morning and decided to do it in English. Then Lil Sha got his phone out and told me to dictate to him and he would write. So, we did the lyrics, which came out very well. A lot of my friends from all over the world, especially in the PR business, listened to it and were very enthusiastic.

Host: Okay, what can we expect from here on out from you? Can we see you in concert with this song?

Big Sha: Why not.

Host: Because there were a lot of concerts this summer. I think people enjoyed you a lot. There's some nostalgia for that music from years ago.

Big Sha: To be honest, we're the Lily Ivanova of rap.

Host: Which you?

Big Sha: Rubber Heads. The Rubber Heads tour was very successful, and I think it was much more successful than my prime years. Maybe it's nostalgia, right? But this time we added live instruments drums, guitars, and a big crew. We had the guts to do it right.

Host: Well, it's different from the time of those tapes and now.

Big Sha: Yeah, it was great.

Host: How are you going to take it from here?

Maxim: We're going to do more projects. I already wrote lyrics for a second song, it's in the hands of Lil Sha. However, I told him 3-4 months ago that I didn't want to do anything. We just must see if this song will be successful.

Host: PR is talking to you here because you know you shouldn't be wasting another product so quickly.

Maxim: And we need to get it out of our heads. Lil Sha has some wonderful beats. The music is his and when we sat down in the studio, he dropped about 10 beats. We picked the best one that fit the lyrics. But I'm sure by next summer we'll have 2-3 songs together.

Host: Are you going to make it in the music business?

Lil Sha: Yeah, I think that's the life I grew up to live. Now in America, I'm working on my own music. I make my own music. I produce my beats and mix my vocals. I have my own studio at home, always working with other artists. I'm looking to grow in this business.

Host: There's a special question from the booth. Is there going to be any new music from Misho Shamara?

Big Sha: There is new music by Big Sha. By the way, we did a song in Bulgarian with Lil Sha. Now we should shoot a video, but only time will tell with this project. There are a few others I'm working on. But I don't do music as a career anymore because for me my focus is Lil Sha's career and projects like this. Because that's the outside-the-box stuff that I've been on. This project is an extraordinary opportunity.

Host: In this regard, next week are elections. Have you ever thought of entering politics?

Big Sha: Maybe when I was younger, I used to trick myself into just thinking it. I don't get up for these things and I'm fully conscious.

Host: Okay final one from everybody.

Maxim: I am extremely happy that the first promotion on TV of this clip is happening in Euronews. All three of us were talking in the car when it was coming up. They watch Euronews TV in Chicago, which I do at home. Because you make wonderful television and it totally matches, it's the chemistry with the song that we did "PR We Are".

Host: Thank you so much for that interview. Thanks for being here, we'll have you back.

You can watch the whole interview here.