In Defense of Ska Ep 191: Dunia & Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks, Agent 99, Stomp, Brave New Girl, Dubistry)

Dunia Best was on In Defense of Ska in 2022 to talk her ’90s ska band Agent 99, her time in The Slackers and her current projects Rude Girl Revue and Dunia and Aram. This week, she joins us again, but brings her brother, Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels. 

Before he got the gig as Jar Jar, Ahmed spent a lot of time playing drums. He played in Agent 99 whenever Dunia needed a drummer. He also was in the group The Jazzhole, and even played with Jeff Buckley and The Fugees. Then he got a gig with Stomp, which eventually led to a Star Wars audition. The rest is history. 

We focus on this time period in the ’90s and hear many of Ahmed and Dunia’s shared stories, which includes seeing Fishbone, playing music together in New York, and they even dig into some Best family lore. There’s a wild Lead Belly story that needs to be heard.

Plus, we learn how the Jar Jar voice originated in the Best family. It was a voice they all did. Dunia liked to call it “Harvey” 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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