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Besim Muriqi is from an Albanian region of Kosovo. When he turned 21, he emigrated to New York, where he now lives with two brothers and two sisters. Learning to sing from his neighbors, Muriqi has for the most part limited his repertoire to mellow love songs these days. If he were to sing loud, high-pitched call and response songs like "Kange Majekrahi" in his current neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, he says "people will say, 'He's crazy.' " Muriqi saves his singing of "Kange" for when he goes to upstate New York. "I have some relatives up there. Land, stones; I feel like back home." Muriqi's singing is featured on two Albanian folk and dance songs on Smithsonian's Folkways double-disc compilation NEW YORK CITY: GLOBAL BEAT OF THE BOROUGHS.
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