Lumino (band)

Lumino (Mongolian: Люмино) is a hip-Hop group from Mongolia founded in 1996. Their music is dance-friendly and often melodic, with frequent contributions by external vocalists. Like most Mongolian bands, they like to include elements of traditional Mongolian music in their songs.

The creation of the band was inspired by a person named Jason who worked as an English teacher in Mongolia in 1996 and 1997. Besides giving language lessons, he also introduced his students to hip-Hop music. Five of them then came together to form Lumino, but a few years after the formation of the band two of their members, Chinzo and Hülgüü, stopped performing with the band. At one point Lumino consisted of more than a dozen members, headed by Skitzo, including the main MCs Skitzo, MC, Chinzo, and Lizard and MCs from the groups Old School and Skitzo's Free Style.

Around 1999 the group went through a major restructuring and changed their strategy in terms of songs they were producing. They also cut their members to five. Previously known for their hardcore rap, Lumino also started to make softer songs for mainstream audiences, and the head of the band was replaced by MC. A number of songs such as Zam and Hüniih were made into video clips and repeatedly played on TV, while the video for Namaig dagaad tseng was censored because of its too explicit imagery.