Was 2024 the year of India’s regional hip hop movement?

Bandra’s iconic Mehboob Studios bursts at the seams with a largely Hindi-speaking crowd. But when Tamil rapper Paal Dabba runs up the stage — popping, locking et al — to the backdrop of his recent track ‘Kaathu Mela’, the crowd erupts. A few speedy verses in, hands go up in the air, and fast, folksy, unmistakably Tamil beats wash over the audience. Shortly after, East India Cypher, an ensemble of five rappers from the Northeast, spits some powerful bars in Odiya, Bengali and even Mizo, with some English folded in, to a dancing crowd. Here, language sits back as beats and rhythm lead.  

Paal Dabba and East India Cypher were among over 40 Indian rappers, across languages, that took to stage recently at Spotify’s Rap91 concert in Mumbai, a testament to the country’s fast evolving regional hip hop movement. Indian hip hop now goes beyond Hindi and Punjabi.

Over the last few years, India’s linguistic diversity is reflecting on its ever-growing hip hop culture as well. While Hindi and Punjabi tightly held the bastion in the breakout years of Indian hip hop, over the last couple of years, there is an evident tilt towards regional lyrics and music. In fact, Malayalam and Haryanvi are amongst the languages that have seen the most growth in hip hop on Spotify in India in 2023-24. And, based on the 2023 Wrapped (a year-round collation of listenership data), close to 30% of the top 50 tracks of 2023 on Spotify in India were hip hop.

Language as identity

“Hip hop is inherently a genre that speaks first to the community it originates in. In languages such as Malayalam and Haryanvi, for instance, we have seen artistes such as Baby Jean and Dhanda Nyoliwala gain popularity beyond their home states. The artistes are pushing the envelope of Indian hip hop, with their own local sound, slang and style. So, while listeners may not understand or relate directly to the language, the authentic expression of experiences contributes towards building the fandom that we see,” says Dhruvank Vaidya, head of music and podcasts, Spotify India. 

With breakout songs like ‘Up to U’ by Haryanvi artist Dhanda Nyoliwala, ‘Malabari Banger’ by Malayali rapper Dabzee and ‘Taambdi Chaambdi’ by Marathi artistes Shreyas and Kratex, it is in the last couple of years that regional language rap started reaching beyond their niche audience. 

Rapping in their mother tongue is simply the most authentic form of expression. For rapper Big Deal who was born to an Odia father and a Japanese mother in Puri, and raised in Darjeeling by his Odia uncle and aunt, the language quickly became a gateway into understanding the world. 

Though he started his hip hop journey with English, his first EP had a smattering of Odia (a few words in fact), which, for the first time garnered a listener base in Odisha. That is when Big Deal realised that this could be a way in which he could speak directly to his people. He wrote extensively about his parents’ meet-cute love story, years of getting bullied because of the way he looked, and identity politics. 

“I have been rapping in Odia for seven years now. I speak to the youth. It’s all about the pulse of the public,” he says. While he raps in the dialect he grew up with, Big Deal points to the Sambalpuri dialect of Odia, which is hugely popular among rappers now. 

So, do artistes have to fine tune their vocabulary to get with the times, and connect with an evolving audience? “When it comes to rapping, you have to have a command over the language. Reading and listening is so important to improve your vocabulary so you can express yourself better. That goes without saying. I have an English-to-Odia dictionary that I end up using a lot,” laughs Big Deal. 

Hailing from the seaside town of Ponnani in Kerala’s Malappuram, rapper Baby Jean found comfort only when he started writing Malayalam. Going mainstream is a win, but it should not be at the expense of remaining independent, he says. Now, a household name in the Malayalam film industry which has embraced hip hop over the last year with much pomp and show, Baby Jean’s distinct baritone and lyrics that are very heavy on slang make him stand out. His track ‘Kaayi’ has 1.1 million plays on YouTube Music at the time of writing this, and has reached global audiences through Instagram Reels.

All eyes on the South

While Hindi and English are largely considered easy to rap in because of the many permutations and combinations of the rhyme, languages like Odia are hard to rap in. 

MC Couper adds, “People think Malayalam is very hard to rap in. I think that’s probably true for a lot of people but that perspective is reductive. Colloquial language was largely not explored in mainstream Malayalam music. Now we’re cruising through this phase where it feels like a cultural explosion of sorts because people are taking the medium and running with it.” 

Baby Jean continues, “At a time when Punjabi rap ruled the roost, many of our songs received not just pan-Indian, but worldwide recognition. The South is definitely getting more powerful! The style is global, and even labels are looking at it as a worldwide market now,” he adds. 

He largely credits social media for this proliferation especially since a majority of their audience discover music there. This holds true even for mainstream film music, he adds. It is true that core hip hop fans are hyper engaged, not just through streaming their favourite artistes’ music, but also engaging with the artists on social media, creating content, and showing support for live performances, adds Dhruvank. 

Paal Dabba started writing verses on YouTube beats during the pandemic in 2020. “I posted those on Instagram, and they went viral. That’s when things really started taking off,” recalls the rapper. Until then he remembers retreating to the last row during college lectures to experiment, by changing the verse of existing Tamil songs. 

“Independent rap artistes are delivering hit after hit, and that’s opened up so much potential for regional hip hop. It’s grown a lot, and I think it’s only going to get bigger from here,” he says. Much like in Kerala, the Tamil film industry has also embraced hip hop music actively. 

“Marathi hip-hop is only just starting to break into the mainstream. With its rich cultural roots and growing popularity, I believe Marathi music has the potential to become the next big trend, much like Punjabi music did,” says Pune-based Marathi rapper MC Gawthi. His track ‘Numberkaari’ reigned at the top of charts in both Mumbai and Pune when it was released.  “Rapping in Marathi gives me the freedom to explore its rich cultural depth and diverse expressions, letting me experiment with words and vocals.” Blending this with western hip-hop elements, he believes, makes his style unique. Outside of Maharashtra, the top cities for his listeners in India are Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Jamshedpur-based Bhojpuri rapper RaajMusic has listeners from around Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru. 

New year, new verse

So what can we expect in the year to come? Will listening trends lean towards hip hop in 2025? While Indian hip hop continues to skew towards a younger, predominantly male audience, it is expected to change. “As the genre becomes more mainstream, the average listener becomes less specific,” he says.

Moreover, Marathi, Gujarati, and Urdu are some of the Indian languages that have shown promising growth, says Dhruvank. 

“English hip hop artists from India have potential to break through as well. With the global success of Indian artists such as Hanumankind and Karan Aujla, there are likely to be more Indian-international artist collaborations in the coming years,” adds Dhruvank.  A$AP Rocky has already announced his presence on the remix of ‘Big Dawgs’ with Hanumankind.

While Indian hip hop has already made space for itself on the global stage, the proliferation of region and language-specific rap beyond their niche audiences shows promise. Good, independent rap is here to stay. 

As MC Couper says, “Every gully’s got different stories here and this country, for better or worse, is the kind of place that has all the ingredients to make artists that can blow people’s minds.”

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