South Indian rappers are mixing regional language, culture and issues into rap beats with an international flavor, delivering new musical compositions, pushing the boundaries of hip-hop to the world.
The most famous professional football competition in the world, "Arsenal", the strong team of "English Premier League", has used a new in the introductory video of the upcoming season. It uses Indian rapper 'Hanumankind' to announce the start of the season with his famous song.
On the official website of Arsenal, it has been announced that this rapper from Kerala will be invited as a special guest in the league, identifying him as a big fan of the club.
Suraj Cherukat, who was born in Malappuram, Kerala and grew up in different countries including America, known as Hanumankind, previously appeared as an attraction in the 'Made in India' program organized during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to America. Modi went to the stage and hugged him, who sang his famous song 'Big Dogs' in front of about 13,000 Indian diaspora who came from 42 different US states. In that song, he tried to express the struggle of the working class, the story of rising from poverty to success, Tamil culture and Dravidian identity. By mixing the modern hip-hop spirit of the South American state of Texas with the South Indian Tamil culture, he has created a new edge of rap music.
Hanumankind's music video released this month called 'Run It Up' is also garnering worldwide attention. Hanumankind, who featured the 'Mautka Kuan' played in Indian festivals in the video of 'Big Dogs', has presented various styles of wrestlers and folk dances from other states including Kerala in 'Run It Up'. Hanumankind, who YouTuber Isospeed calls 'JG of India', is a representative character of the Indian hip-hop and rap music sector, which has been gaining global acclaim lately.
His songs and music videos are 'viral' on the internet. 'Big Dogs', which was released eight months ago, has reached 220 million views on YouTube alone, and the song reached the 9th position on Billboard's global ranking. Hanumankind is scheduled to perform at the famous Coachella music festival in California next month. Global celebrities like Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Melon are also singing there. Earlier, Diljit Dosanjh sang at Coachella.
With Hanumankind, South Indian rappers have emerged impressively in the world music scene in recent times. They are mixing regional language, culture and issues into rap beats with an international flavor to deliver a fresh musical composition. It has won the hearts of viewers and listeners all over the world. Artists like Arivu, Fejo, Thirumali, Hanumankind, Baby Jin, Raja Kumari, Irfana Hamid, Siri Narayan are at the peak of popularity. Presenting their musical talent, they are pushing the boundaries of South Indian hip-hop internationally.
Searching for identity through music
Until a few years ago, Indian hip-hop was mainly concentrated in North Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, Calcutta. Although films like Ranveer Singh starrer 'Gully Boy' brought Hindi hip-hop into the limelight, South Indian music was in the shadow of Bollywood. However, now hip-hop artists of South India have started a separate musical movement based on their own cultural and linguistic identity.
They are presenting a completely new musical trend to the world by mixing their language, costumes, lifestyle and local issues into songs. As music analysts say, South Indian hip-hop is proving that the hip-hop genre is not just a product of Western influence, but also a means of expressing the voice, struggle and pride of the local community. Along with India's most famous hip-hop artists like Honey Singh, Badsah, Raftaar, international artists like DJ Snake, DJ Lan and music experts like AR Rahman have also started collaborating with the South Indian rapper.
Spotify's recently released 'Loud and Clear 2025' report shows that the number and influence of Indian musicians in world music has grown significantly. The report mentions that more than 9,000 artists have been added to Spotify in the past one year, and more than 90 percent of them are 'local artists'. Hindi pop, hip-hop to Punjabi pop, Tamil pop and Malayalam hip-hop have become popular in the international music scene. The report points out that Telugu language musics are garnering the most buzz.
Not only that, but in 2024, nearly 50 percent of the royalties earned by Indian musicians from Spotify came from overseas streaming. It shows the growing popularity of Indian music in the US, UK, UAE, Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, according to India Today journalist Bhavna Aggarwal. "Among the cultural products exported from India, previously Bollywood films and music were the main ones, now independent creators and songs/music in regional languages are also attracting attention around the world," Agarwal writes, "India's regional music is no longer limited to the hometown, Spotify's data shows that these are reaching the world."
rapper Hanumankind himself does not identify himself as an 'Indian rapper' but as a 'rapper of Indian origin'. Similarly, Deepa Unnikrishnan, who is popular with the stage name 'D MC', says that earlier hip-hop or rap was used as a filler or a means to fill empty space in Bollywood songs, but now it has started to be taken as a complete song. "With the rise of hip-hop, there has also been a change in the treatment of rappers," she says, "Earlier we were seen as fillers in big songs, now we are seen as equals." He started his musical journey in 2017 with a band called 'The Castless Collective' established in Chennai. This band has made music a major medium to raise voice against caste discrimination. The song 'Inyoj Enjami' sung by Arivu with singer Dee in the 'Mazza' project, which is associated with AR Rahman, now has more than 500 million views on YouTube alone. After the song became popular, Rahman was also accused of abandoning Arivu and Di.
Rapper Arivu and singer Di in the poster of the song 'Inyoj Enjami'.
In the song, Arivu sings about his grandmother Valiamma, who is sent to forced labor in a tea plantation in Sri Lanka. Valiamma, who was taken to work as a landless migrant laborer, was later forcibly brought back to India in the same manner. In a conversation with 'The Wire India', Arivu said about his ancestral home, "Our family was taken to work as laborers in tea plantations in Sri Lanka 200 years ago. After the Sirima-Shastri Accord of 1964, they were suddenly returned to India. My grandmother didn't even get to say 'gayen hai' to her sisters. Till today we don't know if our relatives are alive or not.
Similarly, Kerala's famous rapper Thirumali (Vishnu MS) has proved to preserve the cultural heritage of South India through his rap music. Named 'Thirumali' as a tribute to the old poets of the Malayalam language, the rapper's song 'Vaiyaveli' has been praised by critics. In this song, he has tried to highlight the situation of being trapped by traditional untouchability and social challenges. The meaning of the song is –
You're dishonest, I'm also dishonest
Slavery for centuries, it's still going on
We have to die like dogs for work
That's why we keep on fighting
Kerala's famous rapper Thirumali (Vishnu MS).
Thirumali's songs are often about local labor struggles, Dalit identity and colonial injustices. In a video interview with Kerala's popular magazine 'The Week', he said that until a few years ago, hip-hop music was almost non-existent in Kerala and instead of following mainstream trends, Malayalam rap has now reached the country/abroad by telling its own story. Thirumali is also credited with awakening hip-hop music in Kerala.
Currently, hip-hop artists like Street Academics, Fejo, Dabji, Hanumankind, Bhedan, MC Cooper, Baby Jin, Parimal Sais, Killa K are famous in Kerala. Their solo and collaborative songs are trending on social media from online streaming platforms. Songs like 'Illuminati' by Dabji, 'Kayi' by Baby Jin, 'Aiyayo' by Parimal Sais, 'Voice of Voiceless' by Bhedan and their music videos are famous. These rappers sing Kerala folk music and community festival songs like Kollam and Pani mixed with modern hip-hop beats.
In Tamil Nadu artists like Yogi B, MC Jesz, Arivu, Sikflip have also sung traditional Tamil music and culture like ganas, tavils, which are played in temples and festivals, in hip-hop beats. The hip-hop scene in Karnataka and especially Bengaluru is still dynamic and vibrant. Deep lyrics based on political and cultural issues, experimental music, street rap, trap rap, boom bap, etc. are popular on the Internet. Rappers like Broda B (Vignesh Shivanand), Roll Rida, Rebel 7 (Manjunath Naik), Smokey the Ghost (Srinath Satyanarayan), MC Bijju, Gubbi, Siri (Siri Narayan), All OK (Alok Babu) have been singing in Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and English.
Irfana Hamid, a hip-hop artist from Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu.
Indian-American hip-hop artist Raja Kumari (Sweta Yallapragada) has played an important role in spreading Indian hip-hop internationally. She has also worked with famous American artists Nas, Drake and Snoop Dogg. His song 'Made in India' has succeeded in adding Indian sweetness to hip-hop. The music video of this song covers different cultures, costumes and dance styles of India. Similarly, hip-hop sensation Irfana Hameed from Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu sings about religious bigotry, oppression and the Tamil language along with Muslim identity. She has also sung the theme song 'Am Your King' for the Netflix series 'Masaba Masaba'.
Now the influence of South Indian hip-hop has spread not only to the music of India but also to the international level. According to Spotify, South Indian hip-hop songs were trending in 75 countries in 2024 alone. Songs like 'Big Dogs' by Hanumankind managed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Global 200 chart. Raja Kumari's song 'Made in India' has been streamed more than 100 million times. The songs of artists like Fejo, Thirumali, Aribhu have been continuously trending on YouTube.
Indian-American hip-hop artist Raja Kumari (Sweta Yallapragada).
This achievement has established South Indian hip-hop as a musical movement that is no longer just a regional or limited music stream, but a global one. The rise of South Indian hip-hop has challenged the supremacy of Hindi music and especially Bollywood, taking regional language songs to new heights. Rap songs that were previously only sung by Hindi-speaking singers have now become popular in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and North-East Indian states as well.
South Indian languages and cultures such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, which were once a joke and a part of 'stereotype' in South Asia, have recently become 'mainstream' through social media, cinema and music. Just as South Indian cinema has overtaken mainstream Bollywood and, in some cases, Hollywood, in terms of revenue and popularity, the rise of South Indian rap music is mirroring a similar cultural rebellion.
Today rap and hip-hop connoisseurs on Instagram or Tiktok are saying that 'the best rap music of today is coming from India'. There's no saying Hanumankind won't do it with Eminem or Kendrick Lamar tomorrow, just like Diljit Dosanjh collaborated with Ed Siran. In an interview after beating Lamar on the world chart, Hanumankind said, "I want to work with artists and hip-hop groups like Kendrick, JID, Denzel Curry, Three Six Mafia." -
with the help of agency
