Indian rappers use music to sound climate alarm

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🗞️ Driving the news: Indian rappers are using music to raise awareness of the climate crisis through the Climate Emergency Mixtape, described by its organisers as India’s first multilingual rap album focused on climate change
• Featuring six tracks, the project connects environmental issues with artists’ personal experiences of water scarcity, extreme weather and the struggles of marginalised communities

🔭 The context: Water stress is a persistent challenge in Bengaluru, where residents rely on groundwater wells that can dry up during summer or pay for water delivered by truck
• Climate change could intensify these pressures as temperatures rise and weather patterns shift
• India also faces a range of climate-related hazards, from droughts to deadly floods and landslides
• The artists and project collaborators hope that using local languages, lived experiences and music will make climate issues more relatable to communities where the subject receives limited attention.

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: By translating climate impacts into local stories and languages, the project can help build public awareness of water scarcity and extreme weather
• Its focus on marginalised communities also highlights how climate risks are experienced unevenly, making inclusive communication an important part of climate action.

⏭️ What’s next: The artists hope the mixtape will encourage more musicians to address climate change and bring environmental conversations to audiences beyond traditional climate campaigns
• Its broader ambition is to make sustainability part of everyday culture through music that reflects people’s own experiences

💬 One quote: “Music, we felt, is an extremely powerful medium,” said Brikesh Singh of Asar Social Impact Advisors, a collaborator on the album

📈 One stat: Six tracks feature on the Climate Emergency Mixtape, bringing climate themes to listeners through multilingual rap.

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