{
  "id": 16463543,
  "title": "Indian rappers drop climate crisis album",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/25/indian-rappers-drop-climate-crisis-album",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-25T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "IOL",
    "slug": "iol",
    "url": "https://iol.co.za/news/world/2026-10-25-indian-rappers-drop-climate-crisis-album/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Indian rapper Kali has released an album addressing the climate crisis, drawing inspiration from his own childhood experiences with water scarcity. Titled \"Neer Kodu\" in Kannada, the single track is part of a six-track mixtape called \"Climate Emergency Mixtape,\" which organizers describe as the first multilingual rap album on the topic in India. Kali, whose real name is Akshay, spent years making music, influenced by artists like Eminem and Akon. In an interview, Kali recounted walking 10 minutes to fill plastic pots with water from a public tap as a child. Bengaluru, India's tech capital, faces chronic water shortages, with many residents relying on groundwater wells prone to drying up in summer. Some turn to costly water trucked from other regions. The album's collaborators, including Asar Social Impact Advisors, believe music is a potent medium to convey the climate crisis' impact. Rapper Abisha, a member of Tamil Nadu's first all-women rap group Sollisai Sistahs, penned \"Veppa Marathadiyila,\" a Tamil song about marginalized communities affected by climate change. Abisha shared memories of water reaching her doorstep aged eight and it running dry two years later. She hopes her song can spark greater understanding of the threat through more potent means than spoken words. Kali encouraged artists to shift focus from mundane subjects like cars and bikes, urging them to tackle climate change instead.",
  "summary": "Indian musicians have launched the \" Climate Emergency Mixtape\" — the country's first multilingual climate crisis rap album — featuring personal songs from artists like Kali and Abisha who draw on their own childhood memories of water scarcity and environmental destruction to spread critical awareness.",
  "key_points": [
    "Indian rapper Kali releases climate crisis album titled \"Neer Kodu\"",
    "Album part of six-track mixtape, first multilingual rap album on topic in India",
    "Collaborators believe music is potent medium to convey climate crisis impact"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Using multilingual rap to address environmental scarcity shifts the genre's focus from lifestyle subjects toward urgent social activism and the lived realities of marginalized communities facing climate change.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}