Hip hop and Rap has been available to various musical cultures all over the world inspiring the imagination of youth and politicizing them along the process. The release of a series of YouTube videos in India particularly in Kerala represents distinct response to the Rap music culture. In distinct yet interlocked ways these videos signal a changing musical culture in Kerala, one that is enabled by new networks and a rapidly changing techno social soundscape and its accompanying listening practices and music culture. This article is an attempt to map and analyze these practices through the video texts of some of these hip hop videos, websites and interviews with the artists and key actors. It analyzes the post globalization musical cultures in Kerala, mapping its techno-social and aesthetic practices and how they bear upon listening practices. It also maps the meaning of rap and hip hop in the Indian sub continent and its relationship to power and hegemony in the musical soundscape of Kerala. The article tries to theorize the emergence of a rap music video culture in Kerala and the Internet publics through the debates on public sphere and how they are caught up with questions of historical memory and identity.
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