A growing number of young people from Indian-administered Kashmir are finding their voice through rap.

Many artists have been able to give expression to their experiences through rap, which they say they find liberating and powerful.

"I rap on social issues, the hardships faced by people and about myself. My music is my message. This is a conflict area and through my music I want to enlighten people across the country of what is happening," Syed Musaib, 22, told RFI.

Better known by his stage name, MC Musaib started early and has been rapping for over 15 years. He has a huge following on social media and is hoping that his music reaches a wider audience beyond Kashmir.

"For young people like us, rap and hip hop help to articulate a certain cultural perspective and help others understand what is going on in the minds of the youth in this environment," he said.

Soundtrack to protests

Rap culture's roots in the Kashmir Valley can be traced back to 2010, when a 17-year-old boy, Tufail Mattoo, was killed while returning home from a tutoring session during a street protest in a Srinagar neighbourhood. Eyewitnesses said security forces fired a tear gas shell at him from close range.

During the outcry that followed, a song called "I protest" by Roshan Illahi - better known as MC Kash - became an anthem. Kashmir's first hip hop star, Kash was part of a generation that had grown up under the shadow of conflict.

"In Kashmir, rap exploded onto the mainstream with MC Kash, and we saw intimate expression of belonging, geography, suffering - the experience of growing and growing through conflict," Ibrahim Wani, an assistant professor at the University of Kashmir's Institute of Kashmir Studies, told RFI.

Though rap has always offered a voice to those at the margins, globally and in India, in today's Kashmir it has to some extent been robbed of its political bite.

Since 2019, when the Indian government unilaterally revoked Kashmir's special autonomous status and imposed a media blackout on the region, many rappers are playing it safer than they once might have - at least publicly.

"I am sure the underground as a scene for rap exists still, though its borders may have become more intelligent," said Wani.

A genre evolving

"I rap on the issues affecting Kashmir society. Patriarchy is one important theme and how difficult it has become to break the glass ceiling for a girl like me when there are people who troll you and abuse," 18-year-old Anam Nasir, who goes by the stage name Rapper Annie, told RFI.

She is among a handful of women in Kashmir who make hip hop, which has largely been male-dominated. She became one of the first female Kashmiri rappers to perform in public in 2019, and has continued pushing boundaries with her lyrics.

"My music has got to feel and I call out the gender biases that perpetuate our discrimination. I also talk about drug addiction and rape," said Nasir.

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Wani points out that the fading of political protest rap is giving space to other types of music that do not only engage with Kashmir's politics.

"Nevertheless, it may be reflective of new ways to reflect on youth subcultures in Kashmir, youth issues, or interfaces between the global and the local," he adds.

Originally published on RFI