Talking Race, Claiming Space: Interrogating the Political Practice of Desi Hip-Hop

Desi hip-hop occupies a changeable and very unique space in American hip-hop. It is not a cohesive movement, nor a genre of definable characteristics. Rather, it is a compilation of numerous self-constructed and self-conscious political identities. Investment in hip-hop is an important act of race consciousness-identification, but also carries the weight and knowledge of appropriating an expressive form rooted in Black Nationalism. Within this essay I hope not just to identify the plurality and complexity of Desi hip-hop identities and approaches; but also the multiple ways in which political identities emerge and the manner in which artists negotiate cultural appropriation. Through this, perhaps we can recognise that social change is manifold and not just explicit in the rhymes and rhythms of Desi artists, but sometimes more implicit via the presence of Desi artists intercepting hip-hop and carving their identities into mainstream channels of communication as a means of countering limitations instilled by a dominant culture