How Malayalam Rappers Blend Languages to Express Identity

What is it about?

Over the past decade, Malayalam Hip Hop has emerged as a significant cultural movement in Kerala, reshaping regional musical practices and youth expression. A defining feature of this genre is its rich linguistic diversity. Artists frequently alternate between Malayalam and English and incorporate multiple Malayalam dialects, including socially marginalized varieties. The present study examines twenty selected popular songs to understand how these language choices function within the genre. The analysis shows that code-switching is a meaningful and strategic practice rather than a purely stylistic feature. The use of English situates Malayalam Hip Hop within a global musical tradition, signalling affiliation with transnational Hip Hop culture. At the same time, the incorporation of regional dialects localizes the genre, enabling artists to negotiate identity, assert cultural specificity, and challenge established linguistic hierarchies. Through multidialectal expression, performers create alternative spaces of representation that foreground subaltern voices and lived experience. In addition, the use of standard Malayalam to address contemporary social and political concerns represents another strategy of localization, demonstrating how linguistic choice shapes thematic engagement. Overall, the study highlights how multilingual and multidialectal practices in Malayalam HipHop function as important linguistic, cultural, and sociopolitical resources in a rapidly transforming cultural landscape.

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Photo by Candice Seplow on Unsplash

Photo by Candice Seplow on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is significant because it demonstrates how multilingual and multidialectal practices in Malayalam hip hop function as strategic resources for negotiating identity, authenticity, and power within both globalized and localized cultural frameworks. By foregrounding code-switching and dialect use as sociopolitically meaningful choices, it contributes to broader debates in sociolinguistics, popular culture studies, and postcolonial scholarship on language, globalization, and cultural production.

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