Review: 'Climate Emergency Mixtape' Takes the Crisis Down To Street Level
Seven independent rappers, seven languages, about 20 minutes. The project's real strength is how local its writing is.
Release: Climate Emergency Mixtape, various artists (Folksoul), released 7 October 2026
Tracks: 7 | Running time: about 20 minutes
The first voice on Climate Emergency Mixtape is Kali's, on a track called "Neer Kodu", and the last is Krantinaari's, on "Ye Jhuki Vadiya". In between are five more rappers in five more languages, and none of the seven songs runs past three and a half minutes. The whole thing is over in about 20. The title of "Neer Kodu" means "give water" in Kannada. Kali, whose real name is Akshay, is 29 and grew up in Bengaluru, and the song deals with the city's water shortages, shrinking green spaces and rising summer heat.
The songs had a live outing before the record was out, at The Humming Tree in Bengaluru on 1 October, where six of the artists performed them. Tickets were priced at Rs 499.
It came out on Folksoul's Bandcamp on 7 October. The release page calls it "A Multilingual Rap Album on the Climate Crisis by Independent Indian Artists", put together by Youth Ki Awaaz, Kraantinari, Asar, Folksoul and the Climate Culture Collective. The notes describe the idea as "a simple bet: that hip-hop, a form born from protest and truth-telling, might reach people that a climate report never will."
Seven songs, one map
After Kali's "Neer Kodu" (3:27) come DEVANSHI!'s "Nisargacha Kaayda" (3:05) and Sollisai Sistahs' "Veppa Marathadiyila" (3:05). Alkama's "NAST ENVIRONMENT" (2:26) sits in the middle, then Gamak Sinha's "Mitti" (3:04) and Naveen's "Van Kate" (2:27). Krantinaari's "Ye Jhuki Vadiya" (2:24) closes it.
Three of the seven are under two and a half minutes. Added up, the running order comes to 19 minutes 58 seconds. Each one can be pulled out and shared on its own, which, for a record built by campaigners, is probably the idea.
Where the writing lives
The notes place each artist somewhere specific. Naveen writes from the Aravalli hills, "where the ridge that has shaped Delhi's climate for centuries is being quietly worn down", about "what disappears when a hill disappears". Nearly two thousand kilometres south, the Sollisai Sistahs (spelled Sisters in the notes) "count what's been lost through floods that didn't have to happen". DEVANSHI! comes at the subject from Maharashtra. On "Mitti", Gamak Sinha has the soil tell its own history, "from discovery to destruction". Alkama, from Delhi, is 18. DEVANSHI! is 19, a sociology student, and her song mixes accents from different parts of Maharashtra. Naveen's track carries hints of Ragini, a Haryanvi folk form. The Sollisai Sistahs are Tamil Nadu's first all-women rap crew.
So the subject is never the planet in general. It is a particular ridge, a particular flood, told in the language of the people who live next to it. The notes put it plainly: "These are not seven separate songs about the same headline."
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How it is built
Each track belongs to one artist in one language. There are no shared verses, and no song where Tamil and Marathi meet over the same beat, so the "many communities" idea lives in the sequencing and the liner notes rather than inside any one track.
The release also comes from an activist coalition, not a label. There is no playlist push listed on the page. Its reach will run through the organisations behind it, their campaigns and, going by the partners involved, classrooms.
Where to start
Regional languages are the core of the project, and most of the rappers on it work outside the Mumbai and Delhi circuits. "Mitti" sits fifth in the running order and is three minutes long. Each artist's own catalogue is a click away on the same page.
A note on method: this write-up is based on the official release page, its credits and the project's own notes. Descriptions of each artist's subject are quoted or paraphrased from those notes.
(Source: official release page and notes on Folksoul's Bandcamp, AFP, The Hindu)
