When the heat hits hardest, ‘Sollisai Sistahs’ ask: who gets to stay cool?

A neem tree can be many things — a meeting point in the village, a place to sit under, rest, and escape the harsh afternoon sun for a few minutes. In Veppa Marathadiyila , Tamil Nadu’s first all-women rap crew, Sollisai Sistahs turn that familiar image into a larger question: when the climate crisis arrives, who gets the shade?

The collective is known for songs that challenge social norms, particularly around caste and gender, while remaining rooted in the communities they come from. Their new Tamil rap track is part of the Climate Emergency Mixtape, a multilingual hip-hop album that brings together six independent artists from across India to tell stories of the climate crisis in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, and Hindi.