Gaana songs are a sub-culture of Chennai urban culture. Gaana in simple words is another name for Tamil ‘Rap songs (s), which is getting transformed into a viable commodity by entering the market and undergoing a process of sanitization.
It comes across at issues like Politics, urban poverty, caste, violence and sex. Gaana songs came into existence as part of the urban culture and it has its roots in the slums of Chennai. The Gaana as a popular cultural form is distinct in structure, rhyming verses while talking about the loves and lives of the slum people.
Gaana comes from a mixture of different Tamil dialects and other languages the Dalits, fisher folk of Chennai encounter.