Bangla hip-hop is Bengali-language rap (with heavy Dhakaiya and Chittagong dialect coloring), developed since about 2014. Beats sit on US Southern trap (heavy 808 kicks, 16th-note hi-hats), sometimes cloud rap or UK drill; flow uses Bengali's long vowel endings for emphasis where an English rapper would rely on consonant punctuation. Lyrics document Dhaka slum life (Kalabagan, Rampura, Mohammadpur), political frustration, youth unemployment, and personal romance — a native vocabulary distinct from Delhi/Mumbai Hindi rap or US trap.

The Dhaka University rap circles and Facebook communities of the early 2010s were the incubator. Rana Mrittika's 2014 YouTube upload 'Ghurte Jamu' broke it into national visibility. Skib Khan (from Chittagong), Tabib Mahmud and the Deshi MCs collective built the scene through 2015-18. The 2018 quota-reform protests gave political rap a wider audience — Rana's 'Ei Amar Desh' became a generational statement. Coke Studio Bangla's 2022 launch pulled rap into a mainstream broadcast setting for the first time.

Listen for how Rana Mrittika lengthens Bengali vowels at line ends where an American rapper would use a consonant stop — a small phonetic choice that gives Bangla rap its identifiable cadence. Beats sometimes tuck a tabla loop under the 808, a small nod to the local percussion tradition.

Rana Mrittika 'Ei Amar Desh' (2018), Skib Khan 'Bangladeshi' (2019), and Tabib Mahmud 'Bondhu' (2021) — the last being the Coke Studio Bangla-adjacent bridge into the mainstream.

'Bangla' as a language covers both Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal), and increasingly the two rap scenes collaborate across the border. Kolkata-side Cizzy and Kaam Bhang appear on tracks with Dhaka-based rappers, forming a de-facto Bengal rap community.