Bhubaneswar, March 25: The art of rapping is gradually catching up among the youths here. Rap videos of young artistes on various social networking websites are gaining popularity across the state.

MBA student Rahul Dhall Praharaj is quite popular on YouTube these days. Most of his videos gather over 1,000 views and others often share those on Facebook and Twitter.

Praharaj has been rapping since past 15 years and he is optimistic of the art gaining popularity in the city. "When I started rapping, no one else was in the field. However, a number of youths are taking interest in this form now," said Praharaj.

The young artiste has performed at a number of college festivals including that of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and Xavier Institute of Management. He wants to take up rapping as a career in future. Praharaj's rap of Tansen Singh's famous song Mu je eka pagala bhanra became a hit one year ago.

His latest song - Kassa - has already got over 2,000 views on YouTube. "Kassa is the Odia version of the word jhakaas. The song is about the usage of the word in the daily lives of Odia youths," said Praharaj.

Apart from working on Odia lyrics, Praharaj also performs famous songs of Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi along with popular numbers of Backstreet Boys.

Kumar Avi, another rapper from Bhubaneswar, took the social media by storm when he released his rap song Non-Odia bhoota.

Amrit Kumar Biswal, a rap enthusiast, said: "One of my college friends forwarded one of Avi's videos to me and I liked it a lot. I follow his fan page on a regular basis for updates on his latest compositions,"

All that the young rappers need is an idea and within minutes they can be ready with a song. "It is all about random lyrics. I can rap on anything and everything. Whenever I am out with my friends, they request me to rap on any topic that pops into their minds such as a beautiful girl or a delicious cuisine," Praharaj said.

Rap became a street art form in America in the 70s. It has now become a famous activity among college students. "All the members in our group love hip-hop and whenever we are together we churn out rap songs. Earlier, we were not much aware of it but we have learnt to produce such songs after watching videos on websites and following artistes such as Hard Kaur and Baba Sehgal," said Pritam Panda, an Utkal University student.