Cartel Madras - WORKING

What this video is

Released August 28, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, 'WORKING' arrived as Cartel Madras's first new material since their Sub Pop debut EP Age of the Goonda (2019). The video premiering at Berlin's Pop-Kultur Festival—a major European platform for politically engaged pop—underscores the duo's positioning as internationally resonant voices in queer, diasporic hip-hop. The track and video explicitly locate…

Why it matters

A defining artefact of early-2020s Goonda Rap—a micro-genre coined by Cartel Madras fusing trap, house, South Indian musical influence, and punk energy. 'WORKING' specifically marks the duo's most sustained engagement with hip house, a historically queer genre, and demonstrates how diasporic South…

The director

Gabriela Osio Vanden is an award-winning Venezuelan/Canadian cinematographer and director based in Toronto, holding a BFA in Film Production from York University. Her projects have premiered at TIFF, SXSW, IDFA, Hot Docs, and Camerimage. She co-directed the…