On September 23, artists Devi Sri Prasad, Hanumankind and Aditya Gadhvi performed at the Modi & US show at the Nassau Coliseum in New York. The crowd consisted of over 15,000 members of the Indian diaspora from 42 different US states. And, performers got loud cheers from the audience and hugs from Prime Minister Modi.

But Hanumankind hugging PM Modi right after his song and altering the lyrics to his most popular song Big Dawgs has not gone down well with the artist’s fans, some of whom are now calling his hip-hop lifestyle merely an aesthetic. “I think for a lot of his fans, it was a bit of a shock because he’s an artist who has spoken out against the establishment in the past through his lyrics. To see him, literally embracing it [the establishment] was disappointing, especially since younger artists are constantly told about the importance of being ‘authentic’ as musicians and this was kind of a U-turn,” says Amit Gurbaxani, a music journalist.