'Caught in the Middle': Why the Middle Class is Feeling the Squeeze

'Caught in the Middle': Why the Middle Class is Feeling the Squeeze

We all know India's middle class is in a bit of trouble. Job opportunities are shrinking. Salary hikes are vanishing. And inflation is eating into their incomes. Unfortunately, there are no immediate signs of things getting better anytime soon. On my new show, Caught in the Middle, I am going to be tracking the fortunes of this middle class, speaking to experts and the people affected, and hopefully come up with some solutions. But first, let's …

The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

Rollie Pemberton was barely a teenager when he started rapping. His hometown, Edmonton, didn’t have much of a hip-hop scene in the early aughts, so he honed his craft online. He plugged an old-school microphone into his mom’s desktop computer, recorded a few verses, later turned them into tracks, and sent them out into the burgeoning music blogosphere. Within a few years, he’d adopted the emcee name Cadence Weapon and earned a reputation as a sh…