Hanumankind, or HMK as his team calls him, has a quiet intensity about him. The rapper from India, whose real name is Sooraj Cherukat, joined our Zoom call solo. As we started talking, several other members of his team popped in, nodding as he spoke and occasionally chiming in to re-emphasize a point he’s making.
Even through the computer screen, HMK communicates with a sense of urgency and passion. It’s the kind of energy that made charismatic artists like 2Pac so compelling in interviews, the kind of self-assuredness that makes it clear that this is an artist who has put in the work to decide exactly how to get a clear message across. This confidence may come naturally to some, but Hanumankind worked for it. “This is the first time that I’ve stepped into a version of myself that I feel strongly about,” he says. “It’s taken some time.”
At the time of writing this, Spotify’s Global Top 50 features some of the biggest names in music: Billie Eilish, Jimin from BTS, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charli XCX. At the seventh spot—topping Charli’s collab with Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”—is Hanumankind’s “Big Dawgs.”
Within its first month, the song has earned over 60 million streams on Spotify and another 40 million from the music video on YouTube. If TikTok reaction views counted toward sales, “Big Dawgs” would be Triple Platinum, at least.
Hanumankind was born in India, but he’s lived in Nigeria, Egypt, France, and Dubai, and he spent his formative years in Houston, Texas. To understand the frenzy around his new single “Big Dawgs,” you have to start with the music video.
Set inside a structure called the Well of Death, a carnival sideshow where car and motorcycle drivers defy gravity by riding around the inside of a barrel built from wooden planks, “Big Dawgs” is likely the most intense music video you’ll see this year.
Other artists with budgets and access may have been able to pull off these visuals for shock value, but the Well of Death holds a deeper meaning for Hanumankind. “It's something that a lot of us have seen growing up around here,” he tells us. “I lived all around the world, but especially in India, no matter what state, no matter what language you speak in this country, it's one of those things that you see.”
Hanumankind’s video has grabbed international attention, but it’s his unique perspective that is bound to keep things interesting as he plots out his next steps while the world is watching. He’s signed to Def Jam India and stays plugged in with India’s diverse music scene, but as a kid who grew up in Houston, he also cites UGK, Slim Thug, Chamillionaire, and DJ Screw as influences. As the globe shrinks and music fans become increasingly aware of sounds, scenes, and styles from all over the map, the timing is perfect for the rise of Hanumankind.
“The last time we dropped music was a year and a half ago,” he says. “In between, I took a very personal journey to figure out what it is that I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I made some decisions in my life that have helped me see things with a clarity that I didn’t have before. So I think the music is a byproduct of that. I’m just going to see how that goes and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, so be it. This is life.”
Safe to say, it's working.
The “Big Dawgs” video is so good.
We took some risks on that one—like real, physical risks. But it turned out fun.
I was doing some research on the Well of Death. Is that what you call it?
Yeah, it is called the Well of Death. It's something that a lot of us have seen growing up around here. I lived all around the world, but especially in India, no matter what state, no matter what language you speak in this country, it's one of those things that you see, whether it's a carnival or a circus.
But the Well of Death is not just in India, it is around the world. It's big in Europe, and it even made its rounds in America back in the day. But over here, as far as my childhood, it is something that has been very well seen all around us.
Can you talk to me about that shoot day? I saw some of the behind-the-scenes and it looked very intense.
Look, man, I'll tell you one thing—I thought I knew what I was getting into, but on the day of shoot is when I knew what I was getting into. That was hands down one of the most intense and physically demanding experiences I've had. We had the idea a couple of weeks before the shoot, and I'm just like, “Yeah, let's do this. This is fire, it's going to be so cool.” Then when we get there, you realize that this is a rickety ass f*cking wooden structure that they make really quickly because they're moving it all around. It's a moving circus. The way that it's made, it's not a permanent structure because it doesn’t stay in one place.
It's very, very loud inside. The whole thing is shaking. When they’re showing me how it is before I get inside, I'm realizing you can't hear anything when you’re in there. We had prepped for this shoot, and we were ready for all the moving pieces, but when we get in there we realize that the PA can’t f*cking work at all. It’s so loud inside there man, the f*cking motorbikes are just roaring. And when the car starts, everything is shaking. So you can’t hear any instructions. If you watch the video, you can see that I got one little earbud inside my ear. Then, f*cking boom, it’s blasting and I can barely hear it.
Getting inside is.... how do I describe this? You’ve been on a rollercoaster, right?
Right.
Yeah, so you go up, everything is peace. Well, in [the Well of Death] there's no calm. It's the drop of a rollercoaster consistently while you go around. There's one clip that I put out on my Instagram, it's kind of in slow motion and I'm bending my head back. It’s because I'm really f*cking tired and the force is G-force is pushing down on you the whole time. So to keep your head up, you have to be very aware of the fact that, okay, there's a camera here and we're shooting this.
But let me take it back to the drivers and the people who actually do this. These are the people that are the real f*cking risk takers. They do this on the daily, performing and putting their lives on the line, while collecting money by grasping change from the sides, as you can see in the video. Those are the big dogs, for real.
How was it working with them?
I didn't want to do it any other way other than how they did it. I guess I'm a little prideful. I’ve only seen it from the outside, so when I got in they were like, “Okay, we can give you a pillow to rest on your side when you’re leaning against the car.” I was like, “No, no, no, I’m not doing any of that.” They were like, “You need someone to be in with you.” Again, no, no no, we can’t do that. I’m seeing them do it before me, and they do it with ease and flare.
A woman was my teacher that day—she was my guru. She taught me everything that day, and we don’t speak the same language. She speaks Hindi, I speak Malayalam, which is a South Indian language. So we're basically communicating through energy and eye contact. She's just saying that I believe in you, be comfortable, make sure your legs are locked in. It's very physically demanding.
During the first half of the shoot, before we actually got into the car, I drank a lot of water because it was hot as sh*t. We were dying in the heat, and I kept offering water to the others, but they kept saying no. I was like, am I doing something wrong? Do they not accept me? The minute I got into the f*cking car, I realized everything goes to the side of your body and it’s just rocking in my stomach.
There’s a lot I had to learn on the spot, but overall it was absolutely a 10 out of 10 in terms of experience, but definitely terrifying. It was beautiful, man. When we had done the shoot, it was like, “Well, even if this doesn’t come out well, at least I can tell my f*cking grandkids that I did this sh*t.” It’s a dying art in the country. We don’t know where it’s going to be in the next 10 years.
It was like, “Well, even if this doesn’t come out well, at least I can tell my f**king grandkids that I did this sh*t.” It’s a dying art in the country.
When I saw the music video, that was also my first time hearing the song. Did you know that this song was the one that you were going to go all-in on for the music video? Or was the song already reacting? What was the order of things?
No, we had no idea. We knew we had to put out another song, and because of who we’re working with, we needed to make sure that we fulfill our side. So we put together the song, and we thought of the video because in the song there is the idea of skrrting the whip. And obviously there’s the side of flashy cars, and we have all that over here. We got everything in India and we can do that if you want. But me and my boy Bijoy [Shetty], the director—who is just a phenomenal visionary when it comes down to it—we were like, let’s not. I don’t think that’s what I stand for. That’s not something I find very appealing when it comes to being the best version of myself.
We shot the video, and we didn’t have any trailer. We didn’t do nothing. The way we thought of it is the video is the promo. It will do the marketing. And we were f*cking right. Typically, when we drop anything we’ve gotta build up to it. We’ll normally promote it ahead of time by saying that it’s going to drop on a certain day, but we hadn’t dropped in a year and a half so we were like, “What’s the point? It’s been a minute, let’s just drop it.”
Photo by Anush S K
When we posted about “Big Dawgs,” we used a headline that read “Indian rapper Hanumankind...” We wrote it the same way we would have said “Atlanta rapper” about an artist from Atlanta that we hadn’t covered before, but we saw some backlash. There were comments like, “Why did you have to say that he’s Indian in the headline?” I wanted to ask you about that. Do you find it reductive or offensive to be labeled as an Indian rapper? Would you rather just be called a rapper or an artist without it being mentioned that you’re from India?
Me and Ro [friend and manager Rohan Venkatesh] have this conversation all the time. Look, I’m not an Indian rapper, but I’m a rapper from India, you know what I mean? I think there’s a difference because there are a lot of artists within this country—there’s already a thriving, beautiful scene.
But it’s not something that I personally get offended by. There’s no intention in that. It’s up to people to perceive it the way that they do. There are stereotypes that have been set when it comes to how people are perceived, whether it’s Indian rapper or Atlanta rapper, whatever it is.
I guess it’s part of my journey to fight some of those stereotypes and establish ourselves as who we are, which is just artists from a part of the world.
I guess it’s part of my, and [producer] Kalmi’s, and everyone’s journey to fight some of those stereotypes and establish ourselves as who we are, which is just artists from a part of the world. It’s not that much deeper.
Can you tell me a little bit about your background story? What were you listening to as a kid? When did you first get into hip-hop?
I traveled a lot growing up. My dad had a job that caused us to move around constantly. I was born in Kerala in India, but then started moving around the world. The first years of my life were in Nigeria, then Dubai, Egypt, Qatar, France... I was traveling everywhere. But the place that I spent most of my formative years was Houston, Texas.
I moved to Houston in fourth grade, and I was there until the first year of college, so most of my musical tastes came to me around then, as they do for most kids that age. And as you know, Houston is incredibly vibrant when it comes to culture and music, especially when it comes to hip-hop. I grew up listening to Texas legends like UGK, Chamillionaire, Slim Thug, DJ Screw. Everyone that I was listening to then became a big, big part of my musical taste.
But I was also tuned into the rest of the world. No matter where I was or what I was doing, my family would always come back to India for a month or two. So I had a taste of everything, but my roots were always kept very dear to me, and I thank my family for that. I’m blessed to have been able to do that because I think it really molded me as someone who never really had a place to call home. I knew I could always come back, and that kind of shaped the way I perceive music, people, and culture.
After I did a year of college in Houston, I moved back here to India in 2012 and I’ve been here ever since. And I was able to meet all of these incredible people. I didn’t think I would be doing music at all, man. I had no idea. I was working multiple corporate jobs. I tried to be the quintessential first child that can provide for the family. When it comes to brown families like mine, I followed the protocols, I fit into the structure that I was so against while I was growing up. I was definitely a problematic child, but I tried to do it because circ*mstances needed me to step up.
But eventually I made a decision [to pursue music]. I was late into my life. I was 28, and I was like, “If I don’t do it now...” I made this decision because I don’t want to be in my 40s being like, yo, I didn’t f*cking try. So we tried it, and people started to notice. All of a sudden, I’m doing music, and now we’re here. It’s been very interesting, and I was blessed to meet people like Ro and my team who provided me with a family outside of my family.
I saw the reaction when we posted about you on Pigeons & Planes, and it seems like you already have a big fan base and you’re well known in India. What does the rap landscape in India look like right now?
It’s been going on. It’s been there for quite some time, and it’s very, very prominent over here. There are some incredible artists doing massive things within the country. But it has had its own character arc.
Hip-hop is worldwide, and I think everyone around the world has been fans of rap and hip-hop. India has a huge population that was listening to that, and we had a couple of movies that came out and certain artists that were pioneering their own sounds specifically within regional languages as well, like Hindi and others that are out and about here. But obviously, just like every other part of the world, we’re influenced by the music we’re hearing when we’re out.
India has a very strong culture of its own, and you can find some very heavy-hitting artists out here. Initially I was a part of this scene, but there aren’t too many rappers that are rapping in English over here. I speak Malayalam like a champ, but I don’t know how to read and write it. And when it comes to writing for music, it’s poetry. The Malayalam rappers are poets here, so I stuck to what I know.
And Kalmi, he’s been in the music scene for way longer than me, actually.
[Kalmi, who produced "Big Dawgs," is also on the Zoom call and chimes in.]
Kalmi: I’ve been making music for almost 12 years now, but the first time I ever made hip-hop was with Hanumankind. Of course I used to listen to Timbaland and Kanye West and stuff, but when I started working with Sooraj I started to understand the genre much more. Prior to that it was a lot of electronic music. But for the past five years we’ve been developing a sound together. It puts a lot into perspective.
What is the goal when you're making music now? How do you balance catering to the audience in India while reaching people worldwide?
Kalmi: We don’t think about that so much. Indian rhythms are made from certain instruments, and Sooraj will come to me and say, “Hey, I really want to try out this instrument.” We’ll sit together and ideate from scratch, not thinking about whether this beat is going to hit a certain way.
I have this one habit of scouting samples. I wake up every morning and listen to samples. With "Big Dawgs," one day I woke up and found these new samples, and I got on a call with Sooraj and I was like, “Hey, you have to listen to this.” I know he loves this kind of sample, and for years we’ve been trying to make this. All the music we’ve made has remnants of this sound, but in bits and pieces—it was not fully articulated in our brain.
When we first heard the sample, Sooraj is like, “Kalmi, that’s the one.” Within a day or two, we had the basic idea in terms of arrangement. We did a lot later on, like the chopped and screwed part, or the parts where there’s no sample and more empty space. These are the things that helped us a lot with the video. Those cuts helped us realize we could actually use less to amplify his voice.
But we don’t think about what to make, it’s this genuine gravitational pull towards the sound. That’s when we are fully zoned in on the idea and the music is hitting us rather than us thinking we should make it a certain way. He can sense my energy, I can pick up his energy, and it’s been a collaborative effort for years now. We built that.
Hanumankind: The basis of it all is just trying to be authentic to yourself. Everything else follows that. You keep certain things as your roots, but it’s up to you to adapt to the environment and go with the flow, as long as you don’t compromise on integrity. I think the message is still going to be the same because this is who we are, man.
I noticed this song came out on Def Jam India. Obviously, Def Jam has such a rich history and so much tradition. Does it feel like you’re a part of that, or does Def Jam India feel like its own world with its own culture?
I feel like we’re a part of it, but it is kind of its own little world. Most of the artists that are signed to Def Jam India are making music in Hindi or other regional languages. I think it’s tight. It’s a more recent subset of Def Jam, but like you said, it does have a deep rooted culture and it’s something we’ve all grown up around. So it’s nice to be able to be a part of that.
Even though you’ve got songs with millions of streams, does “Big Dawgs” feel like a breakthrough moment? It seems like you’re reaching a new audience—I saw Project Pat and Bun B shared the song. Does this one feel different from other songs you've released?
Oh, a hundred percent, man. I listened to so much Three 6 Mafia growing up, so to get the nod from DJ Paul, and to get the nod from Bun B of UGK and from Project Pat... All of them being like, they f*ck with this—these things make me happy. The younger me too, the inner child is sitting there like man, this is what we do this for.
It was nice, it was beautiful to see it, and it just reinforces the idea that music is universal. From here, we see how we feel, we cultivate the process, but we still go to get to work, man. There’s still work to do. There’s music to be made.
Before this moment, you had such a strong fan base already. How did you build that? Was it through live shows, or social media, or were there other co-signs before “Big Dawgs”?
I never really thought of myself as much of an artist, but live shows are where I shined. I really enjoy performing, it’s like a place for me to release my demons. So the growth I had over here, initially it started off by doing live shows. I would go and perform a bunch of music that no one had ever heard of. The way I perceived my job is if they haven’t heard it before and they f*ck with it, then I’m onto something. It was purely through expressing myself physically.
Later on, I dove into the art a little bit more. I got deeper into that in the later stages, and I think the music speaks to people here in its own way. I try to touch on topics that people within my country can relate to, but it’s also my duty to provide perspective that you can tap in from that side of the world and be like, yo, I understand what he’s saying, I get it. There are nuances in this life and this side of the world that y’all may never really get in the same way, but this is how it is.
How plugged in are you with current rap in America right now?
I'm very plugged in. Most of the people that I usually listen to are from the West, and I think that shows in my sound and tastes. I’d like to say I’m as plugged in as any other hip-hop head.
Outside of the artists you’ve shouted out or referenced in your music, is there anyone in particular that you’d like to work with?
Obviously there are the greats like Kendrick or Cole, which I think everybody can throw out there. I’m a big fan of Denzel Curry. I’m a big fan of JID. And there are a bunch of producers that I would love to work with, like Madlib.
A Madlib collaboration would be sick.
I do think so myself, brother. I think it'd be fantastic.
What about current artists in India? Anyone we should be looking out for, or artists you’d recommend to people who are just hearing “Big Dawgs” for the first time?
Off the bat, the Seedhe Maut boys are really good. There’s KR$NA, there’s DIVINE. These guys have been making waves within the country and outside. There are a couple of boys from the South that I would definitely tell you how to get onto, like Dabzee, Baby Jean, and MC Couper. There's a lot, man. I think if you just dive into it, you’ll see it is very much its own world, and it’s a very powerful one.
I was late into my life. I was 28, and I was like, “If I don’t do it now...” I made this decision because I don’t want to be in my 40s being like, yo, I didn’t f**king try. So we tried it, and people started to notice.
Last “Big Dawgs” question, but it’s one of the coolest music videos I’ve seen in a while. Music videos are difficult today because there’s so much content—big, impactful music videos are more rare. What advice do you have for an artist who wants to make a great music video?
First off, be willing to take risks. That speaks for itself when it comes to something like “Big Dawgs,” but I think you should also be open to suggestions. When it comes to pride and ego as an artist or human being, you live with a certain perception. I’ve learned to let go of that. When it comes to visuals, it’s okay to let go and explore.
When you build a circle and a team around you, if you f*ck with them as people and you respect them, when they come up with things that may make you uncomfortable, it's on you. Be comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable.
Many people just stick to what they find normal or what they find comfortable. You see a bunch of artists doing the same things in front of the camera, and it can be fantastic. I grew up on this sh*t too, but if you’re set on that and every music video is set to that, how are we going to grow?
I also think art is a byproduct of how you live. So go out and about, see things, feel things. Allow yourself to be inspired. That’s going to speak volumes in anything you create.
What’s coming next for you?
Right now I’m at a place where I’m just formulating and putting everything together. I am very attracted to the idea of a larger project. I like the idea of the beginning, middle, and end. This is the first time that I’ve stepped into a version of myself that I feel strongly about. It’s taken some time.
The last time we dropped music was a year and a half ago. In between, I took a very personal journey to figure out what it is that I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I made some decisions in my life that have helped me see things with a clarity that I didn’t have before. So I think the music is a byproduct of that. I’m just going to see how that goes and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, so be it. This is life.
Photo by Tanay Shetty
