KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — If you’re a hip-hop fan you might have heard the hot new track Big Dawgs that has blown up recently on charts worldwide.
Fronting Big Dawgs is Hanumankind, a rapper from India, who has gotten enough buzz to not just top charts but become the subject of a BBC profile.
Who is Hanumankind?
His real name is Sooraj Cherukat, 31, from India, Kerala to be exact. He had a globetrotting childhood due to his father’s work with an oil company so he’s been to Dubai, Egyt, France and Nigeria.
Interestingly though it was Houston, Texas that influenced his musical career.
What’s the buzz behind Big Dawg?
The collab with director Bijoy Shetty and producer Kalmi Reddy has gotten 83 million views on YouTube and 132 million streams on Spotify.
What else is there to know about him?
Despite the tough guy persona and street hood lyrics, his background is fairly middle-class. He dropped out of college and returned to India to get his business degree, working at firms like Goldman Sachs.
He then decided the suit life wasn’t for him and pursued rapping fulltime where before it was a side gig.
What’s the deal with his music?
Hanumankind raps in English, which makes him more accessible to a global audience but he’s received criticism for it back home. He’s named Houston hip-hip legend DJ Screw as one of his inspirations.
While some laud him for bringing Indian rap to Western prominence, they also note he sounds “too much like an American rapper.”
In response, the rapper insists that: “I’m not an Indian rapper, but I’m a rapper from India.”
Despite the critics, Hanumankind is determined to make it all about the music.
