‘Big Dawgs’ Rapper on Video, India, TikTok & More

When “Big Dawgs,” the riotous music by Indian rapper Hanumankind and producer Kalmi, started spreading internationally in July, its creators couldn’t absolutely recognize its impression. Despite websites like YouTube and Reddit signaling the music’s crossover enchantment, Hanumankind and his crew have been largely at midnight about its impression on TikTook — together with the greater than 1 million posts utilizing the monitor to this point — since India banned the platform in 2020.

“We’re hearing about this going crazy, but we can’t wrap our heads around [it],” Hanumankind tells Billboard. “We’re sitting at home like, ‘I guess this is happening. Let’s strap in.’ ”

Born Sooraj Cherukat in India’s southern state of Kerala, Hanumankind was a self-described “child of chaos.” His household bounced across the globe together with his father working within the oil sector, making stops in Nigeria, Qatar, Dubai and Egypt earlier than shifting to Houston within the early 2000s throughout his youth.

“Houston has a way of shaping a person,” he says, carrying a No. 34 Hakeem Olajuwon Houston Rockets throwback jersey. “Whether you talk about UGK or DJ Screw, you hear it in everything. It was important to be there and absorb so much of that.”

Talking over Zoom, the 32-year-old has images of 2Pac, MF DOOM and The Notorious B.I.G. in his lounge — however even together with his huge hip-hop information, he says his dad and mom hoped he would pursue “a real job and build a career.” He moved again to India for faculty in 2012, and after graduating, he burned via jobs at Goldman Sachs and completely different advertising companies whereas dwelling like “a f–king idiot.” (Upon turning 30, he quickly gave up consuming totally. Nowadays, he says, he drinks carefully.)

Still, rapping largely remained a celebration trick he’d pull out at gatherings. But issues modified in late 2019 following a efficiency on the NH7 Weekender Festival in India, pulling inspiration for his stage identify from faith. (Hanuman is the half-monkey, half-man Hindu God of knowledge, power and braveness.)

“There was a mob of people running over from different areas, like, ‘Who the f–k is this guy?’” he remembers. “[After] that set, I was like, ‘This feels like something I can do. I just want to do something that gives me purpose. Am I decent at this? Can I make money off this? Cool.’ That’s all I needed.”

A 12 months later, Hanumankind signed a administration take care of Imaginary Frnds’ founder Rohan Venkatesh, with the corporate’s Abhimanyu Prakash serving to as a part of the administration crew. “He charmed the pants off me when I met him,” says Prakash. Adds Venkatesh, who first met the rapper backstage in 2018: “I knew this could go global. I believed in the art from day one.”

Hanumankind spent the following few years as an unbiased artist, releasing a pair of EPs and a handful of singles earlier than his crew determined to discover the major-label route, in the end signing with Def Jam India initially of 2023. “They were so ready to help us from day one,” says Prakash. “We’ve had this moment, and they’ve been pillars for us in figuring out how to grow it.”

That January, Hanumankind launched the twitchy “Go to Sleep” — however nothing else for the 12 months. With time ticking on his subsequent transfer, he hopped on a Zoom in early 2024 with frequent collaborator Kalmi whereas dwelling in Bengaluru. They started with a inventive train they’d performed earlier than: Kalmi would queue up a beat for Hanumankind to rap on they usually’d construct an thought from no matter got here out. “We didn’t want boundaries on us, and the minute [I heard the] beat, I was like, ‘Oh s–t.’”

After taking a liking to the engine-revving manufacturing and bristling synths, the hook got here subsequent, adopted by the primary verse. Within half-hour, the fundamental construction for “Big Dawgs” was set. “Instantly, this flow came in,” Hanumankind says, although he admits he started to overanalyze it. “I didn’t think it was a single at all — this song just came to be as a byproduct of being f–king weird, experimental folks.”

But Kalmi and Venkatesh modified his thoughts. “We knew this was the one instantly, there was a shock value to it,” Venkatesh says. “[Kalmi and I] went for a drive and played it four or five times. Next morning, we called Hanumankind and convinced him to drop.”

Kalmi tightened up the manufacturing, including the chopped-and-screwed component to the music’s outro, and Hanumankind tacked on a second verse. On July 9, “Big Dawgs” arrived on streaming providers.

Instead of a conventional advertising finances, Hanumankind’s crew allotted a lot of their monetary sources to the music video, which arrived the following day and opened the world’s eyes to a preferred Indian spectacle referred to as the “Well of Death.” Two-stroke engine bikes and classic vehicles whiz round in circles on the partitions of a vertical pit, testing the boundaries of gravity — and within the video, Hanumankind even hangs out the window of one of many vehicles. “It was more of a culture shock for people, which was a unique selling point for us,” says Venkatesh. To date, the video has greater than 116 million YouTube views.