COVER STORY: Hanumankind is Just Getting Started

“The past few weeks have been a lot to process, but me and the boys are taking it one day at a time. It’s cool to see how the world has embraced us,” Hanumankind says in a tone that is calm, composed and disarming. He is in between a photo shoot at the studio in south Mumbai as we speak. All the accolades and adulation that have come his way in the last few weeks do not seem to have fazed him. A burger and fries that he asked for has just arrived, and he makes sure that he shares it with the people around. Even if the new celebrity status sits lightly on him, it has been very concerning for his family. “They were even more overwhelmed than I was,” HMK, as he is widely known, says, “I must keep my composure, and they’re the ones going, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ I just want to make sure they’re okay because they’re not really prepared for this kind of stuff. For them to be dealing with people calling and showing up at the house can be a little scary, so it’s my job to protect them.”

Considering the speed at which the popularity of his breakout track “Big Dawgs” has skyrocketed around the world in the last few weeks, and the overnight global fame that followed, what his family has been going through is understandable. The song was released in late July 2024, and by early August it had become the first English track by an Indian artist to reach No.1 on the India Spotify chart. In the following weeks, it climbed to No. 9 on Billboard Global 200 charts, and No. 8 on the US chart, the highest position again for an English track by an Indian. It has been on the charts in countries ranging from Latvia, Austria, Ukraine, and Germany to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, New Zealand, and Switzerland. With 132 million streams on Spotify, the song is still holding tight at No. 8 on Spotify India chart, and No. 9 on Spotify Global Top 50 Chart.

HMK’s stardom is in many ways unique for an Indian music artist. There is no doubt that Punjabi singers like Diljit Dosanjh, A P Dhillon, and others have seen a steady rise in their international audience in recent years, enabling them to play in packed stadiums around the world, and big-name festivals like Coachella. The significant difference however is that their popularity comes largely from the global Indian diaspora. “Big Dawgs” on the other hand has done something different for HMK. It has broken through into a more mainstream global hip-hop audience. 

“I like pushing myself creatively,” HMK says, “It’s been nice to see how people are reacting to [“Big Dawgs”] and the fact that they like it is super fucking cool, but also, it’s only because the music came from a place of me just enjoying what I do and embracing my creativity.” The smash hit represents both an opportunity as well as a challenge for him. Opportunity, because it would make it easier for his music label (he is signed on Def Jam India, the Indian arm of one of the biggest hip-hop labels) to market and amplify his new music in the future now that there is an international audience that is familiar with his name. The challenge for him though will be for a repeat performance with new music that would have an equally enormous impact, locally as well as in the international arena. 

Despite its international acclaim, what truly sets “Big Dawgs” apart is its remarkable success on the charts in India. Historically, it has been exceedingly rare for an English-language artist like HMK to achieve nationwide success in India. Consider Indian hip-hop, which has arguably become the most successful new genre of popular music in the country over the past decade, aside from enduring categories like film music, spiritual songs, and folk-based tracks in regional languages such as Haryanvi and Bhojpuri. The last time a genre achieved this level of widespread popularity was during the short-lived “Indiepop” era of the 1990s, influenced by Biddu Appaiah, which produced stars like Alisha Chinai and Shaan & Sagarika.

The reason for this is not far to seek. Indian hip-hop’s rise to popularity began in Punjab and surrounding regions in the late 2000s, eventually spreading to other parts of the country over the last decade. This success has largely been fueled by artists who perform in their native languages, whether Punjabi, Mumbai Street Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, or even Kannada, Marathi, and Gujarati. Given that fluency in English remains the domain of a relatively small elite in India, the deep roots of Indian hip-hop in local languages and dialects have helped it reach a broader audience and tap into a larger talent pool. In contrast, this also sheds light on the still limited appeal of English-language Indian rock and pop music, which, despite being around since the 1960s, has yet to achieve the same widespread success.

HMK’s success in this context has much to do with his unique back story of having grown up for a part of his formative years in the U.S., specifically in the southern hip-hop region. The 32-year-old singer was born Sooraj Cherukat in central Kerala’s Malappuram district. His father was an oil company executive based in Houston, Texas. The time he spent with his family there in his teens exposed him to the likes of Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat, and Bun B, an influence evident in his musical style and singing. HMK attended Houston Community College but returned to India to do a degree in Business Administration in Coimbatore. He spent a part of his 20s working in a corporate job at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, followed by a stint as a gym trainer.

Music though was his first love. But it seems to have taken him much longer than most other musicians to embrace it as a career. Holding onto a full-time job meant that he was already in his late 20s by the time he launched his EP Kalari in 2019. At his debut appearance at NH7 Weekender in 2019, he was hardly noticed in a lineup of artists like artists such as Nick Murphy, Opeth, Dreamville, Kodaline, Earthgang, Cozz etc. But the show did bring him to the attention of standup comedian Abish Mathew who promoted him on his social media channels. Like Mathew, Tej Brar, head of festivals at Nodwin Gaming is someone who saw immense potential in the rapper when he first met him a little over five years ago. “I’ve known Sooraj for a long time now. What I have admired the most is his consistency and dedication to getting better at his craft.” 

But it would be another two years before HMK had his first big hit, the fan favorite “Damnson” that got him a slot to open before the headliner J.I.D at the first post-Covid NH7 Weekender in 2022. Still, he continued to be mostly featured as a guest artist at various music festivals, including this year’s Lollapalooza India 2024 where he played with Karan Kanchan and the first edition of Spotify’s Rap91 where he was part of Karan Kanchan and Parimal Shais’ sets. Again, at the most recent Bengaluru edition of Boiler Room, he was a guest on Parimal’s set. Not surprisingly, his oeuvre on Spotify is peppered with guest appearances, including the most recent “The Last Dance,” a Sushin Shyam track that features on the soundtrack of the hit Fahadh Faasil’s Malayalam film Aavesham.

HMK though relishes his collaborations, especially with his long-time friend and “Big Dawgs” producer Kalmi, and Bijoy Shetty who directed the song’s popular music video which was filmed in the Maut Ka Kuan (Well of Death) of the traveling circuses during its staging in Ponnani in Kerala, and which in the last few weeks has garnered more than 100 million streams on both on YouTube and Tik Tok. “For me, working with my boys is the only way I would do it. I don’t know how to feel any other way,” he says. “This is what I intended when I got into music. In fact, my relationship with the boys is more than just music; the closeness we have outside of our creative work is the foundation for everything we do. I’m glad the boys decided to stick with me throughout these years because I know I can be a lot to handle.”

Kalmi, whose full name is Nikhil Kalimireddy is a Hyderabad-based producer and electronic music DJ who has known HMK since the time he launched himself professionally five years ago. Reflecting on their recent success with “Big Dawgs,” he says, “It’s important to recognize this win. For both me and Sooraj (HMK), we acknowledge this achievement and are focused on creating more music and exploring new directions for our sound.” Kalmi refers to their partnership as one of “yin and yang,”, a meeting of mind of two distinct kinds of characters. “We have completely different personalities—I’m calm and prefer to avoid too much exposure, while HMK is the opposite.” 

This sense of community and cultural pride was evident in an Instagram live chat last week between HMK and one of his heroes, Texas rapper Bun B. During the conversation, HMK discussed the Indian music scene and his mission with “Big Dawgs” to authentically showcase his culture and the South Indian community to the world. “At the end of the day, what we did here is meaningful because I’m Indian, but I’m just a part of a much larger country. So, I cannot fully represent it because there are so many languages, styles, traditions, and layers to our culture. Within the country, we have a unique opportunity to bring everyone together. Different regions—north, east, south, west—each have their own styles, cultures, and heritage, but what’s exciting right now is the potential for unity.”

The conversation then turned to the future, with Bun B and HMK agreeing that “Big Dawgs” is “just the foundation of something bigger, with much more to be done.” HMK emphasized the importance of building a cultural bridge, pointing out that “Indians know Americans, and Americans know Indians—but even within America, there are divisions and social classes, just as there are in India.” He believes the key to overcoming these divides is by “being authentic and making music” that unites everyone.

Bun B, drawing from his own experiences, shared how he and his community have fought to present a united front. “Different people came from different places, and everyone wanted to be seen and heard equally,” he explained. However, he noted that not everyone had a platform, and it took time for people to understand how to bring everything together. “But once we realized that while we were fighting to establish a hierarchy, from the outside looking in, no one saw the differences between us. So, we had to fight for individuality without isolating others in our group.” This, Bun B emphasized, is the message he wants to convey to HMK as he is starting off, and to the Indian hip-hop community at large.

For the immediate future though HMK is very excited about his acting debut in noted Malayalam director Aashiq Abu’s new film Rifle Club. He will be portraying a character named Bheera alongside Hindi filmmaker and actor Anurag Kashyap. “Aashiq Abu reached out to me in February or March,” HMK says, “He saw something in me that made him take a chance, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.” He feels his music videos played an important role in him getting the role. “I think those videos were my audition,” he says. And now that “Big Dawgs” has made him a big star, he does not rule out being part of the film’s music lineup as well. “We didn’t start out planning to write music for the movie. It was more about me playing a character, but if we do end up creating a song for it, that would be amazing. If not, I’m just grateful for the opportunity to try.”

When asked about his plans for new music, the rapper enthusiastically reiterates his viral catchphrase “hmk otw”—short for Hanumankind on the way— which includes a potential album, and live performances at music festivals worldwide. “Rest assured, there is a lot of music,” he says, “I would say keep your eyes open for people that I incorporate in this music.”

COVER CREDITS

Writer: Peony Hirwani

Photographer: Samrat Nagar

Art Director: Suprit Parulkar

Stylist: Sejal Parulkar

Hair & Makeup: Ritvika Ojha

Videographer: Meghan Katti

Project Coordinator: Bhavya Vaity

Photo Assistant: Suraj Agaarwal

Set Assistant: Devanshi Rinwa, Siddharth Parulkar

Dressman: Pankaj Kumar