Show & Prove: Hanumankind
Words: C. Vernon Coleman II
Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Fall 2025 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands now and available for sale on the XXL website.
Hanumankind’s music should come with a serious side effects label because listening to songs like his explosive hit singles, “Big Dawgs” and “Run It Up,” can result in extreme bouts of turn-up. He found out how real it gets on the final show of the European leg of his OTW Tour last July when he decimated his knee during a rousing set in London.
“I was just in the middle of the performance,” he recalls during a call from Mumbai, India, where he is currently based. “My knee kind of buckled backwards, and my ACL snapped completely out of place. The shows are generally very high-energy. Whether it’s the crowd, whether it’s me, it tends to be fueled by a certain kind of energy. And, that kind of took over.”
For the past few years, Hanumankind has been dominating India’s rap scene, and now his success is spreading to the U.S. via tracks that are gaining international appeal. Hailing from Kerala in Southern India, the 33-year-old rapper, born Sooraj Cherukat, spent his formative years in the U.S., Houston to be exact. There he soaked up the syrupy H-Town culture, becoming enamored with rappers like UGK, the Screwed Up Click, Chamillionaire, Trae Tha Truth, The Color Changin’ Click and others, and began freestyling over beat CDs.
The rhymer attended Houston Community College in 2011, but moved back to India in 2012, at the age of 20, and attended PSG College in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. With a concentration
in Business Management, Hanumankind interned and scored a job at investment company Goldman Sachs in 2017. All the while, he continued to hone his rap skills by hitting India’s fledgling rap scene and making a name for himself locally at open mics and showcases, thanks to his lyrical aptitude and lively stage shows.
“When I was in Houston, what I listened to and the sonics and the style was very specific to that space,” Hanumankind says of his musical origins. “But when I stepped out, I just had the freedom to listen to music as it came, whatever I liked, whatever I f**k with. I think my music is constantly evolving like that. The roots are based off that specific sound and that specific space. But then, everything else is just me f**king around and finding out.”
In 2019, he independently released the Kalari EP. The Surface Level EP followed a year later, along with notable singles “No Hook” (2020) and “Genghis” (2021). The online and local buzz garnered from the songs and subsequent singles led to sold-out shows, which caught the attention of Def Jam India A&R Yash Upadhyay and led to a contract with the label in 2023. In July of 2024, HMK made his first splash internationally when he dropped the toothy single “Big Dawgs” produced by his longtime beatmaker, Kalmi. A song that Han didn’t initially care for. “I guess everyone’s their own worst critic,” he remembers about his initial impressions of the song. “I put it out and then all of a sudden people can’t stop playing it. I’m like, What the f**k is happening?”
The single was accompanied by an action movie-level video, which captures the theme of the fiery track by showing Hanumankind in the “Well of Death”—an iconic attraction at Indian carnivals where participants drive cars and motorcycles inside a wooden silo that requires a stuntman’s degree of difficulty. The visual currently has over a quarter-billion views on YouTube. The song peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was also one of the top 10 most-streamed rap songs on Spotify in 2024. As a result of the song’s success, rappers in the U.S. took notice and wanted to tap in with the movement.
In late 2024, A$AP Rocky’s team reached out to Hanumankind about Rocky hopping on the official “Big Dawgs” remix, which dropped that December with the Harlem rapper. Hanumankind also received cosigns from the likes of Project Pat and Bun B, who hopped on Instagram Live with HMK and gave him props after “Big Dawgs” blew up. Last March, Hanuman dropped the equally energized follow-up “Run It Up.” As a testament to his meteoric rise in the States, he performed his very first show on U.S. soil at the storied Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival the following month.
“I had like, [a]102 fever,” he details about performing in front of thousands at the famed showcase in 2025. “They threw me into the deep end, and I was trying to figure it out. But I think we did our thing, and we had a f**king ball of time.”
Last July, Hanumankind dropped the mixtape Monsoon Season, a collection of tracks he’d been sitting on and new bangers that show the rise and fall of the tides of his psyche. The project features “Big Dawgs,” “Run It Up” and guest appearances from Houston native Maxo Kream and Florida’s own Denzel Curry. HMK linked with Maxo through Maxo’s team and Denzel on social media. Hanumankind has been able to stand out by staying true to his native roots while also tapping into a culture that he holds near and dear to his heart. He’s now putting on for a global audience, including the entire country of India, with a population of 1.4 billion people on his back. No pressure.
“I think he’s authentic to the time frame in which he fell in love with hip-hop and wanted to be like, a part of the culture,” says Houston rap luminary Bun B. “But at the same time, not compromising his Indian culture. I think that’s important because of so many people where he’s from representing something that they don’t get an opportunity to do here on that level.”
With Hanumankind’s buzz growing in the States, the rising artist shares that several more big name rappers have reached out to work, though he remains mum on the names, choosing to let everything play out in real time. With his first North American tour now postponed as he recoups from knee surgery, he will use his off time to create, with no solid timeline for an upcoming project.
“From the beginning, I’ve been doing this just for the need to create and the need to do something that makes me feel like I’m doing my part in this world,” Hanumankind maintains. “But I’m learning to recognize the fact that we have been able to affect people from
this side of the world and be able to connect with people on other sides of the world and kind of showcase what it is that we feel.”
A different breed.
Listen to Hanumankind’s Monsoon Season
The fall 2025 issue of XXL magazine featuring Hanumankind’s interview is available to purchase here. The issue also includes Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s cover story interviews, conversations with Chance The Rapper, Rob49, Curren$y, Hit-Boy, Wallo267, Bay Swag, KenTheMan, Babyfxce E, Ghostface Killah, KenTheMan, Hurricane Wisdom, Conway The Machine, TiaCorine, Pluto, singer Isaiah Falls, comedian Josh Johnson, Vice President of Music at SiriusXM and Pandora Joshua “J1” Raiford, a look at the change in album rollouts over the years highlighted by Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out album and more.
