Hanumankind Songs: 10 Tracks Beyond Big Dawgs

The essential Hanumankind songs beyond Big Dawgs, from Go To Sleep to Run It Up, with release details and context for each.

Key facts

Background: Real name Sooraj Cherukat; born 17 October 1992 in Malappuram, Kerala.
Name: His stage name is a portmanteau of the Hindu deity Hanuman and the word mankind.
Streams: Big Dawgs, with producer Kalmi and director Bijoy Shetty, passed 132 million Spotify streams and 83 million YouTube views within months and briefly outpaced Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us.
Charts: Chart peaks for Big Dawgs include number 3 in India, number 9 on the Billboard Global 200, number 15 in the UK and number 23 on the US Hot 100.
Releases: His first mixtape, Monsoon Season, came out on 25 July 2025 with guests including Denzel Curry, A$AP Rocky and Maxo Kream.

Hanumankind songs run from SoundCloud-era freestyles to a global Top 30 hit, and the essential tracks are Daily Dose, Southside, Genghis, Damnson, Go To Sleep, The Last Dance, Big Dawgs, Run It Up, Holiday and Monsoon Season. Hanumankind is Sooraj Cherukat, a rapper from Malappuram, Kerala, born on 17 October 1992, who grew up partly in Houston and now lives in Bengaluru, according to his Wikipedia biography. His July 2024 single Big Dawgs, produced by Kalmi, reached number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100. This guide covers his best-known songs in release order and the projects they come from.

More facts about Hanumankind

Real name Sooraj Cherukat; born 17 October 1992 in Malappuram, Kerala (Wikipedia).
His stage name is a portmanteau of the Hindu deity Hanuman and the word mankind (Wikipedia).
Big Dawgs, with producer Kalmi and director Bijoy Shetty, passed 132 million Spotify streams and 83 million YouTube views within months and briefly outpaced Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us (BBC).
Chart peaks for Big Dawgs include number 3 in India, number 9 on the Billboard Global 200, number 15 in the UK and number 23 on the US Hot 100 (Wikipedia).
His first mixtape, Monsoon Season, came out on 25 July 2025 with guests including Denzel Curry, A$AP Rocky and Maxo Kream (Rolling Stone India).

Who is Hanumankind

Cherukat's father worked in the oil industry, so the family moved through Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Egypt, Qatar and Italy before settling in Houston, Texas, when he was in second grade (Wikipedia). He returned to India in 2012 to study business administration at PSG College in Coimbatore, worked at Goldman Sachs in 2014 and as a personal trainer, then turned professional with a performance at NH7 Weekender and his debut EP Kalari in 2019.

Houston explains his accent and his sound. The BBC notes that he spent his formative years there and was inspired by Houston legends like DJ Screw, and Wikipedia lists Chamillionaire, Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat and UGK among his early listening, with Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Logic as later influences. He is part of the Kerala-to-Bengaluru pipeline we track in our Kerala indie music scene and Bengaluru indie scene guides.

1. Daily Dose (2019)

Daily Dose was his first official single, taken from the debut EP Kalari (Wikipedia). Before it he had only shared the 959 Mixtape on SoundCloud, rapped over YouTube beats, and a 2018 single called Super Mario that sampled the video game's soundtrack.

2. Southside (2019)

Another Kalari track, Southside is one of the early songs Rolling Stone India lists as steadily blowing up long before Big Dawgs, showing he had a following inside Indian hip-hop well before 2024.

3. Genghis (2021)

Genghis is his most direct political song, dealing with police brutality and social commentary (Wikipedia). Rolling Stone India points to it as proof of the socially conscious side that later resurfaced on Monsoon Season.

4. Damnson

Damnson was one of the singles that followed his second EP, Surface Level (2020), alongside Go To Sleep and collaborations such as That's A Fact and Enemies with Yashraj (Wikipedia). It is among the songs Rolling Stone India names as building his audience in the Hindi-dominated rap scene.

5. Go To Sleep

Go To Sleep came from the same post-Surface Level run (Wikipedia), and Rolling Stone India names it, with Southside and Damnson, among the songs that kept growing his audience before 2024. It is a good test of whether you prefer his pre-fame catalogue to the festival-sized hits.

6. The Last Dance (2024)

The Last Dance appears on the soundtrack of the Malayalam action comedy Aavesham (Wikipedia). Rolling Stone India calls film appearances like this one a sign that his breakthrough was coming. The same year he made his acting debut in Aashiq Abu's Malayalam film Rifle Club.

7. Big Dawgs (2024)

Big Dawgs is the song that made Hanumankind a global name. Released in July 2024 with producer Kalmi, its video, directed by Bijoy Shetty, shows him rapping inside a well of death, the motorcycle carnival attraction, and was shot in Ponnani in Kerala (Wikipedia). The BBC reported it briefly outpaced Not Like Us, and Rolling Stone wrote about how the video took Indian hip-hop to a new audience. A remix with A$AP Rocky followed and later landed on Monsoon Season.

Chart peaks for Big Dawgs, from his discography (Wikipedia):

India: 3
New Zealand: 2
Australia, Canada and Switzerland: 9
Billboard Global 200: 9
Germany: 11
UK: 15
US Billboard Hot 100: 23
Ireland: 30

8. Run It Up (2025)

Run It Up builds its beat around chenda drums from Kerala, and Hanumankind performed it at Netflix's Tudum event in 2025 (Rolling Stone; Wikipedia). Rolling Stone India rates it, with Big Dawgs, as one of the two most frenzied tracks on Monsoon Season.

9. Holiday (2025)

He first performed Holiday on the COLORS show; the studio version on Monsoon Season adds a horn section by Rhys Sebastian (Rolling Stone India).

10. Monsoon Season (2025)

The title track of his first mixtape is, in Rolling Stone India's words, a cinematic centerpiece. The 12-track tape, released on 25 July 2025, also includes Reckless with Denzel Curry, Goons with Maxo Kream, Someone Told Me with Roisee, Cause, and the interlude 29.11.23, a voice message from his mother in Malayalam (Rolling Stone India). The Guardian profiled him that week as India's hottest rapper.

Hanumankind projects and features in order

Converted from his discography (Wikipedia):

2018: 959 Mixtape (SoundCloud) and the single Super Mario.
2019: Kalari, debut EP.
2020: Surface Level, second EP.
2024: Big Dawgs with Kalmi; The Last Dance for Aavesham.
2025: Run It Up; Victory Lap Three with Skepta, Fred again.. and PlaqueBoyMax (17 July); Monsoon Season mixtape (25 July).
2025: Dhurandhar (Title Track) and Ez-Ez with Diljit Dosanjh for the film Dhurandhar, composed by Shashwat Sachdev (Rolling Stone India).
2026: See U in Hell with Papa Roach for season two of Netflix's Devil May Cry, released 7 May.

Hanumankind live

In November 2025 he made his first headlining Rolling Loud appearance in India, his second Rolling Loud set at home (Wikipedia). Rolling Stone India also lists Coachella, Rolling Loud Thailand and Lollapalooza India among his post-Big Dawgs stages. For the current festival picture, see our Rolling Loud India 2026 lineup.

FAQ

What is Hanumankind's real name

His real name is Sooraj Cherukat (Wikipedia).

Is Hanumankind Indian or Malayali

Yes, both. He was born in Malappuram, Kerala, and the Big Dawgs video was shot in Ponnani, his home district (Wikipedia).

Why does Hanumankind have an American accent

He moved to Houston, Texas, as a young child and spent his formative years there, where Southern rap shaped his style (BBC).

What does Hanumankind mean

The name joins the Hindu deity Hanuman with the English word mankind (Wikipedia).

What was Hanumankind's first song

His first official single was Daily Dose from the 2019 EP Kalari; before that he released the 959 Mixtape and Super Mario on SoundCloud in 2018 (Wikipedia).