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The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘They're rowdy. They're vibing. I rip my shirt off': the exploding career of Hanumankind, India's hottest rapper
Two weeks ago, halfway through his first ever UK show, Hanumankind instructed the crowd to mimic him by hopping to the right then to the left, back and forth, in unison. But the rapper from India slipped and fell, limping to the end of the gig in evident pain, kept upright by his DJ and inspired by the audience's singalong familiarity with his catalogue. 'We were ready to have a good time,' he sheepishly grins from an armchair at his record label's offices three days later. It turns out he has torn a ligament. 'It was a battle of internal turmoil. The show was like a fifth of what it was meant to be, but I gave it my all. London has a beautiful energy which gave me strength.' Even without the leg injury, the 32-year-old star, who was born Sooraj Cherukat, has reached a testing threshold in his short, explosive career. His tracks Big Dawgs and Run It Up, helped by action-movie music videos, have made him one of the most talked-about MCs in the world. A$AP Rocky and Fred Again are among his recent collaborators. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi even invited Cherukat to perform at an event in New York last September. But as a rare south Asian face in globally popular rap, he feels a certain responsibility. 'The past year has been hard,' he says. 'I'm trying to navigate through it.' What's more, although he expresses a deep pride about life in India, 'a lot of things are off. There is a mob mentality. There's a lot of divisiveness because of religion, background, caste. It doesn't sit well with me. I'm in a unique space to change the way people can think within my country.' Born in Malappuram, Kerala, which he remembers as a 'green, beautiful environment', Cherukat spent his childhood following his father's work abroad, from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia to Britain. 'We'd traverse different countries and I'd sing songs in whatever language I was picking up,' he says. 'Wherever I went, I had to get involved and be ready to leave. I learned to connect with people. That's why the power of the word is so important to me.' At the age of 10, he landed in Houston, Texas, and found a rare stability. It was the early 2000s and the city was an engine room for rap innovation. Cherukat's set his accent to a southern drawl. Already a fan of heavy metal – which makes sense given his grungy, rockstar leanings today – he became hooked on the local chopped-and-screwed subgenre pioneered by DJ Screw, Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat. In his teens he was 'burning CDs full of beats, riding around smoking blunts and hitting hard freestyles'. He returned to south India just before hitting 20. 'The only place I had roots,' he says. He completed a university degree in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, before working a corporate job in the tech hub of Bengaluru. Seeing rap as 'a party thing, a way to de-stress and stay connected to the art form', he performed at open-mic nights, softening his US accent and perfecting his stage show for an Indian audience. 'Friends would come to watch and be like, 'Dude, you're not bad. You should lock in.'' So he did. At the end of 2019, Cherukat played his first festival: NH7 Weekender in Pune, Maharashtra. The crowd went wild, quickly morphing from a small handful into a packed moshpit. 'They're rowdy and they're fucking vibing,' he says. 'I rip my shirt off. I'm like, 'OK, I can do this!'' He quit his job and began plotting his next move, filling notebooks with lyrics throughout the pandemic. These are a blend of cheek and grit delivered with a flow that keeps respawning at different speeds and scales. Soon, Cherukat was signed by Def Jam India. Part of a movement to reject the remnants of British colonialism in favour of local expression, the proud, rebellious patchwork of Indian hip-hop encompasses the vast country's 'hundreds of languages, each as deeply rooted as the next', Cherukat explains. 'Someone who speaks Hindi or another regional language will give you a vast amount of depth and detail in what they're doing.' His decision to rap mostly in English therefore came with risks of being perceived as inauthentic at home, but it has certainly helped his global crossover. Besides, he has found other ways to communicate a homegrown aesthetic. Run It Up marches to the beat of Keralan chenda drums, while its video features martial artists from disparate corners of India. Cherukat performed it with a band of drummers at Coachella festival, his debut US gig. 'Most people don't know what is going on in my country,' he says. 'Maybe I can open up some doors, open up some eyes, break out of these bubbles and stereotypes.' Although not religious, Cherukat has a divine figure woven into his performing name. Over recent years, Hanuman, the simian-headed Hindu god of strength and devotion, has been employed everywhere from the car stickers of hypermasculine Indian nationalism to the bloody, satirical critique of Dev Patel's 2024 thriller, Monkey Man. Where does Hanumankind fit into this: traditionalist or progressive? 'I need to make music for myself first,' he says simply. 'But when you have a platform, you can bring about change through your words and actions.' Some fans were disappointed that he accepted the New York invitation from Modi – whose Hindu nationalist government has been accused of democratic backsliding and Islamophobia. Cherukat has defended his appearance, describing it as 'nothing political … We were called to represent the nation and we did that.' But today he claims his 'political ideology is pretty clear' to anyone who has been following his career. In one of his earliest singles, 2020's Catharsis, he rails against systemic corruption, police brutality and armed suppression of protest. 'I'm not just trying to speak to people who already agree with me,' he says. 'I'm trying to give people who are otherwise not going to be listening a chance to be like, 'OK, there is some logic to what he's saying.'' Monsoon Season, his new mixtape, is just out. It features the mellow likes of Holiday – performed on the massively popular YouTube series Colors – as well as raucous collaborations with US rap luminaries Denzel Curry and Maxo Kream. It is less a narrative album, more a compilation, with songs gathered over the years before the spotlight shone on him. 'I have a lot of memories of coming into Kerala during the monsoon,' says Cherukat of the project's name. 'You can have days where things are absolutely reckless, flooded, out of control. There can be days where you get introspective and think about life. There are days where you love the rain: it feels good, there's that smell in the air when it hits the mud, the soil, the flowers. Your senses are heightened. You can fall in love with that. Or it can ruin all your plans and you hate it.' Cherukat's knee will take some time to recover before he embarks on a North American tour later this year. It's clear he needs a break: not just to heal, but to continue processing fame, adapt to its changes and return to the studio. 'I'm still adjusting,' he says. 'The attention, the conversation, the responsibility, the lifestyle, all this shit. Things have been a little haywire. So I just want to go back to the source – and make music.' Monsoon Season is out now on Capitol Records/Def Jam India
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘They're rowdy. They're vibing. I rip my shirt off': the exploding career of Hanumankind, India's hottest rapper
Two weeks ago, halfway through his first ever UK show, Hanumankind instructed the crowd to mimic him by hopping to the right then to the left, back and forth, in unison. But the rapper from India slipped and fell, limping to the end of the gig in evident pain, kept upright by his DJ and inspired by the audience's singalong familiarity with his catalogue. 'We were ready to have a good time,' he sheepishly grins from an armchair at his record label's offices three days later. It turns out he has torn a ligament. 'It was a battle of internal turmoil. The show was like a fifth of what it was meant to be, but I gave it my all. London has a beautiful energy which gave me strength.' Even without the leg injury, the 32-year-old star, who was born Sooraj Cherukat, has reached a testing threshold in his short, explosive career. His tracks Big Dawgs and Run It Up, helped by action-movie music videos, have made him one of the most talked-about MCs in the world. A$AP Rocky and Fred Again are among his recent collaborators. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi even invited Cherukat to perform at an event in New York last September. But as a rare south Asian face in globally popular rap, he feels a certain responsibility. 'The past year has been hard,' he says. 'I'm trying to navigate through it.' What's more, although he expresses a deep pride about life in India, 'a lot of things are off. There is a mob mentality. There's a lot of divisiveness because of religion, background, caste. It doesn't sit well with me. I'm in a unique space to change the way people can think within my country.' Born in Malappuram, Kerala, which he remembers as a 'green, beautiful environment', Cherukat spent his childhood following his father's work abroad, from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia to Britain. 'We'd traverse different countries and I'd sing songs in whatever language I was picking up,' he says. 'Wherever I went, I had to get involved and be ready to leave. I learned to connect with people. That's why the power of the word is so important to me.' At the age of 10, he landed in Houston, Texas, and found a rare stability. It was the early 2000s and the city was an engine room for rap innovation. Cherukat's set his accent to a southern drawl. Already a fan of heavy metal – which makes sense given his grungy, rockstar leanings today – he became hooked on the local chopped-and-screwed subgenre pioneered by DJ Screw, Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat. In his teens he was 'burning CDs full of beats, riding around smoking blunts and hitting hard freestyles'. He returned to south India just before hitting 20. 'The only place I had roots,' he says. He completed a university degree in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, before working a corporate job in the tech hub of Bengaluru. Seeing rap as 'a party thing, a way to de-stress and stay connected to the art form', he performed at open-mic nights, softening his US accent and perfecting his stage show for an Indian audience. 'Friends would come to watch and be like, 'Dude, you're not bad. You should lock in.'' So he did. At the end of 2019, Cherukat played his first festival: NH7 Weekender in Pune, Maharashtra. The crowd went wild, quickly morphing from a small handful into a packed moshpit. 'They're rowdy and they're fucking vibing,' he says. 'I rip my shirt off. I'm like, 'OK, I can do this!'' He quit his job and began plotting his next move, filling notebooks with lyrics throughout the pandemic. These are a blend of cheek and grit delivered with a flow that keeps respawning at different speeds and scales. Soon, Cherukat was signed by Def Jam India. Part of a movement to reject the remnants of British colonialism in favour of local expression, the proud, rebellious patchwork of Indian hip-hop encompasses the vast country's 'hundreds of languages, each as deeply rooted as the next', Cherukat explains. 'Someone who speaks Hindi or another regional language will give you a vast amount of depth and detail in what they're doing.' His decision to rap mostly in English therefore came with risks of being perceived as inauthentic at home, but it has certainly helped his global crossover. Besides, he has found other ways to communicate a homegrown aesthetic. Run It Up marches to the beat of Keralan chenda drums, while its video features martial artists from disparate corners of India. Cherukat performed it with a band of drummers at Coachella festival, his debut US gig. 'Most people don't know what is going on in my country,' he says. 'Maybe I can open up some doors, open up some eyes, break out of these bubbles and stereotypes.' Although not religious, Cherukat has a divine figure woven into his performing name. Over recent years, Hanuman, the simian-headed Hindu god of strength and devotion, has been employed everywhere from the car stickers of hypermasculine Indian nationalism to the bloody, satirical critique of Dev Patel's 2024 thriller, Monkey Man. Where does Hanumankind fit into this: traditionalist or progressive? 'I need to make music for myself first,' he says simply. 'But when you have a platform, you can bring about change through your words and actions.' Some fans were disappointed that he accepted the New York invitation from Modi – whose Hindu nationalist government has been accused of democratic backsliding and Islamophobia. Cherukat has defended his appearance, describing it as 'nothing political … We were called to represent the nation and we did that.' But today he claims his 'political ideology is pretty clear' to anyone who has been following his career. In one of his earliest singles, 2020's Catharsis, he rails against systemic corruption, police brutality and armed suppression of protest. 'I'm not just trying to speak to people who already agree with me,' he says. 'I'm trying to give people who are otherwise not going to be listening a chance to be like, 'OK, there is some logic to what he's saying.'' Monsoon Season, his new mixtape, is just out. It features the mellow likes of Holiday – performed on the massively popular YouTube series Colors – as well as raucous collaborations with US rap luminaries Denzel Curry and Maxo Kream. It is less a narrative album, more a compilation, with songs gathered over the years before the spotlight shone on him. 'I have a lot of memories of coming into Kerala during the monsoon,' says Cherukat of the project's name. 'You can have days where things are absolutely reckless, flooded, out of control. There can be days where you get introspective and think about life. There are days where you love the rain: it feels good, there's that smell in the air when it hits the mud, the soil, the flowers. Your senses are heightened. You can fall in love with that. Or it can ruin all your plans and you hate it.' Cherukat's knee will take some time to recover before he embarks on a North American tour later this year. It's clear he needs a break: not just to heal, but to continue processing fame, adapt to its changes and return to the studio. 'I'm still adjusting,' he says. 'The attention, the conversation, the responsibility, the lifestyle, all this shit. Things have been a little haywire. So I just want to go back to the source – and make music.' Monsoon Season is out now on Capitol Records/Def Jam India
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rihanna's Pregnancy Era Has Entered Its Softest Phase Yet — Thanks to a Very Hands-On A$AP Rocky
Rihanna is glowing — and no, it's not just the baby bump. As she prepares to welcome her third child with A$AP Rocky, the Fenty founder and Smurfs star is getting a whole lot of love, support, and late-night snack deliveries from her partner of five years. According to People, the couple is 'thrilled' to be growing their family again, and sources close to the pair say this pregnancy feels different — softer, slower, and somehow even more full of love. 'He's completely tuned into her needs,' the insider shared of Rocky, who's been 'incredibly attentive and nurturing' as Rihanna rests and gets ready for baby no. 3. More from SheKnows Rihanna's Baby Bump Is on Full Display at the Met Gala After Revealing Her 3rd Pregnancy While some dads might think diaper duty earns them a gold star, Rocky's in full-service mode. He's reportedly handling bedtime routines, entertaining sons RZA, 3, and Riot Rose, almost 2, and running baths for Rihanna at the end of the day. Yes, baths. With foot rubs. And snacks. 'He always makes her laugh,' the source added. 'He keeps things light and full of love.' The couple revealed the pregnancy just ahead of the 2025 Met Gala — in true Rihanna fashion, by casually stepping out of The Carlyle in a powder-blue two-piece with her bump on full display. It marked her third major pregnancy reveal in as many years, following her viral 2023 Super Bowl moment and her first pregnancy announcement in 2022, when she wore a $29K outfit in a paparazzi photo, per Us Weekly. Still, this time seems more intimate. Back in December, Rihanna joked that the only thing she hadn't achieved yet was having a daughter. 'I'm batting at 75 percent for a boy next time,' she told E! News. 'So, we'll just keep our fingers crossed.' And in April, she doubled down: 'I would try for my girl,' she told Interview. 'But of course, if it's another boy, it's another boy.' Either way, Rocky's right there next to her. Even if he doesn't help dress the kids — 'That's their mother by herself,' he admitted last year — he still plays muse. 'Sometimes she dresses them like me… kilts and all of that,' he said. Now, with a third baby on the way and a nightly foot rub seemingly locked in, it's safe to say this might be Rihanna's coziest pregnancy of SheKnows AP Scores Just Came Out — Here's What to Do If Your Teen's Upset About Theirs Celebrate Freedom With These Perfectly-Patriotic Americana Baby Names July 4th Printable Coloring Pages to Keep Kids Busy All Day Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fans Were Annoyed for Rihanna's Son During Fashion Show
Fans Were Annoyed for Rihanna's Son During Fashion Show originally appeared on Parade. Rihanna made sure to bring along her adorable plus one to watch her longtime partner, A$AP Rocky, at the Paris Fashion Week runway. The 'Praise the Lord' singer confidently strutted the runway for AWGE's second fashion show, unveiling its Spring/Summer 2026 collection. All eyes were on Riri as she took the front-row seat in an oversized striped button-down with a pleated navy miniskirt. The pregnant award-winning artist stepped out in white slingback heels and gray socks that added a playful yet chic contrast to her stylish look. As for her three-year-old son, he exuded the charm of a future fashion icon just like his parents. RZA Athelston Mayers looked every bit the mini trendsetter in a baby-sized Harley-Davidson biker jacket paired effortlessly with purple parachute pants and tricolor Vans sneakers. Topping off the look, he sported cornrows — a clear nod to his dad's signature style. However, following the mother and son's sighting at Paris Fashion Week, fans couldn't help but express concern over the intense camera flashes directed at the toddler. 'All those flashing lights in his face. I'd be mad too baby' a user noted in a post shared by British Vogue on Instagram. 'Too many cameras for Baba,' one wrote. Another fan noticed and added, 'They lights hurting baby boy's eyes.' 'Give the baby sunglasses,' a fourth user suggested. 'Omg. Them cameras flashes… Shield his eyes...' a commenter remarked. An IG user echoed the same and noted, 'I hope she watches this back and sees his reaction. This is the most unnatural and hung in the world to have lights flashing in your face as an adult let alone a child.' RZA Mayers is Rihanna and A$AP Rocky's eldest child followed by a son named Riot Rose Mayers. During her appearance at the Met Gala in May, the 'Diamonds' hitmaker proudly debuted her baby bump, confirming that she was expecting her third Were Annoyed for Rihanna's Son During Fashion Show first appeared on Parade on Jun 28, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 28, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Lollapalooza 2025: Schedule, festival map, Chicago road closures, bag policy
Lollapalooza returns to Chicago's Grant Park next week. The four-day festival runs from July 31 to August 3. Gates open at 11 a.m. each day. The main entrance is located at Michigan Avenue and Ida B. Wells Drive, and the north entrance is at Monroe Street and Columbus Drive. Tyler the Creator and Luke Combs will headline Thursday night. Gracie Abrams, Sierra Ferrell, Cage the Elephant, and Royal Otis. Olivia Rodrigo and Korn will headline Friday night. Djo, Bleachers, T-Pain, and Foster the People will also perform that day. Rufus Du Sol and Twice are Saturday night's headliners, with other performances from Doechii, Clairo, Young Miko, and Marina. Sabrina Carpenter and A$AP Rocky will close the festival on Sunday night, with performances from Dominic Fike, Finneas, Remi Wolf, and The Marias. Tickets are available on Lollapalooza's website. Street closures began as early as July 16 and some closures will continue through August 4. CTA is encouraging riders to use the Red and Blue lines but added that any of the elevated lines in The Loop will get festivalgoers to and from Grant Park. CTA also announced that the Yellow Line will run until 1 a.m. Additional bus service will be available to connect Union Station or the Ogilvie Transportation Center to Grant Park. Buses will be rerouted around the Grant Park area, and buses that run on Michigan Avenue will be rerouted between 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. to accommodate crowds leaving the festival. Metra will provide extra train service during Lollapalooza weekend. According to festival organizers, small clutch purses and fanny packs that are 6" x 9" or smaller are allowed. The small bags do not need to be clear, but can have no more than one pocket. All other bags larger than 6" x 9" must be smaller than 12" x 6" x 12" and clear. Empty hydration packs are allowed and do not have to be clear. Sara Tenenbaum contributed to this report.
