Reception
"Big Dawgs" quickly gained international acclaim,debuting at number 57 on the US Billboard Hot 100. [13] The song has amassed over 400 million streams on Spotify and went viral on TikTok with 150 million views,and over 2,000,000 searches on Shazam. [14] [13] Its success led to Hanumankind being featured on the cover of Spotify's Global Hip Hop Playlist and signing with Capitol Records. [15] [16] Outside of India,the song peaked within the top ten in countries including Australia,Austria,Canada,Singapore,Switzerland,and Brazil.
The song's music video went viral,with content creators sharing reaction videos online;one of them from streamer Shaquille Davis notably praised its production,identifying Hanumankind's Texas rap influences as well as his fashion reminiscent of Freddie Mercury. [17] [4] Samaah Noor Sheikh,writing for The Print ,criticized the American streamer IShowSpeed for repeatedly asking "Why does he sound good?" in his reaction—"as if it was hard for him to believe that an Indian rapper could actually be good". Despite this,Sheikh acknowledged that IShowSpeed's reaction helped platform the Indian music scene. [18]
Some accused the song of ripping off the flow of American rapper Project Pat,although Hanumankind makes a direct reference to Project Pat in the lyrics. [19]
