Photo: Rolling Stone India
Tsumyoki has said the quiet part of his own career out loud more than once: rapping in English, in an Indian hip-hop scene that runs overwhelmingly on Hindi, is "an uphill battle." He's described approaching roughly five different rappers about a song, only to have every one of them pass — not because the song wasn't good, but because the verse was in English. "It's an uphill battle to get streams, get any sort of playlisting, any sort of bookings for shows," he's said. "You'll get rejected just because your verse is in English."
He built a career on that exact disadvantage anyway, out of Goa — a state most of the Indian hip-hop industry still treats as a scenic backdrop rather than a serious scene. From a diss track written for a friend as a teenager to becoming the youngest artist ever signed to Divine's Gully Gang Records, to winning Best Indian Local Act at the 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards over Divine's own submission, Tsumyoki's rise is a case study in refusing to make the easier choice.
Key takeaways
- Tsumyoki (real name Nathan Joseph Mendes) is a rapper from Goa who broke through in 2019 with the single "White Tee" and began pursuing music seriously as a teenager, after writing a diss track for a friend
- In 2021, at 19, he became the youngest artist signed to Divine's Gully Gang Records, and the label's first artist from Goa
- He co-founded Goa Trap Culture (GTC), a collective with fellow Goan artists Kidd Mange, 2jaym, and Elttwo, releasing the group album "Daboij" in 2021
- His debut solo album, "A Message From The Moon," released in June 2023 after three years in the making, explores personal trauma across 13 tracks
- He won Best Indian Local Act at the 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards, beating out Divine, Mali, When Chai Met Toast, and Dee MC — at 22 years old
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The Starting Point: A Diss Track That Turned Into a Career
Tsumyoki's entry into music wasn't a plan — it was a joke that stuck. He's described writing his first real piece of music as a diss track for a friend, "for fun," with no larger ambition attached to it at the time. Music, though, had always been present in his life growing up, and that first diss track turned out to be the thing that actually got him writing seriously.
He picked his stage name in a genuinely casual way — looking in a mirror, he's said, and having the word simply arrive. "It's a made-up word which means vision, productivity, and a positive mindset," he's explained. That mix of the invented and the deliberate — a name built from nothing that nonetheless carries a specific meaning — turned out to describe his whole approach to making music: no fixed process, just following whatever a beat makes him feel. "I don't have a process I follow," he's said. "Honestly it just comes to me, or what comes to my mind, and I lay it down."
His family's response to his music ambitions split early: his mother and sister supported him from the start, while, by his own account, the rest of his family didn't believe in him at all. That division didn't stay static — by the time he won an MTV EMA years later, he's described his mother crying at the news.
White Tee and the Youngest Artist on Gully Gang
Tsumyoki's first real moment of public traction came in 2019 with "White Tee," a single that put his name in front of an audience beyond Goa for the first time. Two years later, in 2021, at just 19 years old, he was signed to Divine's Gully Gang Records — becoming both the youngest artist on the label and the first from Goa, a state with essentially no prior representation in India's mainstream hip-hop industry at that level.
That same period saw him co-found Goa Trap Culture (GTC), a collective built with fellow Goan artists Kidd Mange, 2jaym, and Elttwo. He's described the group's early days with a kind of self-aware humility that's rare for an origin story: "It was just like a bunch of kids having fun, to be honest," he's said. "We didn't know the gravity of what we were doing." GTC released a collaborative album, "Daboij," in 2021 — a project that functioned as a statement that Goa's hip-hop scene could produce something coherent as a collective, not just as scattered individual talent.
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A Message From The Moon: Three Years, Thirteen Tracks
Tsumyoki's debut solo album, "A Message From The Moon," released in June 2023, took three years to make and moved across a wider emotional and sonic range than his earlier singles had suggested — reviewers have described it moving between confessional, bedroom-pop-leaning ballads and rock-leaning, higher-energy tracks, with a distinctly Goan, breezy undercurrent running beneath all of it. He's described the album directly as being about "the emotions I felt during this time," while being deliberately vague about some of the specific stories behind individual songs: "I'd prefer the audience to perceive it their own way," he's said.
Photo: Free Press Journal
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Tsumyoki, on his creative process: "I just play the beat, see what makes me feel. The beat makes me feel emotional, I just write emotional shit." (Rolling Stone India, April 2025)
Winning an MTV EMA Over Divine Himself
The clearest external validation of Tsumyoki's approach came in November 2023, when he won Best Indian Local Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards — beating a field that included Divine (the very artist whose label he was signed to), Mali, When Chai Met Toast, and Dee MC. The physical Paris ceremony that year was ultimately cancelled due to the Israel-Hamas war, but the award itself was still announced and distributed. His reaction, posted directly to Instagram, was characteristically unfiltered: "Goa, we won a f***ing EMA."
In more measured terms afterward, he's described what the win meant to him: "It's an indescribable feeling and a sign that my hard work is paying off," he said. "My mom started crying."
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Still Making the Harder Choice
Tsumyoki's continued output — including "Want It All," a 2025 collaboration with MC Square — has kept returning to the same structural obstacle that's defined his whole career: finding collaborators willing to rap alongside him in English at all. Reflecting on that difficulty in a 2025 Rolling Stone India profile, he's stayed matter-of-fact rather than bitter about it: "Good music will win at the end of the day," he's said — a belief he's had to test repeatedly against an industry that keeps handing him reasons to doubt it.
He's also been direct about what actually builds a lasting audience, distinct from any single hit: "That's what people love the most — if they fall in love with your personality and who you are, that's how you create a cult following." It's a philosophy that lines up with a career built less on chasing a viral English-language crossover moment and more on staying recognizably, consistently himself across genre shifts, a mirror-name and a Goan hip-hop scene he helped build essentially from nothing.
What Other Regional Independent Artists Can Take From Tsumyoki's Approach
Rejection isn't always a signal to change your approach. Getting turned down by multiple collaborators specifically because of a language choice could have pushed Tsumyoki toward Hindi. Instead, it became the obstacle his whole career has been built around clearing.
A collective can build a scene faster than any individual can build a career. Goa Trap Culture didn't just support Tsumyoki's own output — it gave Goa's hip-hop scene a shared identity and body of work before any single member had broken through nationally.
A three-year album isn't a delay if the material needs that long. "A Message From The Moon" wasn't rushed to capitalize on "White Tee" or the Gully Gang signing — it was allowed to take the time its subject matter actually required.
Beating your own mentor's submission is proof the relationship worked as intended. Tsumyoki's MTV EMA win over Divine wasn't a rupture in that relationship — it was the clearest evidence yet that signing him was the right call.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Tsumyoki?
Tsumyoki (real name Nathan Joseph Mendes) is an English-language hip-hop artist from Goa. He broke through in 2019 with "White Tee," became the youngest artist signed to Divine's Gully Gang Records in 2021, and won Best Indian Local Act at the 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards.
What is Tsumyoki's debut album?
"A Message From The Moon," released in June 2023 after three years in development, is his debut solo album — a 13-track project exploring personal experience and trauma, moving between confessional ballads and higher-energy, rock-leaning tracks.
Did Tsumyoki really win an MTV EMA over Divine?
Yes. At the 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards, Tsumyoki won Best Indian Local Act, beating a field that included Divine — the artist behind Gully Gang Records, the label Tsumyoki is signed to — along with Mali, When Chai Met Toast, and Dee MC.
What is Goa Trap Culture?
Goa Trap Culture (GTC) is a hip-hop collective Tsumyoki co-founded with fellow Goan artists Kidd Mange, 2jaym, and Elttwo. The group released a collaborative album, "Daboij," in 2021, helping establish Goa as a distinct hip-hop scene within India.
Why does Tsumyoki rap in English?
Tsumyoki has spoken directly about the career disadvantage this creates in an Indian hip-hop industry that runs predominantly on Hindi — describing difficulty finding collaborators and facing rejection specifically because his verses are in English — but has continued rapping in English by choice rather than switching languages for easier commercial traction.
Tsumyoki's career reads like a running rebuttal to the idea that a scene has to exist before someone can break out of it. Goa didn't have a hip-hop industry positioned to produce an MTV EMA winner, and English verses weren't supposed to be a viable lane in an industry that keeps rejecting them for exactly that reason. He built both anyway — a scene, and a lane inside it — out of a diss track that was never meant to go anywhere.
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