Cartel Madras is a Canadian hip hop duo from Calgary, Alberta, consisting of sisters Bhagya "Eboshi" Ramesh and Priya "Contra" Ramesh. They characterize their music as "Goonda Rap" and began their career uploading songs to SoundCloud. Cartel Madras released their debut mixtape, Project Goonda Part 1: Trapistan, in 2018. In 2019, they signed to Sub Pop and Royal Mountain Records and their EP, Age of the Goonda, was released on November 1. Their most recent album, The Serpent & The Tiger was released August 19, 2021. Formation Both sisters emigrated from Chennai, India they are half Tamil and half Malayalee and identify as queer, with Eboshi identifying as pansexual. They classify their music as "Goonda Rap". Their music combines elements of hip hop, house, punk, electronic, and South Indian influences. The duo cite Freddie Gibbs, M.I.A., Scarface, Cupcakke, and MF Doom as influences. Career Cartel Madras began by releasing songs on their SoundCloud. Their debut mixtape Project Goonda Part 1: Trapistan was released in 2018. The lead single for the mixtape was titled "Pork and Leek". The duo helped develop a collective known as THOTNATION which consists of close collaborators like Jae Sterling, yungkamaji, and Jide. Later that year, Cartel Madras played at Pop Montreal, opening for Cupcakke. At a show at Calgary's Sled Island festival, five months after their formation, they caught the attention of Ishmael Butler, a member of the A&R team of the label Sub Pop. In 2019, Cartel Madras won $10,000 from the Telus Storyhive grant to film a music video for "Eric Andre (Slick Rick James)". The music video featured cameos from K.d. lang and Vivek Shraya and was released in May 2019. In June, Sub Pop announced they had signed Cartel Madras and that new music was being worked on. The duo announced an EP, Age of the Goonda, to be released on November 1, 2019. Two singles were released in the lead up to the EP release, "Lil Pump Type Beat" and "Goonda Gold". After the EP release, the duo announced a series of Canadian tour dates, opening for Hollerado, Fetty Wap, and Clipping. Eventually, the song was announced as a part of the EA UFC4 official game soundtrack. They were included on Vogue India's list of artists set to breakthrough in 2020. In 2020, Cartel Madras began their first international tour opening for Sudan Archives in North America. Following this tour, it