Cartel Madras is a Canadian hip hop duo made up of sisters Contra and Eboshi, born in Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and raised in Calgary. Their distinctive style blends trap, punk, and house into "goonda rap," a singularly unique sound that is bold, unapologetic, and explosive on stage. Cartel Madras has an energy that is unmatched, and a future that is unbounded.
"We’re multi-disciplinary. We make music but we make films, and we write, and we produce a lot of other artists’ stuff."
"We split apart and write our own verses, and we come back together and workshop the hook. Usually it always starts with a fire beat. We hear the beat and right away we know this is going to be the next song. We write our own stuff, come together and critique what we worked on, and go from there."
"We’re constantly, rapidly evolving. [From] Trapistan, to Age of the Goonda, to The Serpent & The Tiger, they sound like entirely different pieces of work with a theme running through all of it. We’re shifting in our own lives, we’re changing. Our lives have rapidly changed and who we are has changed. Cartel Madras in 2023 will sound entirely different from Cartel Madras in 2022."
"We want to keep evolving and reflect how we’re feeling, and that changes day to day."
"Everything we’ve wanted to do [outside of music] we’ve been able to do through Cartel Madras. It’s acted as a door to explore our artistic careers overall."
"The end goal is to be able to continue to do art and not worry, and to have a sense of security in that. Each year we get closer to that, which is a real privilege and honor to be able to do in art."
"You just gotta do it. That’s the message. Don’t box yourself into anything. Don’t let other people box you into anything. You can experiment. You can constantly evolve. You just have to believe it and do it."
