Das Racist
Encyclopedia
Das Racist is an alternative hip hop
group based in Brooklyn
, New York City
, composed of MCs
Himanshu Suri (aka Heems), and Victor Vazquez (aka Kool A.D.) and hype man
Ashok Kondabolu (aka Dap). Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist has been both dismissed as joke rap and hailed as an urgent new voice in rap.
After rising to Internet fame with their 2008 song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell", Das Racist established themselves as credible rappers with the release of their 2010 mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Spin
magazine picked Das Racist as one of 50 acts to watch at the 2010 SXSW festival, and in April 2010, MTV Iggy selected Das Racist as one of the "25 Best New Bands in the World." Rolling Stone
declared the song "hahahaha jk?" from Sit Down, Man
one of the fifty best singles of 2010. For its November 2011 "funny" issue, Spin magazine featured Das Racist on the cover, with an article written by Dap's brother, comedian Hari Kondabolu
. On November 28, 2011 the group made their United States
television debut on Conan.
in Middletown, Connecticut
where Vazquez was Suri's resident advisor
in a "students of color for social justice"-themed dormitory. However, they only formed Das Racist after both had moved to New York after college. Kondabolu, who had met Suri when they were both students at New York's Stuyvesant High School
, soon joined as their hype man. Suri and Kondabolu are both from Queens, New York and of Indian
descent, and Vazquez is of Afro-Cuban
and Italian
descent and from the San Francisco Bay Area
. Vazquez is also a member of power-pop band Boy Crisis
.
called Das Racist a "funny and funky duo," placing them on a list of eight bands worth checking out. In March 2009, Baltimore
-based electronic music
ian Dan Deacon
referred to "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" as "a track that will last the ages" in XLR8R
magazine. Death & Taxes magazine described the song as "an existential meditation on consumer identity in corporate America" and "both feverishly juvenile and somehow profound." After playing at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon
, the New York Times described Das Racist's set as "characteristically shambolic, and characteristically entertaining, holding together a half-hour set of half-performed songs with hyperliterate reference points and self-aware charm."
, and being described as "a fascinating album that attempts to write an impossibly new blueprint for rap: funny without trying to impress; proficient without having anything to prove; relevant without taking any particular scene seriously; imbued with a soulful sense of place—urban, disaffected, ethnic—but more interested in how that serves as fodder for jokes than in any big grab for meaning."
For the song "Who's That? Brooown!" (a reference to A Tribe Called Quest
's song "Scenario") Das Racist released a playable 8-bit video game of Suri and Vazquez on a quest through the New York City boroughs of Queens
, Manhattan
, and Brooklyn
to find Kondabolu, referencing 1980s ephemera such as Double Dragon
, Back to the Future
, Narc
, and Frogger
. Pitchfork named the video one of the forty best of 2010, and it was selected to screen at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Six months later, Das Racist released their second mixtape Sit Down, Man
on September 14, 2010, also as a free download. Sit Down, Man received even better reviews, earning a score of 8 from Spin magazine
, as well as an 8.7 and "Best New Music" from Pitchfork Media, and was downloaded over 40,000 times in the first week. Guests on Sit Down, Man include El-P, Despot, Vijay Iyer
, and Chairlift
with production from Diplo, Dame Grease
, Devo Springsteen
, Sabzi (of Blue Scholars
and Common Market
) and Boi-1da
.
, was released on September 13, 2011, on Suri's own Greedhead Music label. The album includes production from Diplo, El-P, Rostam Batmanglij (of Vampire Weekend
), and Anand Wilder (of Yeasayer
), as well as guest appearances from El-P, Danny Brown, and Despot. Das Racist consider Relax to be a more accessible album, and they refer to it as a "pop record." Despite receiving a negative review from Pitchfork, who had lauded their previous efforts, the album has received a generally favorable response, earning an 8 out of 10 from Spin magazine, and reaching the number one spots on both the iTunes
Hip Hop/Rap chart and the US Billboard Top Heatseekers
albums chart.
about the sitcom Outsourced
, their interview with The New York Times
Deborah Solomon
, and their appearance on "Our Show With Elliot Aronow" in which they stated that Lady Gaga
was "clearly illuminati."
In the summer of 2009, Vazquez responded to The New Yorker
cartoonist Farley Katz's poking fun at Das Racist for "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" by challenging Katz to a "cartoon-off". Katz accepted, and the competition consisted of the two each submitting three cartoons on pre-specified themes. Rob Harvilla of The Village Voice
, surveying the results, declared Vazquez the winner, saying he "destroyed" Katz.
After Sasha Frere-Jones
wrote a piece in The New Yorker on the demise of hip hop in late 2009, the blog Flavorpill turned to Das Racist to provide a response; Vazquez and Suri took Frere-Jones to task for presumptuously claiming authority on the matter, questioning Frere-Jones's assumptions and conclusions.
In December 2009, Das Racist hosted and curated "Minority Fest". The event, featuring Victor Varnado
, Jay Smooth
, and Hari Kondabolu
among others, consisted of stand-up comedy by comedians of color, musical performances, and a panel discussion concerning issues faced by people of color in the arts.
In the build-up to releasing Relax, Das Racist hosted a radio show on East Village Radio
called "Chillin' Island." After releasing Relax, Das Racist turned "Chillin Island" into a video web series starring Dapwell and co-hosted and produced by Heems. Das Racist recently appeared in a Pitchfork TV series called "Over/Under."
festival was described as "the most divisive show seen at the festival." They describe their approach to music as "'deconstruction
alist': sawing the legs out from under hip-hop as they celebrate it." The New York Times
wrote "Das Racist’s lack of piety has become an aesthetic of its own, with songs that are as much commentary on hip-hop as rigorous practice of it." The Root said Das Racist could speak for both "the ‘hood or the nearest gated community
." Playboy
called the duo "equal parts hip-hop and Cheech & Chong." In an interview with Sepia Mutiny
, Suri described Das Racist's music:
Alternative hip hop
Alternative hip hop is a sub-genre of hip hop music. Allmusic defines it as follows: -Origin:...
group based in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, composed of MCs
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
Himanshu Suri (aka Heems), and Victor Vazquez (aka Kool A.D.) and hype man
Hype man
A hype man in hip hop music and rapping is a “backup rapper/singer who is also responsible for increasing an audience's excitement with call-and-response chants” according to The Hilltop and author Grant Barrett....
Ashok Kondabolu (aka Dap). Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist has been both dismissed as joke rap and hailed as an urgent new voice in rap.
After rising to Internet fame with their 2008 song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell", Das Racist established themselves as credible rappers with the release of their 2010 mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
magazine picked Das Racist as one of 50 acts to watch at the 2010 SXSW festival, and in April 2010, MTV Iggy selected Das Racist as one of the "25 Best New Bands in the World." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
declared the song "hahahaha jk?" from Sit Down, Man
Sit Down, Man
Sit Down, Man is the second mixtape by Brooklyn based alternative hip hop act Das Racist, released as a free download on September 14, 2010, through the groups own Greedhead imprint, streetwear label Мишка and Mad Decent records.-History:...
one of the fifty best singles of 2010. For its November 2011 "funny" issue, Spin magazine featured Das Racist on the cover, with an article written by Dap's brother, comedian Hari Kondabolu
Hari Kondabolu
Hari Kondabolu is an American stand-up comic.-Career:A graduate of Bowdoin College and the London School of Economics, he has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live as well as appearing on a variety of national comedy festivals, including the 2007 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. Additionally, he has made...
. On November 28, 2011 the group made their United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television debut on Conan.
Formation
Suri and Vazquez met in 2003 at Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
in Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...
where Vazquez was Suri's resident advisor
Resident assistant
A resident assistant , commonly shortened to RA is a trained peer leader who supervises those living in a residence hall or group housing facility...
in a "students of color for social justice"-themed dormitory. However, they only formed Das Racist after both had moved to New York after college. Kondabolu, who had met Suri when they were both students at New York's Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
, soon joined as their hype man. Suri and Kondabolu are both from Queens, New York and of Indian
Indian American
Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau popularized the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Indigenous peoples of the Americas who are commonly referred to as American Indians.-The term: Indian:...
descent, and Vazquez is of Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
and Italian
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
descent and from the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. Vazquez is also a member of power-pop band Boy Crisis
Boy Crisis
Boy Crisis is an American band that has been influenced by the post-disco–post-punk sound of the early 1980s.Based in Brooklyn, New York, Boy Crisis consists of members Tal Rozen, Alex Kestner, Victor Vazquez, Lee Pender, and Owen Roberts.-History:...
.
Name origin
Himanshu Suri stated in an interview:"Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" (2008–2009)
Das Racist first began attracting attention with their song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell". In November 2008, The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called Das Racist a "funny and funky duo," placing them on a list of eight bands worth checking out. In March 2009, Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
-based electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
ian Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels...
referred to "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" as "a track that will last the ages" in XLR8R
XLR8R
XLR8R is a magazine and website thatcovers music, culture, style, and technology. It was founded as anewsprint ‘zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in Seattle; themagazine currently has offices in San Francisco and New York...
magazine. Death & Taxes magazine described the song as "an existential meditation on consumer identity in corporate America" and "both feverishly juvenile and somehow profound." After playing at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon
CMJ Music Marathon
CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival is put on by CMJ Network. CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 is scheduled for October 19–23 and will be headquartered at New York University and other downtown NYC venues.- History :...
, the New York Times described Das Racist's set as "characteristically shambolic, and characteristically entertaining, holding together a half-hour set of half-performed songs with hyperliterate reference points and self-aware charm."
Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man (2010)
Das Racist's first album, the Shut Up, Dude mixtape, was released as a free download in March, 2010. The mixtape received positive reviews, earning a score of 7.8 from Pitchfork MediaPitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, and being described as "a fascinating album that attempts to write an impossibly new blueprint for rap: funny without trying to impress; proficient without having anything to prove; relevant without taking any particular scene seriously; imbued with a soulful sense of place—urban, disaffected, ethnic—but more interested in how that serves as fodder for jokes than in any big grab for meaning."
For the song "Who's That? Brooown!" (a reference to A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...
's song "Scenario") Das Racist released a playable 8-bit video game of Suri and Vazquez on a quest through the New York City boroughs of Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
to find Kondabolu, referencing 1980s ephemera such as Double Dragon
Double Dragon
is a classic beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technos Japan Corporation, who also developed the Kunio-kun series ....
, Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
, Narc
NARC (video game)
NARC is originally a 1988 arcade game designed by Eugene Jarvis for Williams Electronics and programmed by George Petro. It was one of the first ultra-violent video games and a frequent target of parental criticism of the arcade game industry. The object is to arrest and kill drug offenders,...
, and Frogger
Frogger
Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of...
. Pitchfork named the video one of the forty best of 2010, and it was selected to screen at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Six months later, Das Racist released their second mixtape Sit Down, Man
Sit Down, Man
Sit Down, Man is the second mixtape by Brooklyn based alternative hip hop act Das Racist, released as a free download on September 14, 2010, through the groups own Greedhead imprint, streetwear label Мишка and Mad Decent records.-History:...
on September 14, 2010, also as a free download. Sit Down, Man received even better reviews, earning a score of 8 from Spin magazine
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
, as well as an 8.7 and "Best New Music" from Pitchfork Media, and was downloaded over 40,000 times in the first week. Guests on Sit Down, Man include El-P, Despot, Vijay Iyer
Vijay Iyer
Vijay Iyer is a jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, producer, electronic musician, and writer based in New York City.-Biography:Born in 1971 and raised in Rochester, New York, Vijay Iyer is the son of Indian Tamil immigrants to the US. He received 15 years of Western classical training on violin...
, and Chairlift
Chairlift (band)
Chairlift is an American electronic pop Duo.Based in Brooklyn, New York, Chairlift consists of members Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly .-History:...
with production from Diplo, Dame Grease
Dame Grease
Damon Blackmon, or Dame Grease, is a Harlem, New York based video and music producer.Before becoming a staple on every mixtape, The LOX relied on the sounds of Grease in order to acquire the street buzz that landed them their deal on Bad Boy Records in 1996...
, Devo Springsteen
Devo Springsteen
Devon Harris , better known as Devo Springsteen, is a Grammy Award winning producer and songwriter. Springsteen launched the career of multi-platinum selling recording artist John Legend by signing him to Kanye West’s GOOD Music in 2003...
, Sabzi (of Blue Scholars
Blue Scholars
Blue Scholars is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington, created in 2002 while the members, DJ Sabzi and MC Geologic, were students at the University of Washington....
and Common Market
Common Market (band)
Common Market is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington with members RA Scion and DJ/Producer Sabzi. The two members were individually active hip hop artists in the Pacific Northwest since 2002, but collectively combined their talents in 2005 to form Common Market.Sabzi started his career as...
) and Boi-1da
Boi-1da
Matthew Samuels , better known as Boi-1da , is a Canadian hip-hop producer from Toronto, Ontario. He has produced for artists and groups such as Chip tha Ripper, Kardinal Offishall, Clipse, Drake, Eminem, Saukrates, k-os, G-Unit, and The Diplomats among others...
.
Relax (2011)
Their first commercially released album, titled RelaxRelax (Das Racist album)
Relax is the first commercially released album by New York hip-hop group Das Racist, following the success of their first two mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. The album was released on September 13, 2011. The first single, "Michael Jackson", was released via iTunes on August 2, with a...
, was released on September 13, 2011, on Suri's own Greedhead Music label. The album includes production from Diplo, El-P, Rostam Batmanglij (of Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City that formed in 2006 and signed to XL Recordings. The Band has four members: Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson, and Chris Baio. The band released its first album Vampire Weekend in 2008, which produced the singles "Mansard...
), and Anand Wilder (of Yeasayer
Yeasayer
-History:The band's three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their first single consisted of a double A-side of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080"...
), as well as guest appearances from El-P, Danny Brown, and Despot. Das Racist consider Relax to be a more accessible album, and they refer to it as a "pop record." Despite receiving a negative review from Pitchfork, who had lauded their previous efforts, the album has received a generally favorable response, earning an 8 out of 10 from Spin magazine, and reaching the number one spots on both the iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
Hip Hop/Rap chart and the US Billboard Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
albums chart.
Solo work
Kool A.D. and Heems have both recorded solo tracks. Heems has released his single "Womyn" in July 2011. The same month, Kool A.D. also released two songs which were both produced by Chicago hip-hop artist and producer kechPhrase. Heems, Kool A.D., and Dapwell are all preparing to release solo mixtapes on January 1, 2012.Work in other media
With a growing repertoire of work in media beyond music, Das Racist have been referred to as a "multimedia art project". At the end of 2010, Pitchfork honored "everything Das Racist did this year", calling attention to a column Suri wrote for StereogumStereogum
Stereogum was one of the first MP3 blogs. It was created by Scott Lapatine in January 2002 with a focus on independent and alternative music news, downloads, videos, and gossip. Stereogum has received several awards and citations, including the 2008 Plug Award for best music blog, Blender's...
about the sitcom Outsourced
Outsourced (TV series)
Outsourced is an American television sitcom set in an Indian workplace. It was based on the John Jeffcoat film of the same name and adapted by Ken Kwapis and Universal Media Studios for NBC. The series originally ran from September 23, 2010 to May 12, 2011...
, their interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Deborah Solomon
Deborah Solomon
Deborah Solomon is an American art critic, journalist and biographer. She is best-known for her weekly column, "Questions For," which ran in The New York Times Magazine from 2003 to 2011.-Early life and education:...
, and their appearance on "Our Show With Elliot Aronow" in which they stated that Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
was "clearly illuminati."
In the summer of 2009, Vazquez responded to The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
cartoonist Farley Katz's poking fun at Das Racist for "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" by challenging Katz to a "cartoon-off". Katz accepted, and the competition consisted of the two each submitting three cartoons on pre-specified themes. Rob Harvilla of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, surveying the results, declared Vazquez the winner, saying he "destroyed" Katz.
After Sasha Frere-Jones
Sasha Frere-Jones
Sasha Frere-Jones is an American writer, music critic, and musician. He has written for Pretty Decorating, ego trip, Hit It And Quit It, Mean, Slant, The New York Post, The Wire, The Village Voice, Slate, Spin, and The New York Times...
wrote a piece in The New Yorker on the demise of hip hop in late 2009, the blog Flavorpill turned to Das Racist to provide a response; Vazquez and Suri took Frere-Jones to task for presumptuously claiming authority on the matter, questioning Frere-Jones's assumptions and conclusions.
In December 2009, Das Racist hosted and curated "Minority Fest". The event, featuring Victor Varnado
Victor Varnado
Victor Varnado is an American standup comedian and actor. Born in Gary, Indiana, he is African American and albinistic. He was born legally blind due to his Albinism...
, Jay Smooth
Jay Smooth
John Randolph, better known by his deejay name Jay Smooth, is the founder of New York City's longest-running hip hop radio program, WBAI's Underground Railroad....
, and Hari Kondabolu
Hari Kondabolu
Hari Kondabolu is an American stand-up comic.-Career:A graduate of Bowdoin College and the London School of Economics, he has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live as well as appearing on a variety of national comedy festivals, including the 2007 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. Additionally, he has made...
among others, consisted of stand-up comedy by comedians of color, musical performances, and a panel discussion concerning issues faced by people of color in the arts.
In the build-up to releasing Relax, Das Racist hosted a radio show on East Village Radio
East Village Radio
East Village Radio is an Internet radio station which broadcasts from a storefront studio in the East Village of Manhattan, in New York City. EVR serves both as a voice for the local downtown cultural scene and as a forum for the community at large...
called "Chillin' Island." After releasing Relax, Das Racist turned "Chillin Island" into a video web series starring Dapwell and co-hosted and produced by Heems. Das Racist recently appeared in a Pitchfork TV series called "Over/Under."
Style
Das Racist's unique style has a strong polarizing tendency; their set at the 2009 Pop MontrealPop Montreal
Pop Montreal is an annual music festival occurring in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the early fall, usually at the end of September or the beginning of October. More than 400 acts are scheduled to play in more than 50 venues across the city, mostly located in the Mile End area...
festival was described as "the most divisive show seen at the festival." They describe their approach to music as "'deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
alist': sawing the legs out from under hip-hop as they celebrate it." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote "Das Racist’s lack of piety has become an aesthetic of its own, with songs that are as much commentary on hip-hop as rigorous practice of it." The Root said Das Racist could speak for both "the ‘hood or the nearest gated community
Gated community
In its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly-controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually consist of small residential...
." Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
called the duo "equal parts hip-hop and Cheech & Chong." In an interview with Sepia Mutiny
Sepia Mutiny
Sepia Mutiny is a blog and discussion forum, initially conceived by a group of mostly second generation Indian American students and young professionals in August 2004. The site has had an exponential growth rate and according to its FAQ, as of May 2007 had amassed over five million readers since...
, Suri described Das Racist's music:
we’re not making music that’s instantly appealing. We dabble with nonsequiturs, dadaism, repetitionRepetition (rhetorical device)Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to emphasize. This is such a common literary device that it is almost never even noted as a figure of speech...
, repetition. We make dance music while talking about not-dancey things. We say things that on the surface can seem pretty dumb but it’s a mask on some Paul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 "Ode to Ethiopia", one poem in the collection Lyrics of Lowly Life....
shit for actual discontent with a lot of shit in the world. Further, not a lot of people want to hear rappers talk about Dinesh D'SouzaDinesh D'SouzaDinesh D'Souza is an author and public speaker and a former Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is currently the President of The King's College in New York City. D'Souza is a noted Christian apologist and conservative writer and speaker....
being a punk, Eddie SaidEdward SaidEdward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
, Gayatri Spivak being dope or even know who they are. A lot of people hear Pizza Hut Taco Bell and then have preconceived notions about our entire body of work that fall pretty flat.
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
US R&B Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
US Heat. Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... |
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| 2011 | Relax Relax (Das Racist album) Relax is the first commercially released album by New York hip-hop group Das Racist, following the success of their first two mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. The album was released on September 13, 2011. The first single, "Michael Jackson", was released via iTunes on August 2, with a... |
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103 | 53 | 21 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | "Michael Jackson" | Relax Relax (Das Racist album) Relax is the first commercially released album by New York hip-hop group Das Racist, following the success of their first two mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. The album was released on September 13, 2011. The first single, "Michael Jackson", was released via iTunes on August 2, with a... |
External links
- Das Racist on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Das Racist on BandcampBandcampBandcamp is an online music store, as well as a platform for artist promotion, that caters mainly for independent artists. Artists on Bandcamp have a customizable microsite with the albums they upload. All tracks can be played for free on the website and some artists offer free music downloads...
- Gordon Gartrelle Blog
- Kondabolu's website
- Greedhead Entertainment