Most Likely the Closest Thing to A Definitive DAS RACIST INTERVIEW So Far This Year

I have been meaning to write a piece about Das Racist for sometime now. If you didn't know, Das Racist, or DR if you have mad street cred, is a nu-school rap duo consisting of Himanshu Suri (my close friend of eleven years) and Victor Vasquez (also my friend and the frontman of Boy Crisis) that hail from Williamsburg, by way of Queens and Nor Cal, respectively. Conservative hip hop heads love to hate them and hate to love them. Hipsters and scenesters can't get enough. (They're not gonna like that line.) At times, they sound like Weezy would if he got hit in the head with a two by four, and at others their verses verge on brilliant, political and comical in the same breath, using repetition and rhyme scheme as no other rapper has hitherto. Either way, their beats are banging and their catch phrases get stuck in your head for weeks on end. They have a show tonight in Brooklyn. (flyer after the jump) I will be there, and drunk.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of having a g chat interview with Hima, as I do everyday, but this was formatted, transcribed, and slightly edited for your viewing pleasure.


VT: Yo dude.
Hima: Is it go time?
VT: Yes sir.
So, you have been rapping for a long time, and over the years have been part of a few projects, most notably your solo work and the songs you made with Dylan Lau (Bear Hands) under the moniker Country Club. But nothing thus far has had the success of Das Racist. Why do you think that is?
Hima: We're marketable youths. And we're minorities - that's cool stuff. As far as myself, I think having a dude like Victor to rap with has helped me "step my game up" because we like to talk about similar shit and half the time we work together I'm just like, man I have to "step my game up."

VT: As much as people consider you a comedy rap group, which is fair, you deal with a lot of serious issues. People might tend to over look the fact that you provide a political commentary. Are you okay with that?
Hima: Very much so.

VT: How would you characterize Das Racist? If you had to put a genre on it?
Hima: An art-rap/dutch pop/world music band

VT: Ok. I don't get the dutch pop thing.
Hima: Have you ever listened to D pop?

VT: No what is it? Like euro pop?
Hima: Carola Smit, Henriette Heichel, Frank Boeijen, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Bastiaan Ragas. Those are some of the greatest minds of our generation and we want to bring the music of that place to this place. Oh, I almost forgot Birgit and Katja Schuuman, the sisters.

VT: Cool, I'll look into it. I was expecting slacker rap to be a phrase you threw in there. Not anymore?
Hima: We're "trying" to move "away" from the "slacker-art-rap" label. We "don't" want to be pigeonholed as "slacker-art-rappers" as that whole "scene" of "slacker-art-rap" begins to "blow up."

VT: I am happy about that, because both of you are good rappers, and it makes me glad that you guys are putting 'real' verses in your songs. Still, Pizza Hut/Taco Bell is your biggest 'hit'. You don't feel a need to reproduce that kind of effortless, repetitive, "with the times" music?
Hima: It's always going to be effortless. That's how we roll. I'll freestyle anyone, like, right now, on G Chat. And as for repetition. That's always going to be there too. I personally believe the top five poetic devices of all time are Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, and Repetition and shit.

DAS RACIST - Pizzahut Tacobell (Guy Michael-Barletta Remix)


VT: Repetition is an obvious tool you guys use, but there is a difference between the way you use it on Jungle Fever or Chicken and Meat and the way you use it on Pizza Hut or Boat Trip. It's like you guys make two distinct kinds of songs.
Hima: I think a lot of the fact that there's different shit going on comes from the fact that there's two of us with two sets of life experiences and shit we find to be cool. It's often the same shit but not always. And it's less fun to make the same song over and over again. But wait for that Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins joint we're dropping soon."

VT: You have always been very conscious of race. DR deals a lot with it. Is there any doctrine behind it? That's a strange question, but is there anything you can share about your collective ideas about race, racism or racial identity?
Hima: Yeah, well, it's like that movie New Jack City really. All I gotta say is that racism is still alive, but they just be concealing it. Next question.

VT: Fair enough. Where did you get your name?
Hima: Well. I think being minorities at a liberal arts college and type of environment definitely had an impact on both the way we view race and our sense of humor. I always felt like Wonder Showzen was a tv show that captured that type of thing perfectly. When I saw the kid yelling THAT'S RACIST it blew my mind kind of. And then it became kind of a game with Victor and me and my dood J-La who produces for us and used to be our DJ to take all the seriousness out of making legitimate commentary on race, because that can get kind very of annoying. So when something veering on racially insensitive would pop off in a commercial on tv or something it would be like, who could yell thats racist!!!! first. And then we thought it would be a cool name. I think we were fooling around with the idea of calling it Best Weed on Campus too.

VT: I'm glad you didn't. So your show is tomorrow right?
Hima: Yes.

VT: Your last one was somewhat legendary. What can we expect?
Hima: You ever seen that movie New Jack City? It's like that kind of.

VT: Does that mean we can expect a lot of naked bitches and crack? Will Judd Nelson and Ice-T be there?
Hima: Judd Nelson will. Fuck Ice-T.

VT: Good answer. You have a new track called Shorty Says. I hear its based on a song by a certain YW writer. Yes?
Hima: Yeah. Well we did this joint where we talked about looking like Davendra Bahart and the fat guy from Chromeo - what's his name? - and then I heard NSR's (The Stratatician's) joint about looking like Adrian Brody which was stuck in my head for like 2 weeks so we wanted to expand on that idea. After doing it Victor and I were thinking about how it's kind of ambiguous. Like, are we talking about the same girl a la R. Kelly & Usher's hit collaboration "same girl"? Is it about the stereotype of the white who think all asian people look alike, or all latinos, or all etc.? I don't really know..

VT: P-Thugg is the dudes name. You are one of my best dressed friends. Any tips for the less fashionable readership about what to wear in the spring?
Hima: We talking about fools with guap or no guap?

VT: Talk about with guap, it is more interesting.
Hima: I mean, right now shit is popping off with fall lines for 2009. Though in general, I dig on stuff Lanvin does, SNS Herning's sweaters, Kris Van Aassch high tops, bags by Billy Kirk & a Brand Apart, stuff Krane does, Band of Outsiders, Public School, Guiliano Fjiwara, Common Projects sneakers. I tend to wear a lot of Mishka also. I don't know why specifically, but I like what they do.

VT: Where do you shop?
Hima: The internet a lot.

VT: Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Hima: I don't know. Jordan Fish is making a video for Chicken & Meat, and I write a blog (Gordon Gartrelle). Swizz Beatz is the best producer, rapper, and rapper/producer ever. That's it.

VT: Cool...oh, I almost forgot. Are there any celebrities that you want to say fuck you to?
Hima: Hahaha. Maybe just Asher Roth. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID DUDE... and Vince Offer from the ShamWow ads

VT: Yeah, I hate that guy too.
Hima: Robin Williams, Dinesh D'Souza

VT: Who?
Hima: Dinesh D'Souza. HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID.

VT: I don't though.
Hima: He's on some model minority bullshit. I ain't down with that. (Long pause as he presumably takes an introspective drag of a Marlboro Mild.) That's all I have to say.

VT: I sincerely doubt that.

**Comeback at four for the YW pregame playlist, it is going to be a good one.