A new DAS RACIST record for me is like Christmas come early. Just about 1 week ago, DR released their first commercial aka. you-have-to-buy-it album, Relax. I don’t even know where to begin with describing this phenomenal rap group. About 8 months back I downloaded the Shut up Dude and Sit Down Man mix tapes (which i believe are still available for free dl), and felt compelled to write a review but found the task was incredibly difficult if not impossible. So i’ve decided for the sake of Relax, i’m gonna take a different route to an album review and give you instead a band review.

I love DR. I think these guys are cool. There’s Heems (Himanshu Suri), an American born diaspora Indian, Kool A.D. (Victor Vazquez) and Dap (Ashok Kondabolu). I always found it funny that Victor was Heem’s RA in Wesleyan University. I’m not surprised though that these guys clicked. They are both intelligent, and seem to share the same sense of humor. I can’t imagine how anyone meeting these guys would not want to instantly be friends and hang out with them at every available opportunity. Combining these two with Hype man, Dap you get Das Racist: whose chemistry gives way to the most senseless combination of lyrics that somehow make perfect sense in the greater context which the lyrics are placed. Relax is an appropriate album name for DR, because the word does sum up the band quite nicely. Both Heems and Kool A.D. are masters of word play. They weave serious matters around humor whilst maintaining a seemingly nonchalant attitude, where you get the impression that these guys sound awesome without even trying hard. They don’t need to try hard and it’s precisely that impression which magnetizes most to Das Racist.

I listened to their last release, Sit Down Man for months. It was on my tune cycle for longer than what most albums last me, and even today any of those tracks get me smiling and bouncing my head. I’m going to avoid naming particular tracks because I just don’t know how to split one track from the next. If I play DR on my ipod the first track is typically picked at random.

Anyways, stop wasting your time reading this and go download Relax. Your ipod will thank you for it.