Left to Right: Kool A.D., Heems
Das Racist was an alternative Hip-Hop group consisting of rappers Kool A.D. and Heems and hypeman Dapwell, named after a joke from Wonder Showzen. The trio was known for their style of highly-referential, scholarly, and seemingly nonsensical style of rapping. Their two mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man were critically acclaimed and Das Racist was lauded by some as a brave new face of hip-hop and written off by others as college-educated joke rappers. Either way, Das Racist really couldn't care less.Their 2011 debut album Relax was met with positive reviews. Das Racist broke up in 2012.
Das Racist Discography
- Shut Up, Dude (2010)
- Sit Down, Man (2010)
- Relax (2011)
Heems Solo Discography
- Nehru Jackets (2012)
- Wild Water Kingdom (2012)
- Eat, Pray, Thug (2015)
Kool A.D. Solo Discography
- The Palm Wine Drinkard (2012)
- 51 (2012)
- 63 (2013)
- 19 (2013)
The music of Das Racist provides examples of:
- All Drummers Are Animals: Kool A.D.
- Alternative Hip Hop
- Auto-Tune: Used in a frightening and mind numbing manner across Relax.
- Band of Relatives: "Puerto Rican Cousins" is about someone commenting that the members of Das Racist look like Puerto Rican cousins despite not being related.
- Boastful Rap: A good chunk of Das Racist's discography.
- But Not Too Foreign: Subverted. Himanshu Suri (Heems) and Ashok Kondabolu (Dapwell) are Indian and Victor Vazquez (Kool A.D.) is Afro-Cuban. They liberally reference their foreignness.
- Celebrity Resemblance: Mocked on "Shorty Said", about white women telling Heems and Kool AD that they look like various famous POC who they bear a superficial-at-best resemblance to.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: All three members.
- Fading into the Next Song
- Food Songs Are Funny: "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell".
- Idiosyncratic Album Theming
- The first two mixtapes stick to the basic "[Verb] [Direction], [Noun]" resulting in Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man.
- Relax breaks the pattern, but continues the theme of having all three members looking bored on the cover (minus the couch present on the first two mixtapes).
- It can be argued that Relax does continue the pattern to form a full phrase: "Shut up, sit down, and relax".
- Kool A.D.'s solo mixtapes 51, 63, and 19 are all named after San Francisco city bus routes.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: Unless you're willing to really study.
- Looped Lyrics: Too many times to count.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Heems has stated that Das Racist "[makes] dance music while talking about not-dancey things".
- Lyrical Tic: Heems' high-pitched, echo-y, reverberating "what?" makes numerous appearances on both Das Racist's and his own songs.
- N-Word Privileges: Kool A.D. on "Shut Up, Dude".
- Overly Long Gag: "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell".
- Recycled Lyrics: Heems and Kool A.D. are fond of certain phrases and its apparent in their lyrics.
- Refuge in Audacity: The lyrics to "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" consist of the title and nothing else save for a few ad-libs.
- "I Don't Owe Nobody Shit" is the two members proclaiming that they don't owe anyone shit for the entirety of the track.
- Sampling
- Shout-Out
- The video for Michael Jackson pays homage to Saturday Night Live's Chippendales skit as well as Michael Jackson's Black or White video.
- Silly Love Songs: "Girl", "Coochie Dip City", "Different Schools".
- Stage Names: Himanshu Suri as Heems, Victor Vazquez as Kool A.D., Ashok Kondabolu as Dapwell.
- Stealth Parody: Some people believe that Das Racist is a joke band.
- Studio Chatter
- Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: "Booty in the Air".
- Erudite Stoners are Funny: Some Das Racist songs begin to sound like someone reading a bibliography while high.
- Title-Only Chorus: Title Only Song would be more appropriate in the case of Das Racist.
- Title Track: The first track on Relax is "Relax", the last track on Shut Up, Dude is "Shut Up, Dude", and the 18th track on Sit Down, Man is "Sit Down, Man".
-
Unexpected Character: Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend provides production on Relax. - Word Salad Lyrics: Kool A.D. is a bigger offender than Heems.
- "Free Jazzmatazz", one of DR's more stream-of-consciousness tracks.
Alone, Maccaulay Culkin, Straw Dogs
Don't even go there again, girlfriend
There's your man, spray-tanning Dakota Fanning
At the Getty gas station, petty cash making
Chuck E. Cheese, mouse traps, star power
Nap 20 minutes like Da Vinci did
Lewinski lips on the Frisbee
Quick, look, it's the Dixie Chicks
