Das Racist : Relax

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/dasracistrelax.jpg" alt="Das Racist : Relax" /><br /> <span><i>Relax</i></span><span> is a triumphant debut album from one of the best, most absurdly talented new rap groups to show up in...
Das Racist : Relax
8.0 Red General
2011 

Das Racist : Relax Das Racist first appeared as a joke of a group, and as it turns out they still are – they do spend a solid two and a half minutes repeating "Booty in the Air" on the shockingly named track "Booty in the Air", after all – but that doesn’t mean they should be taken as anything other than what they are.  Relax is a triumphant debut album from one of the best, most absurdly talented new rap groups to show up in the past half decade.

There is something to be said for any rap group that can name check My Bloody Valentine and not sound like they are trying too hard, but it’s not humanly possible for Himanshu Suri to sound like he cares about anything at all, and it seems like Victor Vazquez and their quote-unquote "hype man" (though that really is the wrong way to describe him) Dap are just trying to top him throughout the album.

There are no highs that reach the brilliance of "hahaha jk" no matter how many pop culture references they stuff into each song (they really make valiant efforts on "Michael Jackson" and the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine referencing "Happy Rappy"), but that is really no reason to look at the album as a let down. Though nobody wants growth out of a group like Das Racist, they somehow still manage to make an album that shows some future potential for them to be Serious Artists (or something better, like just themselves).

Relax only suffers when it tries to be too many things for too many people. Tracks like "Power (f/ Danny Brown and Despot)" and "Punjabi Song (f/ Bikram Singh)" come off the rails for trying to make a great guest star track for the sake of it.

I have often wondered what WHY? (QRO live review) would sound like if Yoni Wolf weren’t so depressed all the time and after listening to Relax I now know. So if nothing else Das Racist have answered my questions, let them answer all your questions (or at least two of them) too.

MP3 Stream: "Shut Man (f/ El-P)"

{audio}/mp3/files/Das Racist – Shut Up Man Feat El-P.mp3{/audio}

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