MTV News' Rya Backer sits down with the 'very funny' trio. By Rya Backer
Das Racist and MTV News' Rya Backer Photo: MTV News
Just admit it, the first time you caught wind of Das Racist, you thought they were a joke. It was hard not to, what with their first single, 2009's "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," being about ... well, the title pretty much says it all. But in the time since they first earned such renown and critical love (our very own James Montgomery was a fan), MCs Himanshu "Heems" Suri and Victor "Kool A.D." Vazquez and hype man Ashok "Dapwell" Kondabolu have proved to possess more than just a few stoney quips.
In 2010, the trio's amazingly titled mixtapes "Sit Down, Man" and "Shut Up, Dude" earned them even more critical and industry clout (the former featured production from the likes of Boi-1da and Diplo). Their playful, jokey rhymes delivered messages and references beyond the likes of their breakout and more along the lines of their well-educated pedigree (the MCs met at Wesleyan) and range of heritages (Heems and Dapwell are Indian, Kool A.D. is of Afro-Cuban — and a little bit of Jewish — descent). Their latest effort, 2011's Relax, made its way onto many a music writer's top 10. Its single "Michael Jackson" features a hook so infectious that you'll get it out of your head about as soon as the image of the Michael Jackson impersonator featured in the video leaves your memory (read: not soon).
And with all that said, acknowledging how much they've successfully proved to be far more than just a trio of funny guys, Das Racist, at their core, are a trio of very, very, very funny guys. It's safe to assume that the only serious answer given on this First Date was where they were all born. From there the conversation snowballed to the whereabouts of D'Angelo, Patrick Swayze, that time an underground rapper gave them free weed at their show, the odd "Sex and the City" plotline and their main hobby — as Kool A.D. put it, "making controversial anti-rap music," to which Dapwell replied "that isn't a hobby, that's just our job. And that's not even my job, I don't even know what I do."
Of course, that all ended up on the cutting room floor (for now), but what made it in hopefully illustrates that these guys are above all very good friends and that the best is yet to come from Das Racist, even if their five-year plans aren't at all alike.
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