Das Racist – Relax
Das Racist seem to have heeded their own advice with the release of their full-length debut, Relax, which became available for purchase last week. It’s by and large as impressive a display of talent as last year’s mix tapes, but the album simultaneously feels reigned in, and lacking some of the uninhibited dope (get it?) energy that made Sit Down, Man and particularly Shut Up, Dude so mind-bogglingly impressive.
This is not to say that it doesn’t deliver on the promises made by those 2010 releases. Heem and Kool A.D. are still lyrical genii a year later, and the tracks on Relax are still laden with lawl-inducing social commentary. And while it maintains much of the silliness of their previous giveaway releases, Relax seems actively to want to be taken (at least somewhat) seriously. The single, “Michael Jackson,” is the closest thing to approach ostensibly inane satire, but as a parody of self-aggrandizing hip hop it shows a ratcheting down of the rhetoric, from outright absurdity to something in our slightly more mundane stratosphere. This is true for most of the tracks, excepting perhaps the coming-to-a-dancehall-near-you “Booty In The Air.” Overall, the ratio of socially poignant and cohesive tracks to surrealist wordplay that happens to be remarkably insightful has been tipped heavily towards the former. To be sure, the album’s through line is a far cry from “Save the Whales,” and the trio’s new web series “Chillin Island” proves that they haven’t lost any of their propensity for antics (or drugs!). But coming on the heels of “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” (which, let’s be honest, is the true reason we fell in love with Das Racist), Relax seems to mark a sea change—and this is most likely a good thing, question mark?
The sophomoric humor isn’t the only thing that’s been scaled back, either. Diplo returns flexing his production chops, and the sound is more straightforward, heavy on the drum and bass and utilizing a few choice samples. As with the title track in particular, the production serves the album well and effectively showcases the steeply talented Kool A.D. and Heem (whose voice at times sounds like a weedover treated with 40-grit sandpaper).
What is lacking in Relax is the sense that we got from Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man of their being the unbelievably adroit hip hop tendencies of pothead-savants. Instead, with the group’s first commercial release comes the packaging and thus the feel of a commercial effort. If those compilations, with all their uninhibited Dadaist leanings, were the beneficial remnants of the trio’s college antics, Relax feels like the postgraduate, slightly soberer pulling of bootstraps follow-up. To quote the duo, “It’s a brand new dance/ Give us all your money/ Everybody love everybody.”
4 / 5 bars
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Das Racist – Michael Jackson by Transdreamer
