Tag: Das Racist

The Best of Bonnaroo 2012: D’Angelo, fun., Flying Lotus, Das Racist, St. Vincent, Kurt Vile and more

Babe City, population:1 thrasher. St. Vincent gained another crowd fulla converts over the weekend by crawling on top of her fans for the entire length of the set-closing “Krokodil.” That was just one of the unforgettable moments documented by Team SPIN at Bonnaroo 2012 in Manchester, Tennessee. Best weather of the past three years, and a whole lot of best sets captured visually by Ian Witlen and Matt Ellis, and scribed about by Davids Marchese and Bevan, Luke McCormick, and yours truly. Indexed below for your easy access.

FIRST: 60 amazing photos from the festival!  ///// AND NOW: our coverage. Click on the day itself to read about the artists listed and more.

THURSDAY
1. Yelawolf: the best part came with a dedication to the Beastie Boys…
2. MiM0SA: his heart is in hip-hop: swag rap, bass beats, fx-riddled hyphy…
3. Mariachi El Bronx: horns swell, violin soars, percussion bursts…

FRIDAY
1. St. Vincent: writhing and convulsing like she’d been inhabited by demons…
2. Flying Lotus: each track sped up and spliced with all kinds of weird…
3. Ludacris: he played a steady stream of hits from his 12-year-old catalog…
4. Little Dragon: a dangerously locked-in dance band teetering on the edge…

SATURDAY
1. D’Angelo & Questlove: giving his first U.S. concert in nearly 12 years…
2. Das Racist: Kool thanked “The Gathering of the Juggalos” for having them…
3. Khaira Arby & Her Band:  flurries of notes from dueling guitars…

SUNDAY
1. fun.: the bellowing sing-alongs started with the first song and never let up…
2. Here We Go Magic: a rhythmic latter that leads to weirder heights still…
3. Kurt Vile & the Violators: Lou Reed covering Lou Barlow in a dank cave…

Das Racist Get Wild in NYC with Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire; El-P Fans Get Lost on the Way There?

Was recently in NYC and had the pleasure of seeing Das Racist on their home turf. Better still, El-P was on hand, in the wings for most of the show, and then on stage for a good chunk. As a longtime Jukkie and unapologetic backpacker this was a momentous occasion. My first show at the Bowery in about six years, and out stepped a legend from my past. I expected the crowd to roar. I thought they’d chant his name. Or at least some kind of knowing cock of the head, a raised chin in his direction. But no. The audience was cold. Dressed as they were in tight pants and T-shirts for (perfectly fine) bands like Black Keys and Peter Bjorn and John, as opposed the the ubiquitous three-eyed Hiero signs and J5 button logos of my youth, they had no idea who the fuck they were looking at.

Well, get acquainted, bitches:

SXSW 2011 Day 3: Odd Future, Das Racist, Pentagram, Little Dragon, Skrillex, more

Little Dragon at SXSW 2011 (Ian Witlen)

Wow. If my love for all things Odd Future didn’t already color me a fanboy, consider the deed done after I saw the impossible happen (read the review below) at their daytime gig at an altogether awesome party thrown by legendary skate mag Thrasher. Readers of this blog will also know I’m a dogged Das Racist apologist, and them dudes kicked things off right by going through a case of PBR while onstage. But that’s not all that happened on Day 3. I ate a pair of strikingly delicious sliders (think Carl’s Jr.’s Bacon Western Cheeseburger done gourmet and petit), Little Dragon made beautiful music (following up a one-two-punch of Gayngs and Black Lips), and Skrillex inspired Austiners to shake a leg.

Continue reading →

Review: Joke Rap? Toke Rap? Coke Rap? Das Racist Picks Up a Belated A.V. Club Nod

Das Racist. Jokes? They got them. Sit Down, Man.

I may live to regret all the positive ink I’ve spilled on rap’s Brooklyn-based red-headed step children, Das Racist, but then again, there’s always the chance that I’ll die from laughter first while listening to one of their mixtapes. Here’s a doubly belated review of Sit Down, Man, part of the A.V. Club’s “Sorry We Missed Ya” catchup coverage. Catch up, man.

“… the two weave a complex word-web out of references to a villain from The Smurfs, a song by The Vapors, the star of The Mummy, and suicide being a largely Caucasian phenomenon, before dropping a Sister Sledge-jacking chorus …”

Huh? You should read it. Yeah, you should probably read it.

Continue reading →

Cult Bit: Wallpaper. AutoTunes Jay-Z

7 Comments

It’s my honor to introduce a furiously banging track by my dear friends in Oakland-based duo Wallpaper. This thing should be viral soon enough, but for now, you can stream it and download (by right-clicking) below.

Jay-Z & Wallpaper. – “D.O.A. + 99 Problems (Wallpaper. Remix)”

Now the backstory: Jay-Z recently contributed his piece to the raging (har har) international debate over the blatant overuse of AutoTune in radio pop. Essentially hopping on an already existing meme, he named his track “D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)” — co-produced, ironically, by one of the fad’s biggest abusers, Kanye West — and caused a stir with the lyric, “This is anti-AutoTune / Death of the ringtone / This ain’t for iTunes / This ain’t for sing-along.”

Here, Wallpaper., a group that’s used AutoTune as an instrument since early 2005 (that’s pre-T-Pain, for those taking notes), repurposes that lyric for a very singable, digitally modified hook. The somewhat brillaint ironic appropriation doesn’t end there, however. The meat of the track comes from Jay’s monstrous 2004 hit, “99 Problems,” which leads to this rather astute line from Wallpaper vocalist Ricky Reed: “I’ve got 99 problems but my pitch ain’t one.”

Oh, and did I mentioned that Jay’s voice is AutoTuned throughout?

Dear Blogosphere,

At this remarkably wee hour, having just turned in a feature about a seriously fantastic young talent named Nosaj Thing, it suddenly seems of the utmost importance to introduce you to this. Therein, you’ll find streaming audio and a download link for wallpaper.’s remix of Das Racist’s very not serious  (but mighty fantastic) song “Combination Pizza Hut & Taco Bell.” Bump it.