Das Racist Sit Down, Man (Mixtape)

Admit it--you didn't think Brooklyn-based Das Racist had a lot of life after "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," but in the time since they broke onto the blogosphere, they have revealed themselves as surprisingly thoughtful, intelligent connoisseurs of the rap game. On Sit Down, Man, the follow-up to their debut mixtape, Shut Up, Dude, they spit rhymes about multiculturalism and ethnic identity (among other topics) over music by producers like Diplo, Scoop Deville, Dame Grease and others. Lead track "Who's That? Brooownn!" finds them dabbling with 8-bit beats, and artists like El-P and Chairlift also pop up on the mixtape. As Himanshu Suri, one-third of the group, told Sepia Mutiny, "We say things that on the surface can seem pretty dumb, but it’s a mask on some Paul Laurence Dunbar shit for actual discontent with a lot of shit in the world." Be careful to judge.

Abstract by Jeremy Gordon