Talking about Das Racist on the internet is kind of like yelling about the Ramones in the Bowery—you’re on their turf. So there’s no use in dissecting what they “mean,” or why the Brooklyn trio’s mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man have struck such a chord, or why they’re tired of hearing the hip-hop is dead. But here’s what a Das Racist show is like.
A small cluster of diehards stand front and center, hands up and in action, rest of sold-out crowd there to observe. I stand behind a guy with an actual backpack. He doesn’t dance. The group, alternately in flannel, ballcap and Panda Bear T-shirt, makes more fun of hip-hop tropes than anyone I’ve seen in a while. They cajole their fans to wave their arms in the air to “Hip Hop Hooray” and then openly mock them for it. They act like babies. I mean literally, babies, like crying and shit. They prance around the stage to Kate Bush. They jump into each other’s arms. They tell the crowd to turn around and leave. They play air-guitar with the microphones. They sing Usher’s “You Make Me Wanna.” They have a “fake encore” where they stand to the side of the stage for a little bit before coming “back out.” They say hi to their parents, and to Alameda. They play all their songs off a laptop. And they end their set to the P.A. blasting Tina Turner singing “Simply the Best.”
There’s a bottle of Stoli sitting on a table through the whole show, and as soon as the group turns their backs to leave, an audience member rushes the stage, grabs the bottle and pounds it as fast as he can. Go, Stoli guy! He’s tackled, though, and gets his ass thrown out by security, or rather, he runs out before he could get officially bounced. The lights go up. It’s the strangest hip-hop show I’ve seen in a while, and a big part of that is because it’s over far too early, at 11. But it’s also funny, and very smart, and cleverly subversive, and I get the impression that Das Racist is more concerned with making waves than riding them, and that’s okay with me. See them if you can, or download the mixtape everyone’s talking about.
