Das Racist - Shut Up, Dude

I love hip-hop, but I find a lot of modern hip-hop to be kinda boring. The best modern hip-hop artists are the ones who are genuinely in touch with their producer's beats and have interesting things to say, and I hate to be cliche but Lil Wayne immediately comes to mind. I don't like everything he does, but his talent for improvisation and freestyling is jawdroppingly awesome. When someone seems as self-aware as he does, and I mean that he's his biggest fan whether he's the best at what he does or not, it really opens the opportunity for that person to go places they might not normally with their art. Da Drought 3 is an amazing example of this with just about every track being entertaining and going in directions that might be obvious but are always highly entertaining. Listen to his rap over Beyonce's Upgrade U and it feels like he's rapping to you directly as you sit in a room with him, whispering new ideas and competing with himself. Pretty incredible stuff.

I remember reading an article where the author said we shouldn't expect any really mindblowing rappers anytime soon as much of the incentive for them to work hard and blow up has disappeared with record labels not spending the big money they used to on breaking artists. Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne are probably the last rappers for a good while that will make the money so many dream of, but could Wayne ever have another album sell as big as The Carter III? Jay is already a multi-millionaire so even if he drops consecutively less impressive albums from here out it's not like he has to worry about his finances. As for Kanye, I don't really know where he gets his cash, but it's apparently working for him. All three of them though seem just as inspired as ever, so it's gotta be more than the money, and there are a lot of other rappers who aren't making a mint but put their heart into their mixtapes and indie releases.

If there is a problem with hip-hop right now, I'd say it's the mixtape. So many artists spend their time making mixtapes to give away and they don't seem inspired beyond having more tracks for download. It's becoming rare that a mixtape is truly quality, but again, why should something given for free and done so at a ridiculously regular rate be expected to be classic? I'm sure you've already figured out that I'm not a mixtape afficianado, but I had to make a serious exception for Das Racist's Shut Up, Dude. If you're not familiar with Das Racist, the Wallpaper. remix of their bizarre "classic", Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell is a good place to start, but it's thoroughly non-representative of their standard output, so it's really NOT the place to start. Instead, proceed directly to Shut Up, Dude.

Shut Up, Dude is surprisingly incredible. First off, it shows these guys can truly rap. Second, they're funny as hell, constantly parodying everything about modern hip-hop and anything else they think of. Third, the whole thing is a stream of consciousness party with great beats, original and borrowed. They parody fake Jamaican accents in Fake Patois and every rapper who uses them. They talk about who-knows-what over a Ghostface beat in Nutmeg. It doesn't sound impressive to read it, but it's damn entertaining. If you've got a sense of humor and appreciate things being less than serious, you will most likely love this record, and the best part is it's free! You can get more info on it at Mishka's page, but their download link is dead, so you can grab it below and I've included that aforementioned Wallpaper. remix in the download. So, if you've got a sense of humor and appreciate the absurd, get this ASAP. I'd hope for a full-length album by Das Racist but I'm not sure it could maintain the quality of this mixtape, so this is probably as good as it gets! Enjoy!


Das Racist - Shut Up, Dude

01 Who's That? Brooown!
02 You Oughta Know
03 Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
04 Rainbow In The Dark
05 Fake Patois
06 Nutmeg
07 Shorty Said (Gordon Voidwell Remix)
08 Chicken and Meat
09 I Don't Owe Nobody Shit
10 Ek Shaneesh
11 Hugo Chavez
12 I Don't Want To Deal With Those Monsters
13 Don Dada
14 One Dollar Can
15 Coochie Dip City
16 Deep Ass Shit (You'll Get It When You're High)
17 Shut Up, Dude

Bonus: Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix)


PS - As much as I hate to give Pitchfork credit (bitches still haven't reviewed the new Autolux yet! Best album of the year for christsake!), they gave the Das Racist mixtape an excellent and much deserved review. You can read that here. It's incredible that they got it right and didn't mention Animal Collective somewhere in there.