Album: Eat Pray Thug.
Release Date: 10 March 2015.
Heems, formerly known as Himanshu Suri has had us waiting, what seems like forever, for him to drop some new work.
I've been following Heems, since his Das Racist days and followed him through his work with Noisey and the rest.
I automatically connected with him as a "brown" person and how he curates his image with his indie lifestyle. I also find myself hugely inspired by him as a Wall Street dropout and head of Greedhead Music record label.
What stands out most to me, especially in Eat Pray Thug, is his political standpoint and how he integrates his Hindu and Indian/Asian cultures into his music whilst also including his New York City lifestyle. His new album perfectly captures his views and opinions and Patriot Act, specifically, is a lyrically hard hitting track which (although I personally can't) is one that many asian people will be able to relate to.
Heems includes so many different vibes in this album, from Electronic tendencies to the classic Kanye autotune voice aesthetic. Each song sounds like it could belong on a completely different album yet they all work so well together. Heems' ability to change from his stoney and nonchalant sounding voice to a strong and effective voice is something that also that makes this album work so well.
I do feel as though some of the songs are pretty out of place on the album, as there are such strong activist holds and then it goes into to quite summery club beats. I'm still trying to work out whether this balances both of the spectrums out, to make it now so pow pow pow or whether it's just mismatched and wrong.
Personally, I loved the majority of this album but there are definitely one or two tracks that I didn't fully vibe with, such as - Pop Song (Games). Overall I very much enjoyed listening to a NYC Asian citizens perspective on the whole 9/11 issue and the aftermath. I also completely enjoy the upcoming of more asian rappers and that Heems has created such a good face for the people.
This is a must listen album for those who fuck with the hip-hop sound and for everyone who enjoys the likes of Odd Future to James Blake. I also highly recommend looking to Himanshu as both an artist and person as he has a lot of shit to him.
