I sort of stumbled upon Brooklyn-based trio Das Racist a couple of weeks ago and from what I had accidentally heard, I was down. I was impressed enough by their talent to even tossed up one of their mixtapes on the site. It was really that good. So naturally, I was excited to attend their sold out Toronto show. I love me a good hip hop show, probably more than any other live music. Sadly though, this was not a good hip hop show.
The show immediately started off on the wrong foot, when MC Himanshu Suri and hypeman Dap took to the stage, it was evident that they were missing a member. It quickly became apparent that this was not part of their stage show, as third member Victor Vazquez was absent for about 15 minutes. During the 15 minutes of member missing fun, there was awkward banter between the duo, as Suri—who looked like he was tripping balls on Ecstasy— attempt to phone Vic, then stumbled into a couple of verses of a song, called again, then spend 5 minutes complaining about the mic, in an obvious bid for time. Then it got worse.
Half of the group charm is their hilarious lyrics spit over dope beats with a solid flow, you know, hip hop. When you are messed up on E and trying to wheel chicks from stage, your live show suffers. We can blame it on the sound/mic problems, the boys from Das Racist certainly did, but that was in no way the reason why their flow was half-shouted and mostly slurred, that unfortunately is all drugs and alcohol. I don’t want to sound like a hard-ass here, I’m down to party, but I just think that if you are going to party, perhaps don’t do it before you take to the stage to perform your job, which people paid money to see.
Here’s the cool fact about Das Racist’s live show, they have nice clothes. In Particular, Vic was rocking a limited Edition Yacht (the band) New Era hat, while Suri rocked a Pendleton Navajo print cap. Sadly though, that was worth the price of admission.
I really hope Das Racist start treating their live shows like an actual job, and not like a frat house party, because they’re better than that.
