Rhymes of passion: Himanshu Suri raps about politics and social injustice
New York rapper Himanshu Suri takes inspiration from visits to India and dealing with racism in the US, writes Ben Sin
Himanshu Suri, also known as Heems from defunct New York rap outfit Das Racist, was a student at Stuyvesant High School in Lower Manhattan when two planes struck the World Trade Centre - three blocks away - on September 11, 2001. Like many New Yorkers, the attacks left him traumatised, but in a different way. Instead of becoming more patriotic, 9/11 opened his eyes to the flaws of America.
"The way I, and people who look like me - that means brown - were treated in New York after 9/11 left me feeling victimised," says Suri, who was born to Indian immigrant parents. "I had dealt with racism all my life, but it was especially rough after that."
From then on, Suri became outspoken about social injustice. After finishing school, he landed a job on Wall Street and although he was earning an impressive salary, he felt empty. And when college friends Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden started making it big with their electro-psychedelia band MGMT in 2008, Suri decided to chase his dream as well.
"I've always loved music. When I was growing up, my dad would have Bollywood tunes playing in the living room, while my sister played Madonna and Boyz II Men in our room. Very poppy, catchy stuff," he says.
Suri, however, loved hip hop - "you can't be a boy growing up in New York City and not love hip hop and basketball," he says - particuarly Nas and The Notorious B.I.G., two towering figures of the East Coast hip hop scene of the 1990s. Suri sought out old school friends Victor Vazquez and Ashok Kondabolu, and the three began performing jokey rap songs under the moniker Das Racist, a reference to their frequent conversations about American racial issues.
The band first came to attention with the goofy track Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, but as Das Racist started gaining more followers, their music became more socially conscious, with lyrics referencing politics and oppression of minorities in America. By 2010, just a year after playing their first gig, Suri had quit his job to tour the US.
But almost as fast as Das Racist rose in the indie music scene, they faded. In 2011, the band broke up, after only one full-length album. "The band got in the way of the friendship," Suri says. "We were good friends before the band, and we're good friends now, after the band."