Das Racist releases first album after mixtapes

After releasing two free mixtapes that are better than most rappers’ magnum opuses, Das Racist faced a litmus test with their debut album, Relax. Das Racist

Relax

Greedhead Records

Grade: A-

Rocks like: Diplo, Beastie Boys, MF Doom

After releasing two free mixtapes that are better than most rappers’ magnum opuses, Das Racist faced a litmus test with their debut album, Relax.

As the album’s cover attests, it literally burns the couch — a fixture of previous Das Racist mixtape covers — on what they did before.

Emcees Heems and Kool A.D. and hypeman Dapwell have moved Queens’ Das Racist in a more focused direction. With this effort, the group relies on its lyrical complexity as well as its catchy wit and lush musical production. Das Racist creates a mature effort that seems boroughs away from the comical — but still worthwhile — “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.”

Working with producers like Diplo and El-P in addition to its own production work, the group creates an impressive variety of sound that is consistently engaging and points to the band’s interest in all things vintage and intriguingly syncopated. “Brand New Dance” chimes like a sizzurp-speeded Santigold track, the chanted hook giving it a particularly ethereal but pop-like feel.

Heems comes roaring into “Michael Jackson,” fighting for supremacy among the song’s electronic strings and heavy bass. In the album’s first single, Heems hits “Michael Jackson” with an oratory force he’s only hinted at before. “Medulla create the moola / and me I just do the rumba / porque esta es la rumba,” he expels in a burst, using a captivating sense of syncopation with his word play.

“Selena” sees some of the old lyrical wit of the mixtapes — particularly on the part of Kool A.D. — but the accessible talk-rapping of “Rainbow in the Dark,” which is included on Relax, and other earlier favorites seems absent.

For those expecting “Who’s That Brown” or “You Oughta Know” again, you’ll probably be disappointed by this more varied approach. While the album hints at their more lighthearted past, Relax moves Das Racist into a future where no one will doubt that they’re more than a comedy rap group.