Music writers aren’t fishermen. We’re the fish.
Cursed with a constant need for new music, we spend hours swimming the depths of the web trying to get hooked. Any action we find usually lasts about 3 minutes. The fleeting time it takes to get tired of the hook is the true curse, but finding that timeless hook is what we live for.
As soon as Queens rappers Meyhem Lauren, Action Bronson and Heems released “Special Effects,” they sat on the dock and waited for the hungry crowds to bite. I took the bait when I heard the beat produced by Harry Fraud and Tommy Mas, but when Heems growled “I’m about my STRUC-ture,” that’s when my head got torn.
Since his solo tape Nehru Jackets was released earlier this year, Heems has quickly morphed from the quirk-centric, “too weird to live, too rare to die” circle of Das Racist to a rap sasquatch with his own mountaintop. If you can’t see that the Punjab-Indian heritage MC has a heavy brain with a lot to offer, read @HIMANSHU for a few days.
Himanshu Suri doesn’t only have a sinister sway in rap; he’s teaching us the ways his people’s steeze is misrepresented in America by encouraging new flavor out of true heritage.
Heems also collabs with Queens nonprofit SEVA NY to promote the spread of assistance, organization and resources for a community whose youth have been failed in the past. The nonprofit has a special focus in the South Asian and West Indian areas of Queens.
Heems has written on said steeze for the Village Voice, Stereogum and Fuse, so his drive to spread fire should come as no surprise.
Meyhem Lauren rocks dynamite in the track’s lead role (“Feed em the dolla bills but never give em wisdom”) while Action Bronson stays rap’s Top Chef, but the center of gravity in “Special Effects” is easy to see. The Greedhead general Heems also directed the video.
“I rock a cardigan, play the race card again, I’m about my structure, I be fuckin mobbin head. –Himanshu. –You suck. –Fuck you, I don’t give two fucks.”
Pop it up to 720p & check the montage projected behind the rappers.
@seanhive
Meyhem Lauren on Twitter
Action Bronson on Twitter
Heems on Twitter
Harry Fraud (Producer) on Twitter
Tommy Mas (Producer) on Twitter
Fernando Eguchi (Director of Photography) on Twitter
Chris Frierson (Video Editor) on Twitter
