This is Dap, slave name Ashok Kondabolu, hypeman extraordinaire for Das Racist. I’m going to be doing a track-by-track breakdown and review of our mixtape, Shut Up, Dude, for y’all. The review will be a series of pseudo-stream of consciousness rants presumably directed towards whoever is reading this followed by a completely arbitrary rating system based on if I’m even actually paying attention…

Download here and you can argue along…

1) “Who’s That? Broown!”

[Audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/01-whos-that_-broown.mp3]

Saba and Paperboy did a great job flipping this Charlie Brown [sample] into something crazy. This is a great opener for shows and the mixtape; it’s weird but still pretty much a straightforward rap song.

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2) “You Oughta Know”
[Audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/02-you-oughta-know.mp3]
Classic Heatmakers beat. Their Wikipedia says they’re from Kingston, but there ain’t a citation, so who knows. I love doing this one little dance to “I get around like a vinyl” part on-stage sometimes. It’s maybe like a two-second dance, it’s milk. Imagining a disembodied brain hanging out with dodos is pretty cool. Chorus just made me laugh actually, still. Laughing’s dope.

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3) “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”
A lot has been written about this annoying jam. It’s lost most of its appeal to me but I still remember thinking it was somewhat special.

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4) “Rainbow in the Dark”
This beat kinda makes me feel two different ways. One of them I’d describe as fireworks, then like a chilling in a “digital temple.” Vic’s last jammy is a classic. Hima threatening to “Joe Pesci” somebody is pretty fucking hilarious. Popov vodka.

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5) “Fake Patois”
The original ID3 tag on this mixtape accidentally said “Fake Patios” so I always think of that when I listen to this song. The Chip Beck production is amazing; I love the stuttering drums. There’s too much crazy stuff going on to not keep you entertained. Also, a song about fake patois IN fake patois… Don’t be so serious, people.

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6) “Nutmeg”
[Audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/06-nutmeg.mp3]
Starts out with a lotta words. I like hearing mad words right up front, almost that don’t add up to anything concrete ’cause then I’m mad open to hear some phrases right after that. Especially when those phrases then proceed to also not add up to anything which’ll leave me open for maybe something lightweight narrative. Vic’s second part is awesome. Also it makes me remember why Ghost/Vic going “Yeeeeah” at the end gets me feeling like the song is some sort of race to say mad crazy things before the song is over. Or something “kinda like that.”

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7) “Shorty Said”
The original for this was a much slower song. Gordon Voidwell did some amazing shit to make the lyrics sound hella rigid and focused. This song also makes me feel like doing insane shit with my shoulders. The lyrics are great; this is probably the “funniest” DR song by far. Repetition is only THAT funny if you’re nuts.

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8) “Chicken and Meat”
Some YouTube comments for the video: “This is like a Bob Dylan song. But, like DEEPER. You know. It’s like some huge metaphor about the nature living.” “‘Chicken and Meat,’ directed by Fish. Well, that’s appropriate.” “Oh, word. Too often Pizza Hut or Taco Bell, for example, are equated with the very poor, when in fact those truly poor, i.e. living in the slums of South Africa would consider such wonderful.” “If I had a club I would play this video on my huge big screen. Then at 3:48 in the video, I would release my chimpanzee and he would eat your face. I would laugh and drink a beer.”

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9) “I Don’t Owe Nobody Shit”
This leif/aries noise beat is great; I like the mechanical nature of the song. It should have been called “Enjoy the Mechanical Nature of Me!” Listen to half the song or play it on repeat for a while is the way I eat this little mango!

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10) “Ek Shaneesh”
This song’s great to do live ’cause it’s actually a pretty difficult song to be on-stage for. It doesn’t lend itself that easily to dancing or just sitting around to, so we came up with all these bugged out things we do live. EES GOOOD!

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11) “Hugo Chavez”
Another J-La beat, this one is super grimy. This is one of our favorite songs to do live because of all the dark and strange imagery, plus the way the beat cuts out and comes back in during the song allows for some jumping in the air kick moves. Also, NOT HAVING A CHORUS IS SUCH A GREAT MOVE. Try it sometime!

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12) “I Don’t Want to Deal with Those Monsters”
One of the strangest songs on here. Kinda nonsensical, but alternating between a slow-flow and a fast one is pretty awesome. Something sinister and kinda creepy about this jammy.

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13) “Don Dada”
This Arturo Klauft beat is one of my favorite on the mixtape. This one’s pretty great to do live, too, ’cause you can do weird-leaning backwards dances to it. It’s got an irie feel about it, too.

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14) “One Dollar Can”
This song actually works while you sit around and listen to it. I was pretty relaxed. Goes well with brew, also (beer only).

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15) “Coochie Dip City”
This song is awesome and floaty. Feels like hanging out in the second level of Sonic 2, where it was sorta easy to drown, but that awful futuristic world they depict in that freak game but much safer. This song is good to play at incredibly crowded but small dance floor situations where people can’t leave easily.

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16) “Deep Ass Shit”
[Audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/16-deep-ass-shit.mp3]
Song’s pretty good. “AFGOOEY, OOO-EE OOO-EE OO-EE.” “SHOUT-OUT TO MY GIRL MARISOL, SHE LOVE WEED” as an end piece? Dope. Having the end of the song be some funny-ass YouTube clip before the mixtape closer is pretty sweet.

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17) “Shut Up, Dude”
Mike Finito beats usually make DR spit incredibly hard but still kinda bugged shit. “Kittens purr for us ’cause we bitchin’.” I love Hima peppering his shit with mildly aggravated clichés in between saying the most futuristic version of those same things in the same verse. A REAL TORCH-PASSING MOMENT. Vic going wealthy friends/failed Marxist/stale heartless hailed artists/frail sensitive pale sales targets” I go nugget-nugget.

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