FEATURING SID SRIRAM, KOOL KEITH, OPEN MIKE EAGLE, BLU & MORE
LAFANDAR OUT NOW VIA VEENA SOUNDS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MASS APPEAL INDIA
PLAYING NYC LIVE SHOW AT BABY’S ALL RIGHT ON FEBRUARY 23RD
Himanshu ‘Heems’ Suri teams up with Indian-American producer Lapgan to release their new collaborative album LAFANDAR via Veena Sounds, in partnership with Mass Appeal India. The project – Heems’ first body of work released in nearly a decade – finds him tackling Lapgan’s cinematic South Asian samples with all the internal rhyme and laugh-out-loud wit fans remember from his old tapes and work with Das Racist and Swet Shop Boys. Stereogum highlighted LAFANDAR as their Album of the Week on Tuesday, calling it “a landmark in the growing wave of Indo-Western hip-hop, but also a quintessential New York rap album.
The word LAFANDAR is an old-country insult for a vagabond, a wanderer, a loomer, a lurker, an urban dilettante, and especially in Heems’ case, a flaneur. Heems casts the sprawling enclaves of Queens, New York, as outsider hip-hop’s natural home, with new subsects, dialects, references, and threats around every corner. Heems and Lapgan will be celebrating the album’s release with a release show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on February 23rd. Remaining tickets are available HERE.
LAFANDAR features an eclectic collection of collaborations with artists from Heems’ world, including Kool Keith, Blu, Sid Sriram, Your Old Droog, Sir Michael Rocks, Open Mike Eagle, and more. The album includes the previously released singles “Accent,” featuring Saul Williams, the verse for which he first unveiled on a 2017 performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and “Sri Lanka,” featuring Your Old Droog, their followup to fan-favorite track “Bangladesh.”
Last month, Heems formally launched his new magazine and brand, Veena. An ode to the collision of his South Asian heritage and New York roots, Veena is dedicated to and named after his mother, and explores the implementation of self care through Heems’ passions – fashion, flows and food. In celebration of its launch, Veena is releasing a product offering encompassing all three of its core tenets – Sounds, Wears and Naturals – including physical editions of both 2010 Das Racist mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down Man, which are being made available on vinyl for the first time. Veena is also releasing two tees designed by Himanshu Suri and Peter Chung (Supreme, Polo) and 100% organic cold-pressed virgin coconut oil made in India.
On the connection between his music and his new endeavor with Veena, Heems says, “My world was one of graffiti and golgappas, skateboards and saris, music and Mughals, and so on. This is what my music sounds like.” Now he invites you to experience the expanding world he’s building.
Listen to LAFANDAR above, see below for more album info and stay tuned for more from Heems and Veena coming soon.
Heems & Lapgan
LAFANDAR
February 16, 2024
Veena Sounds / Mass Appeal India
1. Stupid Dumb Illiterate feat. Sid Sriram
2. I’m Pretty Cool
3. Sri Lanka feat. Your Old Droog
4. Accent feat. Saul Williams
5. Going for 6 feat. Sonnyjim & Abhi The Nomad
6. Baba Ganoush feat. Lee Scott & Cool Calm Pete
7. Obi Toppin (Darling) feat. Kool Keith
8. Kala Tika
9. Yellow Chakra feat. Sir Michael Rocks & Open Mike Eagle
10. Porches feat. Blu & Quelle Chris
11. Bukayo Saka
12. Yo Momma feat. Fatboi Shari
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