Keith Matthew Thornton, better known by his stage name Kool Keith, is an American rapper and record producer from The Bronx, New York City, known for his surreal, abstract and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both as a solo artist and in group collaborations. Kool Keith is generally considered to be one of hip-hop's most eccentric and unusual personalities.
Francis and the Lights is an American pop project led by Francis Farewell Starlite. The term "and the Lights" refers both to the lights on a stage and pixels on a computer screen.
Das Racist was an American alternative hip hop group based in Brooklyn, composed of MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hype man Ashok Kondabolu. Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist has occasionally been hailed as an urgent new voice in rap but often dismissed as joke rap.
Shut Up, Dude is the first mixtape by American hip hop trio Das Racist. It was released as a free download by Greedhead Music and Mishka on March 29, 2010.
Sit Down, Man is the second mixtape by American hip hop trio Das Racist. It was released as a free download by Greedhead Music, Mishka, and Mad Decent on September 14, 2010. It gained over 40,000 downloads in its first week of release. An album release show was held at Santos Party House on September 16, 2010.
Fear of God II: Let Us Pray is the major record label debut and extended play by American rapper Pusha T, released on November 8, 2011, under G.O.O.D. Music. The EP was his first project with Kanye West's GOOD Music label, since the announcement of his signing in September 2010. Pusha T claims his inspiration for Fear of God is that a vast majority of the people who he came in the music business with are in prison: "I came in the game with super producers. We made hit records. I never thought that it gets deeper. But not for nothing, 2009 I lost eight of my friends to incarceration. Everybody that I came in to the rap game with, and when I realized that those components weren't there anymore, the 'Fear of God' really came over me. It's full of the dichotomy of 'right and wrong' and 'good and evil'. A lot of it deals with greed. A lot of it deals with instant gratification. Personally... life without instant gratification... I don't know what it is."
Relax is the only studio album by American hip hop trio Das Racist. It was released by Greedhead Music on September 13, 2011. It peaked at number 111 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Himanshu Kumar Suri, better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapper from Queens in New York City. Best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, Suri is also the founder of Greedhead Music, an independent record label. In 2012, Suri released his first solo mixtape, Nehru Jackets, on his Greedhead imprint and in conjunction with SEVA NY, a community-based organization from Queens of which Suri is a board member. In August 2015, Heems announced that Fox had bought his story rights for a potential sitcom, and that he was working on the pilot. He is currently a member of Swet Shop Boys along with actor and rapper Riz MC and producer Redinho.
Nehru Jackets is the first solo mixtape by American rapper Himanshu. It was released on Himanshu's own Greedhead Music label on January 17, 2012.
The Palm Wine Drinkard is the first solo mixtape by rapper Kool A.D., of the rap group Das Racist. Released in January 2012, it is the first of two mixtapes released by Kool A.D. that year, with 51 following in April. The mixtape takes its name from Amos Tutuola's novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard.
Victor Vazquez, also known by his stage name Kool A.D., is an American rapper, record producer, author, and artist. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Vazquez is best known for being a member of the New York-based rap group Das Racist, though he has also been a member of the bands Boy Crisis and Party Animal. Vazquez has also released his own solo material, including numerous mixtapes. Mother Jones magazine described his work as "a thoughtful effort to deconstruct and rearrange cultural objects in ways that challenge our deepest assumptions about society and cultural products".
Greedhead Music is an independent record label founded by Himanshu Suri of Das Racist. Initially, Suri founded Greedhead Music as a management and recording company in 2008 to manage Das Racist. Greedhead's first releases were the group's 2010 mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Das Racist's first commercially available album, Relax, was also the first commercial release on the Greedhead imprint. Greedhead has since released solo mixtapes by both Kool A.D. and Heems. The label has also released works by Dash Speaks, Weekend Money, Keepaway, Lakutis, Big Baby Gandhi, Le1f, Antwon, and Meyhem Lauren, as well as non-hip-hop acts like singer Safe, Scottish bhangra act Tigerstyle, and comedian Joe Mande.
Alec Reinstein, better known by his stage name Despot, is an American hip hop artist from Queens, New York City. He was signed to rapper El-P's label Definitive Jux in 2004. Despot has been a part of the New York underground rap scene for over a decade. Despot is associated with the Smart Crew collective and was a co-owner of Santos Party House.
Wild Water Kingdom is the second solo mixtape by American rapper Heems. It was released on Heems' own Greedhead Music label on November 14, 2012.
63 and 19 are mixtapes by Kool A.D, released as a double-album on February 7, 2013. The albums include collaborations with Pictureplane, Young L, SKYWLKR, Keyboard Kid, Trackademicks, Fat Tony, Mike Finito, Lakutis and Spank Rock as well as a beat Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys originally made for Das Racist.
Hugh Anthony Allison, better known by his stage name Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he debuted with the release of his first mixtape, The Big Fat Kill, in 2008. Allison would follow-up with what is considered to be his breakout project, the mixtape Lost in Translation, released by Mishka NYC in 2011. He signed his first major-label record deal with Universal Republic Records, in 2012, which he subsequently left. In 2017, with the release of Allison's fourth EP Brainiac, he launched Chocolate Rabbit, his own record label imprint. His self-titled debut studio album was independently released in 2019.
Aleksey Weintraub, better known by his stage name Lakutis, is an American rapper from New York. He has collaborated with Das Racist, Hot Sugar, and Kitty. He has also toured with Le1f and Antwon.
Smart Ass Black Boy is the second studio album by American rapper Fat Tony. It was released on Young One Records on June 11, 2013. Written in two days and recorded in four days, the album is entirely produced by Tom Cruz. Music videos were created for "BKNY", "Hood Party", and "Smart Ass Black Boy".
Roy Nnawuchi, better known by his pseudonym Dean Blunt, is a British singer-songwriter, musician and contemporary artist. He is best known for his current solo work as well as his previous work as part of avant-garde duo Hype Williams, and more recently, the hip hop group Babyfather. Blunt was also the founder of London rock band Graffiti Island. He has been described as "a prolific, category-rejecting artist" and "an art-pop provocateur."
Big Baby Gandhi is a Bangladesh-born American rapper from Queens, New York. His first mixtape, Big Fucking Baby, was released in 2011 to highly positive reception from music critics. As a result of the attention he got from his first mixtape, Gandhi was signed to Greedhead Music, on which he released his second mixtape, No1 2 Look Up 2, in 2012. Artists featured on No1 2 Look Up 2 include Das Racist, and Fat Tony. In early 2013, he posted on his Tumblr that he would retire from making rap music after 2013. On December 6, 2013, he released his first full-length album, Debut. Big Baby Gandhi came out of retirement in 2017 with his release 27 and proceeded to drop various loose tracks since. In 2019 Big Baby Gandhi released a studio album We Live In A Society with features from Mr. MFN eXquire and Victor Freeze.
