Relax | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 13, 2011 | |||
Studio | See-Thru Studios, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | |||
Genre | Hip hop | |||
Length | 50:12 | |||
Label | Greedhead Music | |||
Producer | ||||
Das Racist chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Relax | ||||
|
Relax is the only studio album by American hip hop trio Das Racist. [2] It was released by Greedhead Music on September 13, 2011. [3] It peaked at number 111 on the Billboard 200 chart. [4]
The album is produced by Diplo, El-P, Rostam Batmanglij, and Anand Wilder, among others. [5] It includes guest appearances from El-P, Danny Brown, and Despot. [5]
On August 2, 2011, Das Racist released "Michael Jackson", the lead single from the album. [1] The music video for the song was premiered on September 9, 2011. [6] Directed by Weird Days, the video references Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video, [7] featuring the morphing faces of El-P, Despot, Lakutis, Hari Kondabolu, Mike Finito, Anand Wilder, Rostam Batmanglij, and Ben Schecter, among others. [8]
The album was released by Greedhead Music on September 13, 2011. [3]
The band played Late Night with Conan O'Brien on September, 28, 2011.
Music videos were also created for "Brand New Dance" [9] and "Girl". [10]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.2/10 [11] |
Metacritic | 78/100 [12] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [13] |
The A.V. Club | B+ [14] |
Chicago Tribune | [15] |
Consequence of Sound | [16] |
Los Angeles Times | [17] |
MSN Music (Expert Witness) | A [18] |
Pitchfork | 6.3/10 [19] |
Rolling Stone | [20] |
Slant Magazine | [21] |
Spin | 8/10 [22] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [12]
Tuyet Nguyen of The A.V. Club gave the album a "B+" grade, praising Das Racist's "acutely modern sense of humor." [14] Jesse Cataldo of Slant Magazine gave the album 4 stars out of 5, saying, "Relax finds Das Racist operating as both consumers and creators of pop culture, spawning an endless pomo cycle of criticism and observation." [21] Paul de Revere of Consequence of Sound called it "Das Racist's definitive album to date." [16]
Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Robert Christgau | The Dean's List: Christgau's Best of 2011 | 1 | |
Complex | 25 Best Albums of 2011 | 14 | |
Rolling Stone | 50 Best Albums of 2011 | 28 | |
Spin | 50 Best Albums of 2011 | 16 | |
Spin | 40 Best Rap Albums of 2011 | 4 | |
Stereogum | Top 50 Albums of 2011 | 41 |
No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Relax" | 4:29 | |
2. | "Michael Jackson" |
| 4:16 |
3. | "Brand New Dance" | Wimberly | 3:01 |
4. | "Middle of the Cake" (featuring Anand Wilder) | Anand Wilder | 3:43 |
5. | "Girl" | Blood Diamonds | 3:23 |
6. | "Shut Up, Man" (featuring El-P) | El-P | 4:32 |
7. | "Happy Rappy" | Diplo | 2:21 |
8. | "Booty in the Air" | Wimberly | 3:47 |
9. | "Power" (featuring Danny Brown and Despot) | Dash Speaks | 4:46 |
10. | "Punjabi Song" (featuring Bikram Singh) | J-La | 3:31 |
11. | "Selena" | Wimberly | 2:16 |
12. | "Rainbow in the Dark" | J-La | 3:51 |
13. | "The Trick" | Rostam Batmanglij | 3:01 |
14. | "Celebration" | Francis Farewell Starlite | 2:40 |
Credits adapted from the liner notes.
Chart (2011) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard 200 [4] | 111 |
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [29] | 1 |
US Independent Albums (Billboard) [30] | 26 |
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) [31] | 15 |
US Top Rap Albums (Billboard) [32] | 12 |
Vampire Weekend is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 2006 and currently signed to Columbia Records. The band was formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio. Batmanglij departed the group in early 2016 but has continued to occasionally contribute to subsequent albums as a songwriter, producer, and musician.
Ra Ra Riot is an American indie rock band consisting of vocalist Wes Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci, violinist Rebecca Zeller and drummer Kenny Bernard.
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 was widely hailed as an urgent new voice in rap, after occasionally being misunderstood as joke rap when they first appeared. In the end, we all know how the target group acts.
Rostam Batmanglij, known mononymously as Rostam, is an American record producer, musician, singer, songwriter, and composer. He was a founding member of the band Vampire Weekend, whose first three albums he produced. He has been described by Stereogum as one of the greatest pop and indie-rock producers of his generation. Rostam also works as a solo artist and is a member of electro-soul group Discovery. He produced his first number-one album, Vampire Weekend's Contra, when he was 27 years old.
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.
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.
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.
Modern Vampires of the City is the third studio album by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend. It was released on May 14, 2013, by XL Recordings. The group began to write songs for the album during soundchecks on the supporting concert tour for their previous album, 2010's Contra. After a period in which each member explored individual musical projects, they regrouped and continued working on Modern Vampires of the City in 2011. With no deadline in mind, the band brought in an outside record producer for the first time, Ariel Rechtshaid, to record the album.
"Step" is a song by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend. Written and composed by band members Ezra Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij and produced by Ariel Rechtshaid and Batmanglij, the song was released as the fourth and final single from the band's third studio album Modern Vampires of the City. The song was inspired by American hip hop group Souls of Mischief's song "Step to My Girl".
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.
Emotion is the third studio album by Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on June 24, 2015 in Japan and worldwide on August 21, 2015 through 604, School Boy, and Interscope Records. Looking to transition from the bubblegum pop-oriented nature of her second studio album, Kiss (2012), Jepsen found inspiration in 1980s music and alternative styles. She enlisted a team of mainstream and indie collaborators, including Sia, Mattman & Robin, Dev Hynes, Ariel Rechtshaid, Rostam Batmanglij, Greg Kurstin, and Peter Svensson of the Cardigans, culminating in a largely synth-pop-centric effort.
99¢ is the third studio album by American musician and singer Santigold, released on February 26, 2016 on Atlantic Records.
Half-Light is the debut solo studio album by American musician Rostam, released on September 15, 2017. The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and received generally favorable reviews.
So Sad So Sexy is the fourth studio album by Swedish singer Lykke Li, released on 8 June 2018 by RCA. The album was preceded by the release of the singles "Deep End", "Hard Rain", "Utopia", "Sex Money Feelings Die" and "Two Nights" featuring Aminé. Ilsey Juber co-wrote the majority of the album, which is musically influenced by trap. Malay served as an executive producer, with further production by Li's husband Jeff Bhasker, T-Minus, DJ Dahi, Illangelo, Emile Haynie, Jonny Coffer, Kid Harpoon and Rostam Batmanglij, among others.
Lamp Lit Prose is the eighth studio album by American experimental rock group Dirty Projectors, and was released on Domino Records on July 13, 2018.
Father of the Bride is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend. It was released on May 3, 2019, by Columbia Records, as their first album on a major label.
"Gasoline" is a song by American band Haim from their third studio album Women in Music, Pt. III (2020). The song was written by the band members along with Rostam Batmanglij, and produced by Batmanglij, Danielle Haim, and Ariel Rechtshaid. A remix of "Gasoline" with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was included as one of two bonus tracks of the album's expanded edition. The remix was released as a single on February 19, 2021, by Columbia Records. It marks Haim's second collaboration with Swift, following "No Body, No Crime" on Swift's Evermore (2020).