MCs Victor Vazquez and Himanshu Suri came to the attention of the music world in 2008, after their strangely catchy song “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” became a YouTube hit. Teamed up with their hype man, Dap (aka Ashok Kondabolu), the Brooklyn group has a style that both satirizes and reveres hip-hop, combining druggy nonsense, social commentary, and obscure pop culture references into one boldly self-aware package. In 2010, the group self-released two mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man, with the latter issued in association with the Mad Decent label and featuring a song with production by tastemaker and label head Diplo. Soon after, Das Racist announced they would release their debut full-length, Relax. It arrived in September 2011. ~ Gregory Heaney