"I think [we're] probably the world's only Indo-Pak rap group - peace process never sounded so rowdy," @SwetShopBoys triumphantly Tweeted on the eve of their premier single release, "Benny Lava." It's former Das Racist member Himanshu Suri (Heems) new 2-man group with Pakistan by way of London rapper, Riz MC; Heems on the other hand, is a successful New York-based rapper and entrepreneur of Indian descent. Swet Shop Boys decided to rhyme over a recycled 2011 Ryan Hemsworth beat, which takes it's name from a mondegreen, Internet video re-interpretation, that's aptly titled "Benny Lava." It's all firmly anchored by Heems' neck-snapping first four bars: "Yo, Himanshu with the pen, I'm killing it / The white man the villain, them deny them penicillin / Syphilis experiments, death to the Tuskegee men / Somewhere in New York they say death to the squeegee men." The companion Prashant Bhargava & Tanuj Chopa-directed music video features Heems & Riz MC ferociously rapping from a number of presumably Indian-Pakistani establishments: their barber shop, various restaurants, the beach, family apartments, in front of a giant American flag, etc. Heems has seemingly been working on their as-yet-untitled 3-5 song Swet Shop Boys EP concurrently with his long-awaited proper debut album, Eat Pray Thug while on his self-imposed Asian exile. "I made my album in December in Bombay. It's about 11 songs. I'm going through producer contracts and trying to clear each track with the producers in regard to royalties and publishing. I just kind of have time between now and when the album drops. When it drops, I hope to come back to the States and do a proper tour and some press and stuff. But yeah, I kinda just got burned-out on New York. I've lived there my whole life. I'm born and raised there," Heems revealed to Stereogum about the ambition behind his recent self-imposed exile.
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