Heems. (Photo Credit: Shivani Gupta).
What type of audience do you usually draw?
I think Northside fans were more from Williamsburg and Manhattan. But it’s interesting because I feel like most of the shows I’ve played in the last year here in New York have had a South Asian audience and this show had less South Asian people. I’d say there were less people from Queens than usual.
You recently released the video for your song “Damn, Girl.” Tell me about its creation?
I shot it in a gallery in NoHo where I had shown work and curated an art show on the contemporary diaspora of South Asian artists. I wanted to shoot something that was heavy in choreography. I’m not necessarily sure if I’ll be making music in the future, so I tried to bring as much of who I am as an artist on the record. I like dancing, so it was easy to choreograph some stuff that combined urban dancing and Punjabi dancing. It’s more of an R&B song. I’ve always wanted to show that side of myself as an artist — write a breakup song and dance in the video. There’s no dancing or lyric in that song that’s in jest.
What’s your plan if/when you leave music?
I don’t know. I might take some time to work on some other projects, but music will always be there for me. I just made a new Swet Shop Boys EP, so there’s at least another EP of my music coming out in the next two weeks. I’m dropping a new song called “Coconut Oil.” Though one part of me doesn’t necessarily want to make more music, when I got to London I was linking up with rappers and producers because that’s who I am. Hip hop is a lot like an ex-girlfriend of mine who I keep wanting to avoid but I keep going back to.
What would you like to do when you finally shake off the “ex-girlfriend?”
I like acting, I like making art, I like technology and advertising. I could see myself writing fiction or teaching at the university level, but I don’t really know what I’m going to do.
Socio-political issues influence your music, especially Eat Pray Thug. Are there any issues in the news right now that will influence your art, no matter what form it takes?
I think that the things that influenced me have already influenced me more than any recent kind of epiphanies. I hope to live in a world where the things that influenced me don’t continue to be around, like 9/11. The political landscape we live in has been shaped by this one event. I also happen to have some kind of personal relationship with it. It’s hard to separate politics from what I do and what I create and who I am.
How has the South Asian community in New York received the album?
I’ve seen some cool things in my community. I wasn’t sure when the album came out whether there were only young South Asian kids listening to it or whether there were other Americans listening to it, but I think there’s a good mix.
Are there any projects you’re working on with your organization SEVA NY?
Yeah, my friend Ali Najm is running for city council in Queens and I’ll be helping him campaign. He’ll be running in the district that I grew up in. It’s cool to have grown up in that neighborhood with him and, now as adults, to be in the position to give back to the community. Ali and I worked together on redistricting in 2012, with the release of Nehru Jackets, and had success in redistricting for Richmond Hill in Queens. We recently worked together on a taxi campaign to get a taxi stand right near a Punjabi deli and to help their business continue, which was also successful. Now I’m helping him point his efforts towards representing our community in the district.
The story of Rachel Dolezal is the latest drama on social media and I wanted to see what you thought about the situation because you often address issues such as white privilege and identity in your music (especially your album Eat Pray Thug).
Man, it just sounds like the plot to some bad comedy that I would probably watch. Anything from Rachel Dolezal to Mindy Kaling’s brother to the movie Soul Man is just part of a long history of racism that only black people have had to deal with in America. As an Indian, I’ve been fortunate and I just try to help in any way that I can.
Speaking of false personas, I’d like to hear your views on fiction rap (writing lyrics that don’t speak to personal experience). You don’t seem to do this, especially after leaving Das Racist, and I was hoping you could explain why it’s important to stay true to yourself? What message are you trying to convey in the work you create?
At some point I wanted to do this performance art that was based around an Indian guru in the video for “Sometimes.” I wanted to perform from that perspective, but I decided not to. For me, in this age of self-curation and digitalization of personality, how do you not curate for a second? How do you just be honest about who you are? Not through the lens of what you like, or not going through the lens of what you do. For me, it’s about family. My tie to my family is something that is important to me on the spiritual and otherworldly level that is beyond the digital age. It just so happens that it’s a period of time in my life where I want to take a break from music and from dating and just hang out with family and reconnect. That bond also extends to why I’m so interested in India, why I hang out in India, why I speak the language fluently and why my interests are towards Indian cinema rather than Western cinema. That’s who I am, so I can’t really avoid it. And my work, after Das Racist, has so much become who I am (not who these three people are) so it’s unavoidable to present myself as I am.
