Heems x Lapgan - LAFANDAR
After a six year hiatus, Himanshu “Heems” Suri wanders back toward rap, with his flow preserved in amber. “LAFANDAR” is a full-length collaboration with the Indian-American producer Lapgan , and finds Heems mangling cinematic South Asian samples with all the internal rhyme and laugh-out-loud wit fans remember from his past tapes, including with Das Racist and Swet Shop Boys . The title is an old-country insult for a vagabond, one who is mischievous, adventurous, wayward— Heems casts the sprawling enclaves of Queens, New York as outsider hip-hop’s natural home, with new subsects, dialects, references and threats around every corner. On solo cuts like “Kala Tika” or collabs with cult legends like Kool Keith , Saul Williams , Quelle Chris and more, Heems ' pen remains the point: a singular rap talent with a dozen other bafflingly interesting traits crammed into each stanza. - Matthew Trammell LAFANDAR by Heems, Lapgan
