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Heems Unleashes Deeply Personal "Sometimes" from EAT PRAY THUG (Megaforce Records)


EAT PRAY THUG, or "9/11 & Heartbreak," as he affectionately refers to it, is the by-product of Queens-based rapper Himanshu K. Suri (aka Heems)' self-imposed exile to Bombay, India a few years back. Although it's actually Suri's major label debut, EAT PRAY THUG is likely poised to be his first and last album, as @HIMANSHU has recently alluded that he's considering giving up his rap career and more or less defunct Greedhead imprint for a 9-5. Since unleashing a series of critically-acclaimed 2012 mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom, Suri has maintained a relatively low profile; until unexpectedly dropping his 4-track SWET SHOP EP with buddy Riz "MC" Ahmed and a particularly zonked out theme song recorded for Japanese Vitamin Water last year. "'Sometimes" is about dualities, identity, and the space between spaces, Like so many other people, as first generation South Asian in the U.S. I often felt like I lived two lives, an Indian one and an American one. I lived, at once, in and between two spaces and outside them, as well," Heems lamented on his deeply personal Gordon Voidwell-produced EAT PRAY THUG lead-off single.


Megaforce Records further details that his long-awaited post- Das Racist album, which will finally see a March 10th release, includes production work from Dev Hynes, Harry Fraud, and Boody B, as well as guitar accents from Hynes and Rafiq Bhatia... all of which was recorded in-between Bombay and Brooklyn. Heems recently sounded off on his new-found label home, who's seemingly now "not providing free download [codes] with the vinyl" release of EAT PRAY THUG. It should be dually noted that this is just the latest album-derailing hurdle Himanshu K. Suri has encountered; although they released Das Racist's final album, RELAX (2011) it should be taken into account that Megaforce is generally a Metal/Thrash-leaning label, having issued Danzig, Anthrax, and Clutch's past albums, as well as 80's-era Metallica. Suri previously referred to the album as "the most honest work I've ever made" and according to a Stereogum Q&A published last March, EAT PRAY THUG has been completed since around December 2013 and is reportedly an 11-track album.