Heems

A Punjabi-American born and raised in New York City, Himanshu “Heems” Suri balances careers as a rapper, visual artist, and head of his own imprint. While still active in Das Racist—the alternative hip-hop trio he assembled with friends in 2008—he founded Greedhead Music that same year to issue the group’s recordings. Late in 2008 the collective scored an unexpected breakthrough when the single “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” leapt from cult curiosity to widespread success, an association that soon proved burdensome. Following several mixtapes and the proper studio album Relax in 2011, the persistent “novelty” tag contributed to the crew’s dissolution in 2013. Heems had already tested solo waters, issuing the mixtape Nehru Jackets on Greedhead in early 2012 and following it with Wild Water Kingdom later that year. After the breakup he relocated to Bombay to begin work on his first official solo album. Released in 2015, the record arrived alongside a concurrent exhibition of his visual work at New York’s Aicon Gallery; both projects bore the title Eat Pray Thug.