Himanshu - Wild Water Kingdom

For me, there has always existed a Matt Damon/Ben Affleck dynamic to Das Racist. The same type of presumption that (speciously) suspected Matt Damon was the real mind behind GoodWill Hunting leads me to believe that Himanshu is the real mind behind Das Racist, with Kool A.D. just playing a complementary, coat-tails-riding Ben Affleck role. Now, I know this is untrue--a listen to Palm Wine Drunkard shows that Victor has bars (albeit weird fucking bars). This doesn't stop me from being more excited about a release from Heems than Kool A.D.  And with greater expectations comes a greater potential for failure--which is why Wild Water Kingdom is impressive. It is exactly what I thought it would be.

Heems goes Beast Mode/Lebron vs. the Celtics on this mixtape. His bars have never been so consistently sharp. He also does a great job selecting the production on this one (almost exclusively from his boys, of course) to highlight his razor-sharp tongue. 

Himanshu, like Jonah Hill, seems to squirm when pegged as the "funny guy" and has actively tried breaking from this mold. With Wild Water Kingdom, Hima crystallizes a perfect display of his manifold qualities--the funny dude, the politically minded, the pop-culture obsessed, the hip-hop scholar, the social commentator, the word play god, the nu-90's flow ambassador--which proves to be an exciting listen. 

Oh, and he has come up with the best ad-lib since Gucci Mane's "burr" with "Heemaaaa"