VEENA LP, Queens rapper Heems‘ newest album, is an elegant, thrilling, and hilarious tightrope act. This is Heems’ second album this year. While listening to him rap on this project, I get the impression that he is a different person from the one I heard a few months ago on Lafandar. In a subtle way, with the release of VEENA LP, Heems as an artist has been reborn.
Imagine the first sound you remember hearing is static. When one leaves home and journeys to another land after being permanently uprooted, they are, in a sense, reborn. The new sounds and the language of the destined place resonate like static. If a rapper holds the mic carelessly, unsure of its power and intricacies, he might point it directly toward the speakers, thus triggering feedback, resulting in a dreadful noise. The crowd will collectively press the palms of their hands onto their ears, a gesture for relief from an uncomfortable communication. Only the best MCs can recover from the error.
Static isn’t only unpleasant noise. It’s also the sound of uncertainty, of senses being thrown off kilter. It’s the audible manifestation of becoming a stranger, no matter the place. Even if for a few seconds—sonically, you are now an immigrant—a refugee. VEENA LP begins with this static. VEENA LP is about communication between generations and between the once left behind and those who arrived at a new place. More importantly, it showcases a new Heems, one that is more poised and mature. He’s still a lovable buffoon, but his words have the gravitas to stir the listener to contemplation.
The opening track, “Veena”, ends with Heems’ mother proclaiming, “My English is not that good.” Despite her self-admonishment, I understood everything she said. This is emblematic of VEENA LP as an album. Regardless of slang, metaphors, and language barriers, Heems’ story comes through. He is after all “…a poet of Queens” and Queens, New York is after all the most linguistically diverse place on Earth. One learns to communicate there by simply existing.
On “Manto”, a standout in a record full of superb songs, pianist and composer Vijay Iyer plays a tender pulse on the piano that drives this song of exile and rupture. The visceral vibrations exhume a past unknown to many listeners. Jazz is first and foremost a genre of conversation, and Iyer might be its foremost orator. Not to be outdone, Heems is also a good talker on this track and throughout the LP. “I’m just a product of partition,” raps Heems as he uncovers generational trauma created by the violent split between India and Pakistan. As previously stated, the listener is led to contemplation.
“Manto” is a hip-hop origin story of the highest order. It is also postcolonial self-ethnography on wax. Throughout his career, Heems has been fixated to the point of obsession with the history and peoples of the continent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). He shares this obsession with his frequent collaborator, Riz Ahmed (who appears on this album via voice recording), whose film Mogul Mowgli explores how generational trauma passed on by his family from their experience of partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 leads the protagonist to develop a degenerative autoimmune disease.
The production of VEENA LP is courtesy of Sid Vashi, who provides all the songs except “Rahki”. The stellar beats complement Heems’ versatility as a rapper as he swiftly switches flows and rhymes in intricate patterns. Heems and Sid Vashi take the listener on a world tour of sounds. “Bourdain” (featuring Mr. Cheeks) shows Heems’ ability to change flows. It’s full of lyrical gems that veer from being serious to laugh-out-loud funny at lightning speed. Heems raps, “I’m with 11 killers. I call that my cricket team”, with the vigor of a court jester about to orchestrate a successful coup.
The hilarity doesn’t stop there. In “Juhi”, a skit before “Dame”, comedian Hasan Minhaj offers advice on talking to the ladies. “Dame” features the same hilarious self-flattery from Heems that can only be taken as anything but a joke. The best rappers excel at presenting an air of faux humility, and Heems does this with gusto. Imagine saying, “I’ll suck on your neck like Vlad the Impaler” as a pick-up line to someone. Gusto.
“Rakhi”, the only song produced by Evergreen on the album features vocals from Pavvan and Ajji. It’s a trap number with an exciting chorus, something that is increasingly absent from a subgenre fixated on dull clichés both lyrically and sonically. Evergreen’s beat explores the same hypnotic and menacing sound that catapulted trap to popularity. It is also eerily sensual and is helped by having a tinge of Heems’ trademark humor –“Shoot out to the farmers”. In a better world, this song would be inescapable this summer.
Heems packs blistering metaphors throughout his rhymes yet somehow finds a way to be silly. The levity is appreciated. His skill as a rapper makes what could easily be a predictable project become endearing. No filler here. This is a project made by an artist who reached his stride.
“Flowers” continues the sonic exploration of radio-friendly sounds. This time by doing something distinct from the menacing “Rakhi”. Singer Navz-47 provides an intoxicating chorus, and Heems lays down the seductive pleasantries on the level of Shabazz Palaces‘ brilliant “A Treatease Dedicated to the Avian Airess from North East Nubis (1000 Questions, 1 Answer)“. “I’ll collect you like my niece collects rocks,” raps Heems. How can one not like this guy? Yet, it’s Heems, so expect some funny cringe lines that sometimes fall flat. Regardless, Veena is an artistic statement so focused and compelling that even misplaced jokes can’t stop it from being impactful.
“Banshee” makes triumph out of personal failure. In this final song, Heems shares the spotlight with the cool and collected Cool Calm Pete who closes the record with a flow so relaxed that it will give weary listeners’ peripheral neuropathy. In an album as personal as VEENA LP one expects Heems to have the final word. Instead, he opts to have his collaborators and friends speak instead.
VEENA LP is Heems’ best record as a solo artist. I see my immigrant story here. One hears of his family’s struggle before arriving in the United States before he was born. That is a major impetus for Heems as an artist. You can hear Heems triumphantly coming out of the other side. Yet, I also haven’t laughed this hard while listening to a rap album since Quelle Chris’ vaudevillian macabre spectacle DEATHFAME.
This is Heems’ year. In February, he released Lafandar, a project entirely produced by Lapgan. Less than eight months later, he drops VEENA LP, one of the year’s best rap albums. I remember back in 2011, there was a sense of hope—elation even—within the New York City underground rap scene. El-P, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, Das Racist (Heems’ former group), and Despot all seemed to be gearing up for incredible things. The city’s underground scene created something bold, funny, and beautiful. It felt like the mecca again.
However, after some personal detours and bad decisions, the scene fizzled and gave way to drill. El-P went on to form Run the Jewels; Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire has had a respectable, yet muted, career since then; Das Racist broke up (maybe for the better); and Despot, well, I still haven’t heard the album. A decade later, Heems transcended the movement with VEENA LP. His music now offers its own promises and aspirations.