During CMJ I saw Das Racist for the first time.  They were playing the Moodswing360 showcase at Santos Party House.  They were playing on the stage downstairs which I always hate shooting on.  There’s a ton of uneven front lighting, no back light and the ceilings are black so you can’t bounce a flash for shit.  So when they played it was super hectic down there and I knew I wasn’t going to get great shots so I just popped off a few shots and went back up stairs. I have a lot of mutual friends with the guys so I wanted to check them out but I honestly didn’t even remember much about them when it was all said and done.

That show ended up being a pretty interesting one for both Das Racist and myself.  They got signed to Moodswing and I ended up getting Moodswing as a photo client.  They are really high on Das Racist and told me that their show last Thursday at the Highline Ballroom was going to be nuts. They told me they had a guestlist of 150 people and it had been completely filled up. The venue was totally sold out and I heard that people were paying as much as $100 for tickets on eBay.  So clearly photos were needed and Moodswing sent me out there.

I got there pretty early because my friend Jasmine Solano was opening up. She DJ’d for a bit and then did a couple songs before Detroit rapper named Danny Brown did his thing.  They both were great and got the crowd going crazy getting ready for Das Racist.  I went upstairs and hung out in the dressing room which was quickly filling up with people. Atrak and Nick Catchdubs from Fools Gold were there as was El-P of Def Jux.  People seemed to be getting drunker and drunker. I just figured shit was about to pop off.

When Das Racist finally went on stage the crowd went crazy.  They rocked that shit completely and had the whole place moving.  I have seen a handful of shows at Highline Ballroom and the only person who has come close to rocking it like that was Andrew WK. I hung out on stage taking snaps and trying not to get run over.  At some point I did a lap and took some crowd shots and even the back of the room was going off. It was just a lot of fun. They brought a bunch of guests on stage throughout the night.  Not really sure who everone was other than El-P and Danny Brown but it was clearly a party.

I took like 600 photos or something and it was total madness.  I need to just stop talking about it and you need to look at the pictures.  I feel like this show will be one that people are talking about for a long time.

Click here to see all the shots from the Das Racist show at the Highline Ballroom.

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