4 Brown Faces Relevant in Hip-Hop Today

Barring some weird cross-cultural mashups, South Asians are criminally underrepresented in the world of hip-hop.  There isn't any affirmative action out on these streets, though - here are some people with roots in the subcontinent creating hip-hop:

Heems

Himanshu Suri, of Das Racist fame, has been doing some pretty rad solo stuff since the group's breakup at the end of 2012. Heems trades some of DR's out-of-left-field references over dance beats for a more purposeful flow on his two mixtapes.  Look out for the Greedhead honcho's solo debut album coming later this year. In the meantime, hear him spit something conscious over a Kolaveri Di sample - yeah, really.

Chippy Nonstop

This energetic, Kreayshawn-affiliated hyphy princess from Oakland is putting out some of the weirder sounds found on the Internet lately. Peep her infectious new EP, #finallyverified, or let her destroy your Twitter feed for a few days.

Shomi Patwary

This graphically-oriented creative has put together visuals for A$AP Rocky, Lupe Fiasco, and a host of others. He's the creative director for Karmaloop TV and co-founder of creative collective Illusive Media, but has been doing his thing in Virginia for over a decade now. 

Big Baby Gandhi

BBG is my favorite rapper right now. Download his first mixtape, his second mixtape, check out his Bandcamp page, download his EP, wait for his debut album, and pray to God he stops caring about becoming a pharmacist.

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