This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Japan, franken-foods, Brooklyn, music-food mashups, and hip-hop have all come together in this one gloriously zeitgeisty clip, courtesy of Himanshu (formerly of Das Racist) and Vitamin Water. Make sure you’re sitting down before you hit play.
Heems tweeted out the link to the video last night, igniting confusion and delight among his fans. It’s hard to know for sure whether he is the dude with a boombox on his head in the commercial, but this story from Japan’s RBB Daily would suggest that he did indeed write the song (Google Translate, FTW!).
Clearly, he is having some fun with this unexpected outlet for his music, which comes at the same time as an original score he has created for the upcoming Punjab episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown.
Heems is not the first celebrity to make the move into Japanese commercials, and he was quick to reference Bill Murray’s famous Suntory whiskey spot from Lost in Translation:
He also teased fans by suggesting that this song might become part of his live act:
Like many Japanese ads, it’s hard to tell how much of this is parody, and the lyrics are as catchy as they are absurd. Heems knows a thing or two about thiss tyle—after all, he is the same guy who created “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” with Das Racist.
The song begins, “Do you know about the New York remix? It’s New York culture’s way of giving old things new life with the remix,” before launching into a laundry list of ridiculous mashups that are currently en vogue, like Strollercize and spinning (“are you gonna ride the bike or are you gonna ride the beat?”). It also includes some shout-outs to the Williamsburg food scene:
Nitehawk Cinema
The Ramen Burger
Oh, and also “sushi nails”:
Excuse us while we listen to this song on repeat for the rest of the day…
[via Twitter/@Himanshu]