Students, Das Racist to perform at Canvas launch party

Das Racist will headline the premiere party for the spring 2012 edition of Canvas Creative Arts Magazine at 7 p.m. today at Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union.

The Brooklyn hip-hop trio behind underground classics such as “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” and “Michael Jackson” will round out the bill. Jacobs School of Music students will play original compositions inspired by poems that have appeared in Canvas and Michael Mlekodaj, a beat poet, will also perform.

“The one thing we’re trying to promote is it’s not just a Das Racist concert,” said sophomore Jared Thomas, director of Canvas. “It’s also for people who read Canvas, people who don’t, people who read poetry, people who like classical music.”

The program was assembled to reflect the magazine’s editorial mission, which focuses on building and fostering a community for the arts within IU.

“Canvas isn’t just a magazine for the artists,” said senior Dan Harting, the magazine’s editor. “It’s for the art community at IU, which is something we’re interested in fostering and developing. That’s why we’re bringing this party together.”

It will be the biggest issue launch Canvas has had yet, and Harting sees this as directly correlated with the success of the magazine.

“The real focus of the last two years has been really expanding our audience, not really in number but in demographic,” Harting said. “Over the past four or five semesters, we’ve increased the size of our premiere party pretty dramatically. forty people came five semesters ago. Now it’s 700.”

The staff said the presence of a well-known rap act at the party has been the biggest draw, but it’s been easy to roll that into a conversation about Canvas.

“As far as when I’ve been talking to people about it, it’s just a draw to the magazine,” said freshman Mara Abonour, a committee member at Canvas. “It’s a big name that leads people to the knowledge of the magazine, and it’s going to be an easy process to show it to people once you’re at the premiere party because we’re going to make it be about more than just Das Racist.”

Still, the group was chosen because its vibe is similar to the feel of Canvas. MCs Heems and Kool A.D. met at the small liberal arts college Wesleyan University and formed Das Racist with hype man Dapwell shortly after.

“The whole indie rap movement is focused on viewing it not as music, but as art,” Harting said. “You’re not selling albums, but you’re dispersing your art.”

Thomas pointed to an even more direct connection between Das Racist’s music and Canvas’s role as a one-stop shop for art and literature fans on campus.

“One of their singles is ‘Art School,’ which I think is great,” he said. “It’s very cohesive with Canvas.”