Crucial Track for January 7, 2026

"Power" by Das Racist

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#365songs (7 / 365)

Notable for being the only posse cut on a Das Racist album and one of the best tracks on the extremely uneven Relax, and for introducing me to Danny Brown. I was already pretty big into DR at this point and I was sad when they broke up, but the fact that this album was so spotty softened the blow a bit; they were always a deeply irreverent group but they took their craft seriously and even I could tell their hearts didn't seem to be fully in it on Relax.

Still, "Power" is a banger, and hearing Danny Brown for the first time was a real "what the fuck" moment that left me primed to be pretty curious about his breakthrough mixtape XXX when I heard about it a bit later. For that matter, Despot does a great job here too; I'd always listened to Das Racist because I wanted to hear Das Racist and so often slightly resented the guest verses they brought in, but in retrospect and with more knowledge of the rap landscape I see they often punched above their weight class with who they got to guest on their tracks. I mean, El-P? Roc Marciano? Not bad for a group that dropped 2 mixtapes and an album in 2 years and then dipped.