Questions on Benny Lava
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The Buffalax’s transcription of the lyrics to the Tamil song very clearly seeks to make a mockery of a ‘funny sounding’ language. Ha Ha- funny sounding people said ‘I’d love to see you pee on us tonight’ (Benny Lava by Buffalax, 1:25) [on an unrelated note, it is quite interesting to note how pervasive this kind of xenophobia is within the Indian subcontinent itself]. Taking this mockery, reclaiming it, and making art out of it, has been a recurring theme with the Swet Shop Boys’ music. From naming the song ‘Benny Lava’ and sampling the Tamil song, to the various complex nuances of race and racism they capture in their lyrics, their art impresses me time and time again.
I wonder if Heems’ self characterisation as a Hindu, superimposed with the stereotype of being ‘Stinky sticky icky’ and having ‘Thick black chest hair’ and ‘fat gold chains’ could be related to the racialisation of Islam as a social group (Husain, 1) as talked about by Rana and Husain. Why Hindu and why not just identify as a brown man? Does he point out the cultural and phenotypic identifiers that make him stand out as a Hindu hoping to highlight the same for his Muslim counterpart Riz Ahmed? Maybe this relates to his saying ‘She like “Ain’t that you with the Muslims?”... Yeah Momma said they was the Taliban hang around in alleys’ later?