Das Racist’s Himanshu Kumar Suri (aka Heems) Joins AGW Group as Creative Strategist

By Erik Oster 

Himanshu Kumar Suri recently joined AGW Group, the Brooklyn-based culture marketing and integrated communications agency that also handles PR for Mother, as a creative strategist. Suri is better known by his rap alias Heems, as a member of Das Racist, Swet Shop Boys and as a solo artist.

But his position doesn’t appear to be just an empty celebrity title a la Matthew McConaughey. He reportedly works at the office alongside his coworkers at the Brooklyn office full-time.

“I genuinely want to be in an office five days a week, learning from people around me who have skills that I don’t,” Suri told Fast Company earlier this month. “I know a lot of musicians and artists end up working with agencies in [a part-time] capacity, but for me, it’s really about being there every day.”

That doesn’t mean he’s giving up his other career, however.

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“At some point last year, I had decided that, alongside working on my music, I wanted to transition into the world of advertising and marketing, and how brands engage with artists,” he added, noting that most of the money such artists make is all about advertising in the first place.

The hire resulted from a December meeting with AGW Group co-founder Adam Gorode, who told Fast Company that his agency has had trouble finding people to link artists and clients “because it takes a certain mind frame.”

Suri began his role the following month.

He’s not entirely new to the agency world, by the way. In the past he’s worked as an influencer on campaigns by Wieden + Kennedy and Cornerstone.

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