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Despot has rapped acclaimed verses on releases by Das Racist and Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire, performed in front of crowds of all sizes and musical tastes and made enough money to purchase a diamond-encrusted ring shaped like the Forest Hills, Queens apartment building on 108th Street in which he spent his childhood.

He’s managed all this without yet releasing an album of his own.
The erstwhile Alec Reinstein, who approximated that he has been rapping for 17 years, is planning to release his debut album, entirely produced by electro-pop duo Ratatat, this year. A supergroup of frequent collaborators Das Racist, eXquire, Danny Brown, El-P and Action Bronson is also in the works, Despot said in his conversation with RapGenius.

“It’s going pretty well so far,” Despot said of the album. “(Ratatat) are two of my best friends, and we’ve toured like five or six times together. Recording with them and recording with Das Racist is really just like hanging out.”

Despot said the reason he’s gone this long without releasing an album has nothing to do with creating a sense of mystery or a Dr. Dre-esque obsession with perfection. He’s acutely aware of his pattern of sixteen bars a year.

“People think I’m a perfectionist, but I’m really just lazy,” he said, admitting that he’s seen friends and acquaintances, particularly Das Racist, gain success while he did not. “I’m not bitter at all. They worked on that shit. All those dudes have worked really hard, and I haven’t really worked at all. I guess I worked at other things, but not rapping. “

While his work at Santos Party House, the club he co-owns with Andrew W.K. and others, has brought him a level of success, Despot said he now wants to focus on rap-related goals, including his new Short Cuts endeavor with friend and collaborator Heems.

“I want to be a rapper,” he said. “I’m disappointed that I’m not more of a rapper. But I want the club to do well. We have some long-term plans for it. But I mostly want to rap. I’m not that interested in the other things I do. I mean, the club’s cool.“

Although he handles much of the club’s talent relations and booking for concerts, he stated he likes to keep that part of his life separate from his performing side, and would never try to levy his position at the club into working with an act performing there.

Despot began rapping at the age of 12. “I used to skip school a lot and do drugs,” the rapper alleges, and he spit his first freestyle over a Royal Flush instrumental his friend owned. His first single, Homesickness, was recorded when he was just 17. Despot attended SUNY Purchase, but later dropped out due to apathy to the college environment.

Despot doesn’t see his recent resurgence as a second coming, but the dawning of a new attitude in his rap: a smart but violent braggadocio. “I don’t know man,” he shrugs. “I’m pretty good.” He also revealed upcoming collaborations with childhood friend Action Bronson, SPACEGHOSTPURRP, and singer King Krule. He also spoke of his friendship with super-producer Just Blaze, bringing to mind the question of a team-up.

Best known these days for his work with Das Racist, Despot said opening for the group on their most recent U.S. tour was a eye-opening for a number of reasons. Among the things he learned was that Danny Brown’s oft-mentioned ad-lib is an inflected “check.” The tour also taught him about life as a white rapper in a minority-driven medium.

“I noticed on this Das Racist tour, it was a very different tour than most of the tours I’ve done, mostly because most of the tours I have done have been Ratatat,” Despot said. “I rarely see that kind of crowd being like, ‘Haha, look at this white kid rapping.’ Whereas on the Das Racist tour, almost every time I came out there was a handful of people chuckling. I kind of forgot that existed, people getting shocked by white rappers. Especially at a Das Racist show, which is a room full of self-hating white people. Like, Hima definitely hates white people. He’s racist. Victor’s half-white and I think he wishes he could kill his white half. I think I get a pass because I’m Jewish.”

Despot said while other rappers gain heat by releasing music for free through a series a mixtapes, he sees the value of gaining heat and waiting for the first official Despot release to be an EP.
“I still like the idea of making an album,” he said. “The concept of making an album. I’d like to do it, and have my first body of work be an album I’m going to sell to people. I think mixtapes are a cop-out, because if people don’t like it you can say, ‘Well that’s not my album, that’s just a mixtape.'”

While Reinstein has no ill will against more popular rappers, he harbors a level of hate for fellow white rapper Mac Miller. “He has a very punchable face,” Despot stated. “I’m sure he could have someone kill me. But I don’t have beef. Like if he died, I’d probably think it was cool.”

The most recent news and Mac Miller insults from Despot can be found from the mouth of the man at http://twitter.com/despotroast

A special message from Despot to his fans!
“I’d like to say I’m sorry. I meant to make a rap album a long time ago. I swear I’m really making one. I don’t recommend being a rapper. I don’t recommend owning a nightclub. I don’t recommend dropping out of college – no, I do. Please pay closer attention to my lyrics, and write them on the internet correctly. I’ll pay someone $5000 to beat up Mac Miller. For real. And a shout-out to Mac Miller. Your album was really dope. “

— Max Bachhuber & Brad Canze