HIMANSHU SURI: I told them I would do this interview with Despot or Vijay Iyer, so this is Vijay Iyer I’m talking to, right?

ALEC REINSTEIN: Yeah, what’s up man?

SURI: [laughs]

REINSTEIN: All right, first of all, would you say that now, as an adult, making people say Himanshu is a point of pride? Whereas it was an embarrassing thing when you were a little kid?

SURI: You made up the name Herman, right?

REINSTEIN: Yeah.

SURI: When was that, like four years ago?

REINSTEIN: Yeah, maybe more.

SURI: And why did you make up that name? Because you didn’t like pronouncing Himanshu?

REINSTEIN: I might have been drunk and I thought it would be funny if your name was Herman, and I think to some degree I was thinking about the television show Herman’s Head while I was looking at you.

SURI: That sounds right. I’ve been Himanshu since the jump and I would get pissed off when teachers would be like, “Hey, do you have a nickname?” And I’d be like, “Nope!” It became a point of pride, especially when people didn’t want to say it. I would get a kick out of being adamant about the fact that I didn’t have a nickname or a shorter version. And you know, you heard the album, Alec, there’s that song where I talk about how growing up, basically all the time, they would immediately follow up, like “What is your name?” It became this thing I constantly heard, so on “Flag Shopping,” I’m exclusively talking about that experience.

REINSTEIN: I know exactly how that feels because my name is Alec, and people would always be like, “Alex?” and I’d be like, “No!” It was fucked up. It must be because I’m a Polish-American.

SURI: I don’t know if that’s quite the same.

REINSTEIN: [laughs] So you’re from Queens, you talk about being from Queens a lot. I’m from Queens too. How do you think Queens has shaped the way that you rap? I would argue that I’m more from Queens than you. I’m going to say that I know the correct answers to all these questions, so if you answer them wrong, I’m going to tell you that you’re wrong and I’ll tell you what the right answer is.

SURI: You grew up in Forest Hills and I grew up in Eastern Queens. I think part of what makes Queens so ill is that there are neighborhoods like Eastern Queens. The neighborhood is something like 60 to 70 percent South Asian now, so it was kind of like a suburban part of Queens, but I wouldn’t say it was any less Queens. Where else in the world would you find a neighborhood that is 70 percent Indian and Pakistani, and 30 percent percent Italian and Jewish? Even where you grew up in Forest Hills, it’s not your typical urban New York; it has wider streets and a greener feel to it.