That’s just one of many
jaw-droppingly ace bars on this new album from MC Riz and Heems (aka Swet Shop
Boys). Joining forces from across the pond, the British Four Lions actor and US Das Racist
member make for a formidable duo, taking hip hop’s use as a vehicle for black
struggles, and excitingly applying it to the struggles of their own ethnic
minority – brown people.
From racial profiling to
terrorism, every social issue and negative stereotype that their ethnicity
faces is tackled head on within the terse half-hour running time of this album.
All of it is done with a witty sense of humour and an ear for a banging beat, preventing
their music from simply being preachy social activism, but rather riveting entertainment
with the added bonus of a radical message.
Like Run the Jewels, the pair’s winning
formula is the result of their two polar opposite styles - the creatively
cryptic vs the boldly blunt. MC Riz’s bars rely on the former, self-describing
himself on ‘Phone tap’ as spitting ‘paan
like it’s Panama Papers’. His bars are a maze of cultural references, the clever
humour of which becomes apparent after researching them. Contrastingly, Heems’
bars often require no unpicking, equally comical but instead through their sheer
simplicity and ridiculous straightforwardness: ‘I am a cool guy, I’m good at rapping/ get on the beat, murk it and then
ask what happened’.
Together, they balance one another
out, Riz adding depth, whilst Heems contributes clarity. In fact, the only
tracks that suffer are the ones where one part of the duo is missing. Some much
needed wit from Riz would have made up for the horrible autotuned ‘you already know brother’ hook and choice to rhyme ‘Bombay’ with ‘Bombay’ on
Heems’ solo effort ‘Swish Swish’. Meanwhile, some loopy inflections from Heems
might have lightened the sombre mood and made up for the boring chorus on Riz’s
lone venture ‘Half Moghul, Half Mowgli’.
Thankfully the large bulk of the
album sees them sticking together and employing their combined talents, making
for some solid songs. And the instrumentals are all creative and hard-hitting,
sampling Banghra and Bollywood scores in keeping with the record's sense of racial
identity resulting in the rattling ‘Aaja’ and groovy ‘Tiger Hologram’. Western
hip hop and Asian music have been mixed before, but never so inventively.
However, by far the most
revolutionary part of the Swet Shop Boys music is their ability to unite brown
people of all religions and nationalities under one roof lyrically. From Muslims
(‘no pork on my fork, no swine while I
dine’) to Sihks (‘my shoes off at the
Gurdwara’), from Turks (stopping
refugees is just silly blud/ well you know about Aeneas in the Iliad) to Hindi
Indians (‘Trying to give Shivani a stack
for Rahki’), from British Asians (‘what
you mean Her Majesty’s London? Where you think all her majesty come from’)
to American Asians (‘the NYPD ain’t
nothing but Nazis’), all brown people are accounted for in the duo’s quest
for equality.
★★★★☆
TRACK TASTER: