And the legendary producer Bally Jagpal was playing. These were Asian raves in the 90s that happened in the daytime ’cos the girls weren’t allowed out at night. Riz MC: I was at a daytime rave in south London. It’s about identity – from what it means to be English today, to what it’s like growing up living a double life, or feeling like you don’t fit in” - Riz MC “ Englistan, as a mixtape, is about stretching the flag so that it’s big enough for all of us. It might feel provocative to people, like it’s about a takeover – fear of a brown planet and all that – but who does this country really belong to in order (for it) to be taken over in the first place? It was built by half the world under empire. It’s stretching our concept of it in a way that takes in our mongrel history and makes space for our mixed-up future. Riz MC: It’s not about one ethnic community in the country or just pockets of it – it is renaming England. What does the word ‘Englistan’ mean to you? Musically, there’s a mix of leftfield beats through to some spoken word with strings – there’s production from Jakwob, Rich Reason from the Levelz crew up in Manchester, and award-winning vocalist and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson. But it’s really all about our society and trying to find a place in it.
There’s more commentary stuff, like a track breaking down the the financial crisis and Occupy, and a track about an honour killing, as well as personal stuff, like a track about going through depression. It’s about identity – from what it means to be English today, to what it’s like growing up living a double life, or feeling like you don’t fit in. And it got a big response – so I thought, ‘Lemme do a mixtape on this theme.’ Englistan, as a mixtape, is about stretching the flag so that it’s big enough for all of us. Riz MC: We can all see how much xenophobia there is out there right now, so I decided to dress up in a balaclava and do a fake racist rap called ‘ I Ain’t Being Racist But’. What can you tell us about the Englistan mixtape? We spoke to Ahmed about both “Daytimer” and Englistan. “Daytimer” is far from Ahmed’s first foray into film – he’s had a successful career as an actor, starring in films like Chris Morris’s terrorist comedy Four Lions and Ill Manors, with forthcoming appearances in Jason Bourne and Star Wars: Rogue One set to follow.
That kid’s bedroom is the bedroom I lived in most of my life.” “The short film is very autobiographical,” says Ahmed. “We actually filmed it at my high school and my parents’ house.
The film dramatises Ahmed’s life growing up in London during the 1990s, with music from producers like DJ Zinc, Andy C and Bally Sagoo all representing the era. It’s also something that he explores in “Daytimer”, a new short film written and directed by Ahmed.
The mixtape’s key moment is “I Ain’t Being Racist But”, a seven-minute spoken word track told from the perspective of an EDL thug that sees Ahmed dealing with the long history of immigration to the UK.Īhmed has dealt with these themes across his work, from his early music (such as his 2006 rap “Post-9/11 Blues”) through to his 2011 album MICroscope and collaborations with Heems as the Swet Shop Boys. Englistan makes sense against this backdrop: it’s an exploration of national identity, mixed heritage, and what it even means to be ‘English’ in a globalised world. Though the real St George hailed (depending on which theory you subscribe to) from modern-day Turkey or Israel, never visited England, and is also the patron saint of countries such as Portugal, Ethiopia and Georgia, that hasn’t stopped St George’s Day from being hijacked by English far-right nationalists, who justify their prejudices (from xenophobia to outright racist attacks) under the vague banner of ‘patriotism’. Riz MC (real name: Rizwan Ahmed) dropped his new mixtape, Englistan, on Friday – just in time for St George’s Day, a celebration of the patron saint of England.
0 kommentar(er)
