Riz MC
MICroscope
(Tru Thoughts)
The latest recruit to the gang of actors who have either launched a musical career or tried to maintain one alongside their day job is London-born Riz Ahmed, star of terrorist satire Four Lions. Public school-educated, he graduated from Oxford with a degree in PPE. He isn't "street" then, but he is smart. His album has a heavy conceptual side and an interactive gaming element – something to do with secret government agencies and sonic warfare programmes. But against expectations, the actor delivers. Rapper Plan B, who cast Ahmed in his recently released film Ill Manors, features on love song All Of You, a menacing sonic gumbo which recalls Tricky. Elsewhere, it's mostly Ahmed's show and he proves himself an illuminating social commentator and a humorous lyricist. All In The Ghetto, for instance, is a grin-inducing sideswipe at the dreaded London hipsters. But if the lyrics and flow are good, the production is flawless. More than that, it's sonically adventurous, thanks to sterling work by Redinho and, on a series of instrumental skits and one remix, dubstep pioneer and label boss Zed Bias.
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