march 2008
(this is US tours. for teh London vs. new york debate, scroll down!)
Check out a selection of reviews / quotes from blogs, newspapers and online magazines:
- "Riz MC was a hip hop sensation in sweatbox club Latitude " (The Daily Telegraph)
- "Riz MC woke up the crowd with his hyper-smart "voice of a generation" set that is equal parts brawn and brains….(SentimentalistMag.com)
- "His song Radar reset the ticking of my heart… his song, Sour Times should be required listening… You have to love a man that can stimulate you in your secret places, especially your brain." (BroklynArtProject.com)
- "the news of the night was Riz MC…whose lyrics reveal intelligence about pop culture and race politics" (Suyeinonnyc.blogspot.com)
- "Often mixing electro with his engaging, witty lyrics… he is a compelling character." (keephopeinside.blogspot.com)
- "he shows a real intelligence, sense of humour, and awareness of how to put these things together."(howardmonk.blogspot.com)
- "Personable, funny and incendiary in his rhymes, he stunned visitors.. and won a few new fans in one of his many Austin shows." (media mongrel blog)
i nearly wasn’t let in the country. they security checked me against an intl. terrorist database. in the end i had to get the mayor of london’s office, Uk consul general in new york, and two MP’s (members of parliament for my american friends, like senators) to write to the embassy. also had to hire a kickass lawyer who got amy winehouse her visa.
was really upsetting and frustrating i have to say, being discriminated against like this. cant tell you how bad it felt to be looked at and treated like that, at a point in your career when you need it least. they told me i wouldnt be able to do the US tour! you’d think i’d be used to it, but it always stinks.
So in the end i got in and did some great shows, as part of the annual ’Rock over London" showcase tour (which has in the past broken acts like Amy Winehouse in the States).
I played in New York, LA, and 5 shows at SXSW.
Shared the stage with some great acts: The Rascals, Scouting for Girls, Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Sway, and Emmie the Great.
The shows were received stupidly well! Loads new myspace troops, shed loads of CD’s sold, and Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip have offered me support slots – and am hosting several dates on their UK tour.
I’ll planning to go out there again soon to build on the great response!
thanks to people for coming along
as far as other stuff fomr the trip goes...well, i wasnt a big fan of LA. sorry. its not really a city, its a series of suburbs. no people walking around, no hustle bustle and life of NY or London, everyone cut off in their cars, stuck in traffic on the freeway - a giant car park with palm trees!
i think maybe its the kinda place you have to really spedna long time to appreciate - definitly not too accessible. rode the bus out there. only ppl on there are the destitute and insane. really sad, actually. really weird vibe. amid the vortex of shut doors, hollywood snootyness, and deserted streets - i guess there’s a nice lifestyle, health conscious, beautiful people, and weather.
correct me pls, i’d love to be proven wrong!
also - where are all the cranes? london skyline is full of them. so is dubai, shanghai and so on....US cities stopped building?? complacency leads to decline - beware the chinese dragons rise!!!!
peas + loaf
riz
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part 1
october 2007
I’ve just come back form the US of A, performing for Human Rights watch in Chicago and doing some radio interviews there. was a great event, performed some songs, did some reading from the Road to Guantanamo original interview transcripts. The lawyer Marc Falkoff had also compiled a volume of poems by Guantanamo inmates that had been smuggled out by lawyers like him. Others and myself read from this collection, very moving – two of the poems are pasted below:
Jumah al Dossari, a thirty-three-year-old Bahraini national, is the father of a young dauther. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay for more than five years. In addition to being detained without charge or trial, Dossari has been subjected to a range of physical and psychological abuse, some of which is detailed in Inside the Wire, an account of the Guantanamo prison by former military intelligence soldier Erik Saar. He has been held in solitary confinement since the end of 2003 and, according to the US military, has tried to kill himself twelve times while in prison. On one occasion, he was found by his lawyer, hanging by his neck and bleeding from a gash to his arm.
Death Poem
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden, before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden, before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the "protectors of peace."
Another line from another Gitmo inmate, an Al Jazeera cameraman picked up and lumped together with the other random assortment of people who ended up there finished a poem with the following lines, which I found very powerful, was:
"They have monuments to liberty,
And freedom of opinion, which is well and good.
But I explained to them that
Architecture is not justice."
The ISNA annual convention (40,000 Muslims, bazaars, discussions, flirting) was on in Chicago at the same time, and so a friend arranged for me to speak at the media panel there.
I spent a lot of my time on the peripheries of the convention on the more social side - with the Taqwatour - a tour of Muslim punk bands. The tour bus was driven by the novelist Michael Muhammad Knight who wrote the cult classic novel ’The Taqwacores’ about a fictional Muslim punk scene in N.America which has now become a self fulfilling prophecy (a lot of the bands on the tour were named after bands in the book). My first night in Chicago I did a show with them and some of the bands on the tour, in a punk house in a Latino ghetto, it pretty raw and intense. Was interesting to see journalist / film crew to audience ratio was one journo for every five audience members - rolling stone, guardian, bbc.... obviously the media eat it up - and it is a really interesting phenomenon. But it’s also meaningful music outside of being a fascinating phenomenon, and I don’t think its media friendly appeal compromises the embryonic scene’s sincerity. All I can say, it was mad to see girls in full hijab running the show in the mosh pit. Big up Mr. Knight, Shah, Basim, Secret Trial Five, Al-Thawra, and the Kominas - it was a real insight and a real laugh chilling with you guys.
- Check out www.myspace.com/thekominas
The convention itself was an interesting experience - amazing how US Muslims are such a different demographic to UK - more middle class, proportionally more professionals than general population, more money and more spaced out/ less ghettoised. UK Muslims are generally bottom of the pile in education and employment in the UK (Pakistani and Bangladeshis mainly). It was less an Islamic convention and more a convention for Muslims in the cultural sense - a UK version of the same thing would have been far more conservative, as a result of these factors, I think.
It was ironic, the community there was so organised, educated, professional, and DIY pro-active, but the political climate was so Islamophobic and they had other lobbies as obstacles to achieving their aims. Whereas in the UK we have a far more conducive climate, but are failing to help ourselves in anything like the same way.
I guess in the US people expect less from government and turn to organise themselves more readily. But also, there’s been different starting points, they had a more educated immigrant wave form the subcontinent in the states. The more middle class experience in the US means less race consciousness compared to in the UK, where being a South Asian minority is about polishing that chip on your shoulder, wearing it with pride against a certain history of race riots and struggles on the 80s etc. It felt nostalgic in a way, because it felt like days gone by in the UK, before the Rushdie affair, when Islam was more cultural and we didn’t have such a prominent, resurgent radicalism – over there it seems a Muslim self awareness is developing more recently – since 9/11 really. But it also felt like the future – what can be achieved with education and organisation.
Then I went to New York and did some acting meetings, performed at a few open mics, and did a workshop with a youth group in Harlem. A friend suggested it, and I was in unknown territory, so I took up the challenge. An inspiring group of young performers overcoming adversity through "artivism" (artistic activism) - founded by ex Black Panthers and comrades of Afeni Shakur. Big up Jamal Joseph for his hospitality, and to all the guys at Impact for their vitality and active minds – keeping me on my toes during the whole workshop. Again, I felt something inner city youth groups in the UK could learn from - astounding sense of family, of discipline and creative energy....
"what is impact?"
"it’s not a game"
"it’s what?"
"it’s not a game"
"and why isn’t it a game!?"
"because what we do now matters forever"
"cos what"
"cos what we do now matters forever!"
The British Council should bring them over to do workshops with youth project coordinators! They’ve supported Kanye West, LL Cool J, and more. Check them out:
http://www.impactreptheatre.org/
New York was like a giant half price clothes sale. In Spanish. I loved it. I dunno if I was just on holiday there or not, but it seemed to me that it was more densely packed with fun than London - you feel like you’re at the centre of all the action wherever you are in Manhattan, and then there’s another 5 boros to explore...don’t get me wrong I’m a proud Londoner, but, ahemm, it’s kind of pricey here, ppl are less friendly, it’s harder to fart without spending money and being on a guest list, and you have to catch 10 night buses on a decent night out. I’m now on a mission to prove to myself I shouldn’t move. I’m subscribing to TimeOut London.
It did make me realise how attitudey London is. Whether hooded yout’ or well-to-do professional, the default mode of interaction is to be cold, and frown. Partly out of fear - I think ppl are more mixed up demographically in London than NY where I never felt intimidated and you got the sense all the moodiness was happening at a safe distance from you - even when in Brooklyn. But also cos we buy so so wholeheartedly into this status signalling game - it’s played the world over - ppl like ppl that make no effort. Ppl like ppl that don’t give a ___.
London vs. New York…..any opinions?