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Of course, we know Crosstown Rebels as the label that brought us the Get Lost and The Other Side Of London compilations so I was intrigued by not only the MC bit but also the “BIFA nominated actor” heading enough to dig a little deeper and find out what all the fuss is about.

Riz is stunning in the 100wpm (words per minute) rap game cramming as many lines into ‘Radar’ as some rappers might take on an album. OK, I exaggerate but for muso journalists that like to put music in a box, this flow resonates as Riz takes it to the ‘meaning of life’ stage; “I can’t turn my radar off, anyone, anything, gonna put it in a box”. Grimme, electro-rap, poet? Think the next stage of Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip without the beard issue - that’s me putting it in a box!

‘People Like People’ is ‘Radar (Part 2)’ as the ‘attack’ switched to people genres that “buy the right tunes” amongst other things. They’d love this guy at Uni.. “GO, GO, GO, Go, go, go….”

‘People Like People’ by Riz MC

Clearly, you can’t really have a release on Crosstown Rebels without a dance floor angle and that comes in the shape of the Loco In A Box remix. Now regular readers will know that I’ll slip in a train spotter reference when at all relevant (erm.. possible; as an aside Class 71’s ‘Alba Adriatica’ is really getting big now), but I never really got into train modelling. Thankfully, Loco In A Box (aka Tunisia born DJ and producer Yassine Ben Achour) didn’t spend all his time with his train sets either. He’s warped up the vocals with a track transposed to nearly three times the original length with tech house beats and blips that’s ideal for Phonica types.

Tend to side with the Loco In A Box remix but good to see a MC/actor/poet try something new - albeit a bit early for the job as the soon to be advertised Andrew Motion replacement.

Riz Ahmed’s On My iPod includes the Roy Davis Jr/Peven Everett classic ‘Gabriel’ and 4hero’s ‘Golden Solitude’ so the guy knows his stuff; suspect it’s going to happen for him real soon - what’s this BIFA nominated actor bit?

Reviewed: Riz MC - Radar (Crosstown Rebels) Cat. No. CRM046 Release date: November 2008
A1 Radar (Original) (3:16)
A2 People Like People (3:18)
AA1 Radar (Loco Dice Remix) (8:04)

Links
www.myspace.com/rizmc
RZ MC’s 6-track ipod selection The Metro 1.12.08 metro.co.uk/e-edition
Riz Ahmed is not your average Asian lad. … www.insidedesi.com/music/britz-talent-shipping-abroad
www.damianlazarus.com
www.crosstownrebels.com
www.locodice.com
www.myspace.com/locodice
www.myspace.com/class71space
Class 71 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_71
www.phonicarecords.com
www.myspace.com/scroobiuspip
www.myspace.com/lesacvspip