Album of the Year 2016 #2: Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere - HipHop | HipHop Channel

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Album of the Year 2016 #2: Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere - HipHop

Album of the Year 2016 #2: Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere - HipHop

Album of the Year 2016 #2: Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere

Posted: 02 Jan 2017 09:15 AM PST

Good afternoon folks, and welcome to today's installment of the Album of the Year series, where the users of /r/hiphopheads discuss the best 2016 had to offer. Today, /u/TheRoyalGodfrey brings us his thoughts on Swet Shop Boys' debut album Cashmere.

Artist: Swet Shop Boys

Album: Cashmere

Listen:

Spotify

Apple Music

Google Play

Background by /u/TheRoyalGodfrey

Riz Ahmed, a London native of Pakistani heritage, is a critically acclaimed actor whose has starred in movies such as Rogue One, Four Lions and Nightcrawler as well as HBO's mini series The Night Of. Riz Ahmed's film career started with a 2006 docudrama entitled The Road to Guantánamo which documented the capture and imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay of three British citizens in 2001 after 9/11. In the same year, Ahmed also began his rapping career as Riz MC. Similar to his film career, his music career's beginnings are largely political. In 2006, he released banned-from-the-radio track "Post 9/11 Blues", which presented political satire of the post-9/11 world for brown people featuring lyrics such as "Bush and Blair in a tree, K-I-L-L-I-N-G."

In 2007, while taking a shit backstage after his Glastonbury set, Riz noticed a mention from Queens native and Hindu-Punjabi rapper, Himanshu Suri on Twitter, praising "Post 9/11 Blues", describing it as having a "laughing-to-keep-from-crying vibe." This sparked the relationship between the two.

A year later, Heems joined forces with his former college RA, Afro-Cuban rapper Kool AD, as well as former high school classmate Dapwell, who would act as their hype man. Das Racist released their debut single "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell", generating significant buzz with commentary-laced parody of the extents to which American capitalism would go. Their 2010 mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down Man, are laden with hip-hop, literary and pop culture references ranging from Henry David Thoreau to Scooby Snacks to Big Pun and they are one of rap's first groups whose success can largely be attributed to the internet along with guys like Lil B, Charles Hamilton and Odd Future. In 2011, Das Racist and Riz released their respective debut albums to mixed reception.

2012 was the year that Riz and Heems paths crossed again. Heems was coming off of his 2012 mixtape Nehru Jackets, Das Racist's breakup was imminent and Riz was doing research for his The Night Of role, in which he plays a man from Queens. Naturally, he contacted Heems in order to study for the part and they became good friends but it wasn't until 2014 that Swet Shop Boys came to fruition.

Heems' solo material consists of 2 mixtapes, Nehru Jackets, as well as his lone album Eat Pray Thug. In his solo material, Heems outwardly flaunts his Indian heritage. He raps about police brutality, the mistreatment of brown people, Obama's use of drones, as well as more eclectic topics like on "Jason Bourne" and "Computers". His second tape in particular features a number of wavy stream of consciousness tracks that showcase his wide range but ultimately leave an unfocused final product.

In 2014, Riz invited Heems to the NY premiere of his film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, where he pitched the idea of combing forces as "Swet Shop Boys". Heems was at first apprehensive, as he was prepared to retire from rap, but the idea of an Indian-Pakistani/American-British rap group was too exciting for him to turn down.

In August 2014, Heems and Riz Ahmed released their debut EP together. Lacking cover art and only available on Heems' Soundcloud, Swet Shop EP largely acted as a demo for the concept that was Swet Shop Boys: An American rapper of Indian heritage and a British rapper of Pakistani heritage trading bars over cleverly flipped South East Asian samples. Maintaining a balance of political raps and clever punch lines, the release foreshadowed what would end of being their debut album Cashmere.

In 2015, Heems' lone album Eat Pray Thug, which was released in 2015, features some of the highly political rhetoric we see on this release, as well as these seemingly stream of consciousness raps. The highlight of Eat Pray Thug is the spoken word closer to the album in which Heems describes the discrimination his family and other brown families faced following 9/11. This foreshadowed the political focus that would be seen on Cashmere.

Later on in the year, Riz and Heems got back together to record more material. This time, they solely employed produced Redhino, who Riz was friendly with, to produce the whole thing. Redhino crafted the beats adhering more strictly to song structure than the freestyle oriented EP that preceded the EP. He also sampled a wide range of South Asian music, such as Qawwali, Bhangra, and Bollywood music.

Review by /u/TheRoyalGodfrey

Since 9/11, it hasn't been particularly easy being brown and based on the events of 2016, things are only going to get worse. In Riz's home of England, the UK Independence Party convinced the Brits to vote to seceded from the EU largely based on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. In Heems' home of America, our presidential election was won by a man who campaigned on the idea that Islam was incompatible with the west. Now, more than ever, we need brown voices speaking out, and who better than Indian-American rapper Heems and Pakistani-British rapper Riz MC.

As someone of Muslim heritage who has spent some time living in the Middle East, this record really connected with me. The samples evoke morning prayer calls and traditional Arabic and South Asian music. Hip hop is the protest music, thus the perfect medium to convey the daily injustices faced by those with brown skin, as well as serve as a platform for two very interesting and clever MCs to humanize South Asians.

Riz and Heems doesn't shy away from being political. Every one who fits the incredibly vague TSA profile of "terrorist" can tell you about their nightmare airport security story, Riz has been stopped every time he flights through Heathrow despite [being in the the inflight magazine and entertainment]. "T5" details the casual racism faced by brown people going through airport security. For the chorus, Heems interpolated a song from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie:

Oh No, we're in trouble
TSA always tryna burst my bubble
Always get a random check when I rock the stubble

"Phone Tap" details the surveillance and harassment by law enforcement faced by those of Muslim heritage, which Riz likens to entrapment. Coming from a Grime background, Riz's raps always sound notably sharp. "Phone Tap" is no different, he raps:

Rizzy like the brown Eddie Snowden
Shit is getting scary if you got a teddy: Hold him
Rizzy speaks like Wikileaks investigations
Spit paan like it's Panama papers

On "Shottin", Riz and Heems tell the story of a former drug dealer who goes to jail and finds Islam and sees the same, if not more, harassment by law enforcement ultimately leading to him being shot simply for his religion. Heems as unabashedly anti-police as every, closing his verse with:

I'm from cop-killer Queens, kill a cop and it's fine I read pigs are haram in the book that's divine

This type of anti-police sentiment is not uncharted territory for Heems. On "Suicide By Cop" and "NYC Cops", Heems doesn't hesitate to detail his negative experience with cops.

The album was recorded in primarily in 5 days in Redinho's home studio. The instrumentals feel authentically South Asian. As Heems put it, he didn't simply "take a sitar and throw some drums under it." The samples comes a wide variety of subsets, namely Qawwali, Bhangra, and Bollywood music. While their EP had a more starstudded line up with guys like Ryan Hemsworth and Lushlife, Redinho managed to craft a more structured and cohesive project that perfectly compliments the rapping and subject matter. The percussive elements I find are where this record shines the most, especially on tracks like "Phone Tap" and "Zayn Malik". "Zayn Malik" has very percussive beat that allows Riz to really go off with a verse that you could take nearly any line out and it would be the best on your average album. My personal favorite is:

Look Zayn Malik's got more than eighty virgins on him

There's more than one direction to get to paradise

In an interview, Riz with NPR, Riz said:

" I think from the outside, this record might feel like a kind of ethnomusicology project or some kind of polemic or political record, but it's really just very, very personal. We almost had no discussion about what the themes of the album would be."

The off-the-cuff personality of this record has its own sort of charm that makes the LP's replayability nearly infinite. A song that at first stands out in the tracklist is "Aaja". It's a love song with a beautiful hook delivered by Ali Sethi that can be translated from Hindi to:

Come, oh come my love
Oh, come my lover/beloved
Oh, my heart is thirsty

"Aaja" is one example of Heems and Riz's chemistry. On Riz's second verse, Heems acts as his hype man and on "Phone Tap" they go back and forth delivering some of the best lines on the album. While they sound great together, the solo tracks on Cashmere are nearly as impressive. "Half Mogal/Half Mowgli" features Riz displaying the contrast between his London upbringing and his Pakistani heritage, the highlight being the third verse, where he delivers some of the compliments and complaints that have been waged towards him. He speaks from the perspective of people who thinks he's a good role model for the work he's done in film and music to someone who thinks he's a "Paki terrorist little piece of shit" finally to someone who thinks that he's going to hell for disobeying Islam for his swearing and promiscuous behavior. Heems' track "Swish Swish" features Heems incredibly loose style. On the song, he switches between hyping himself up and delivering some of the most powerful lyrics on the album. For example:

And Long Island, we wildin', we stylin'
They still racial profilin'

and

I'm feelin' myself, oh no, I'm feelin' myself, oh no
It wasn't long ago, I thought about killin' myself

The album closes with a very introspective track. Riz appears to be speaking from his death bed thankful for his life, Allah, and those who've helped him. Heems' delivers Riz's favorite verse on the album, where he talks about the commodification and gentrification of South Asian cultures. The verse closes succinctly with:

Used to hate the clothes, they ask where'd I get the stitchin'
Used to call me curry, now they cook it in the kitchen

Together, with the stark contrast between Heems's wavy, almost effortless flow and Riz MC's aggressive, grime-flavored flow, Swet Shops Boys are able to create music that outmatches either of their solo work. Riz and Heems have a seemingly endless capacity for clever lines and quotables and speak from a perspective that uniqueness leaves an endless array of things to talk about regarding the record. Riz and Heems are doing a great service to the world offering solidarity for those who can relate as well as offering a look into what it's like to be brown in the west to those who's exposure may be limited to the news or television.

Favourite Lyrics by /u/TheRoyalGodfrey

Oy, even hipsters ain't safe
You gotta be careful what part of your face's shaved

They comin' for the culture man, like they was on a mission
Ask me about Kama Sutra, different sex positions
Used to hate the clothes, they ask where'd I get the stitchin'
Used to call me curry, now they cook it in the kitchen

Should have been an engineer
Should have been a pharmacist
Trying to make some culture
So I'm good when the karma hits
If I was a pharmacist
I'd probably steal some Klonapin
Came a long way
From withdrawals and the vomiting

Stopping refugees is just silly blud
Well you know about Aeneas in the Iliad
Fled Turkey and he just founded Rome
What if he had drowned in a boat?
Yanks eat turkey cause your peeps had found a home

No new friends in case they're undercover snakes
Stares on the plane, guess it's just another day

Inshallah, mashallah
Hopefully no martial law

Talking Points by /u/TheRoyalGodfrey

  • Will we see more protest music from groups that aren't very well represented in hip hop such as LGBT people?

  • Is hip hop successfully sparking empathy for minorities, or are listeners using it more as culture tourism and ignoring the plight of the artists they're listening to?

  • What do you think about the artwork for the record?

Thanks again to /u/TheRoyalGodfrey for the great writeup! You can check the schedule in the comments below to read past installments and see what's coming up over the rest of the month. Thanks for reading!

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[Shots Fired] Yachty does the #souljaboychallenge

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"Me & esco against the world...ion trust none of these people! They all greedy"

"2017 nobody safe"

https://twitter.com/1future/status/816006221165723653

https://twitter.com/1future/status/816006794120220676

Edit: Instagram

submitted by /u/MONEYMANFLACKO
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Young Thug - Wyclef Jean

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Hey K- Hey Kids,

One week after Mike and El P's Christmas gift, are you guys still hearing new punchlines?

Edit: an extra word

submitted by /u/tommy2712
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XXXTENTACION Announces "I Need Jesus" Mixtape, Produced & Hosted by DJ Carnage

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I'm a teacher who has just had a Hip Hop history class approved. I've got a pretty solid idea of what I want to do with it, but are there any topics that I absolutely MUST cover in the course? What about albums? Also, any cool project or lecture topics would be greatly appreciated.

submitted by /u/bingesquinger
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Bones announces release date for upcoming project "Disgrace" 1/11/2017

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Daily Discussion Thread 01/02/2017

Posted: 02 Jan 2017 07:58 AM PST

Welcome to the /r/hiphopheads daily discussion thread!

This thread is for:

  • objective questions with right/wrong answers (e.g. "Does anyone know what is happening with MIXTAPE?", "What is the sample in SONG?")
  • general hip-hop discussion
  • meta posts...e.g. ideas for the sub

Thread Guidelines

  • Do not create a separate self post for these types of discussions outside of this thread - if you do, your post will be removed.

  • Please be helpful and friendly.

  • If a question has been asked many times before, provide a link to a thread that contains the answer.

Other ways to interact

There are a number of other ways to interact with other members of HHH:

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submitted by /u/ThirstyPotato
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