When I brought together my book, The Good Immigrant, I wanted to subvert those expectations by trying to inject some nuance into it. I feel like this is also what you guys are trying to do on Cashmere. It often feels, if you're a person of colour in the media or the arts, like you end up being treated like the spokesperson for your race, or for all people of colour. The work is about building up these dualities to then break them down and find a better identity that's less compartmentalised. Heems: I'm used to thinking in dualities, especially when it comes to the Indian part of my identity and my American one. Is this a fair assumption? Why are these dualities important? There are lyrics that undercut expectations of stereotypes with either nuance, punchlines or just horror. Two themes that run through the album are duality and representation. It also feels like a soothing balm for a testing year. One that requires repeated listening to tease out every joke, every nuance, and every injustice it challenges. It drips with humour and politics, railing against the British Empire, airport security, Hare Krishnas, and Donald Trump. It is an incredibly complex, challenging and hilarious record. Their album Cashmere was made in just five days, and it celebrates the unity between India and Pakistan by riffing (in the title) on its most contested of regions (Kashmir). He also wrote an essay for my book, The Good Immigrant, about his trials and tribulations as an actor and as a person travelling to and from America, disturbed by his changing social capital as a Muslim actor and a Muslim traveller. You've absolutely seen him, because he is everywhere - in the film Four Lions or HBO Miniseries The Night Of, and in the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One. Riz MC is a British actor as well a rapper. Heems is the laconic, laidback, sad and hilarious rapper who gave us Eat Pray Thug last year, as well as the fizzy ridiculousness of hip-hop trio, Das Racist. The US isn't doing much better. But in Swet Shop Boys it feels like we finally have a small glimmer of hope, hope streaming from the bars of Riz Ahmed and Himanshu Suri (better known as Heems and Riz MC), and the sounds of their producer Redinho. With an alt-right on the rise, heading further right towards white supremacy, and the left in disarray, the UK is a shambles. I mean, you know these things, we all know these things. 2016 really needed some heroes. Prince died, we Brexited, Trump rose.

Riz ahmed im sad