WEBVTT - Riz Ahmed 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:11.159 Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeart Radio. All right, 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:13.920 ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Quest Loft Show. 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:18.560 I'm here at iHeart Studios, LA today. My guests maybe 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.880 one thousand miles away, but he's right up here on 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.720 your screen. An Oscar, an Emmy winner who's left to 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.920 mark on film and TV. Be it the Night of 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.080 Sounds of Metal, the Long Goodbye. You already know the range. 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.000 And this artist is using his talents and to raise 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.800 discussion and awareness. And right now he's bringing Hamlet back 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:45.280 to theaters, starring in and producing a new Amazon series Bait, 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.280 and beyond all that, he's a musician. Two awesome MC. 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.640 We're going to get into it. So many people tell 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.440 me how amazing it is to talk to him, and 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.040 I got to see for myself. So please welcome Rizama 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.920 to the Quest Love Show. How are you doing, brother? 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.959 What's up doing well? Man? It's an honor to be 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:05.800 talking to you. 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:06.039 Man. 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.360 Yeah, thank you for the kind intro. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.600 Thank you, thank you. Where you talking to me from? 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:12.080 Right now? 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.560 I'm in New York. I'm here doing press for. 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:21.360 Hablet okay, and I know that's a taxing thing, so 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.640 I appreciate you taking the time to do this for us. 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.919 My first question to you is what is the early 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.680 snapshot you have of yourself as a kid as far 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:33.040 as your memories are concerned. 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:35.640 Now, one of the most prominent memories I would have 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:37.520 I was a few, you know. One of them is 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.840 like playing cricket and basketball in my driveway with my 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.399 big brother and spending the whole summers doing that. But 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.200 another thing I used to do on my own the 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.640 whole time is act out movies, fake movies. So I 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.200 would like kind of decide on like a genre, like 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.520 this is a crazy violent like action movie, or this 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:57.960 is like a Home Alone had just come out, so 0:01:57.960 --> 0:01:59.880 I was like, this is like a kid comedy or whatever, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.520 and just like act out these elaborate entire stories from 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.400 start to finish. I used to make a note of it. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.400 I used to I used to name the film, give 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.520 it a title and a rating. If there was you 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:15.040 PG parental guidance to twelve or eighteen. And I had 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:20.000 this teenage mutant Ninja Tell's like book notepad with all 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.639 the list of all these, My favorite, the banger that 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.280 I was most proud of was Black Dragon. There was 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.639 a Motorcycle Kung Fu Trilogy. And this is like from 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:32.560 when I was young man. I just always used to 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.800 do that when I was like into like Bruce Lee 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.080 films and then Jackie Chan. So yeah, I used to 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:38.440 do that. 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:41.720 Wait, did you film these or you just imagine them 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:42.880 that you were in it yourself? 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:45.919 No, no, this is much less impressive than you imagining. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.400 I'd neither wrote these things down nor did I film them, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.160 just run around and acting out the entire story and 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.480 playing all the different characters of these weird movies. The 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.720 only evidence of them left behind is somewhere in that 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.560 the turtle's note pad. It says black Dragon one, Black 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.160 Dragon two, Black Dragon three, eighteen R rated. Or you know, 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:09.359 it was just like this. I just was obsessed with it, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.640 and I used to just make these, you know, action 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:17.240 explosion sound effects like that. Was My mom's nickname for me, 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:17.880 was Tush. 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.080 Tush, just because you were your own a fixed guy. 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.919 Yeah, I was my sound guy. I was. Yeah, wrote 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:26.639 the theme tune. 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.839 Okay, Yeah. What was the vibe in your house growing up? 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:33.840 What did your parents do for a living. Were they 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:36.960 artistically inclined or they. 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.640 Weren't overtly artistic in a sense. But a lot of 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.160 my early memories with my mom would be sat down 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.560 in front of the TV watching VHS cassettes of Bollywood 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.680 films or of Pakistani TV that had been sent asscross 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.280 from Pakistan. My dad was a way a lot. He 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:54.560 was in shipping. My mom was a homemaker, and she 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.360 was a career for her sister, and she lost her 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.120 mom young, so she was kind of like the oldest 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.000 sibling holding a lot of different things together at the 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.000 same time without my dad around as much as he 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:05.520 would have liked to have been as well. He was 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:10.760 working on ships and stuff in different countries. And I 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.880 just remember like sitting in her lap watching these Pakistani 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:19.240 comedy sketch shows, soap operas, pop music videos, Bollywood films, 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.839 and the Bob Marley legend VHS tape with all the 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:28.040 music videos on there, like one of the earliest music videos. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.440 I remember, the Buffalo Soldier, and yeah, it was just 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:34.800 it was so it was the TV and the music 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.560 and the film and the comedy and the drama. They 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.080 were all mixed together always, you know, on whatever VHS 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.520 cassette had just been sent over from Pakistan or whatever, 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.480 or someone had gone there and visited and brought it back. 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:48.880 That was like a happy place. You know, that was 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.279 a happy place for my mom, and you know, me 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.080 and her are home. You know, my older siblings were 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.800 at school, so it was kind of present in the house, 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.440 even though they weren't performers themselves. But you know, it's 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.800 interesting I say that, like sometimes there's this trope that 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.160 kind of like immigrant families are like often not artistically 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.279 inclined or kind of dissuade the kids from doing that 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:15.600 because it's unstable or whatever. But culture takes many forms, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:17.960 and like we're steeped in culture obviously, from our food 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.200 to the fashion, to the clothes, the music, to the 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.480 religious songs to the you know, so like culture was 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.120 in the house. We brought so much culture with us 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.840 as an immant family, even if it wasn't kind of 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.360 turned into our over way. 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:40.000 What was the cool kid item that you always wanted 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.159 in your household that you never got to have? 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:49.400 Do you remember Mask Mask? Ask the movie Mask Mask. Yeah, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.479 it was like it was like an animated non not 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.560 Jim Carrey. There was an animated there was an animated 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:57.960 action kind of cartoon. 0:05:58.480 --> 0:05:59.719 Called Mask Okay. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.240 It was like central you know that kind of thing, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.720 and it was one of them toys. It was. It 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.400 was just like it was like a car that fired 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.960 plastic discs or whatever. You know. I just loved it. 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.640 It was kind of like a night Rider rip off. Really, okay, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.480 I wanted that or the RoboCop truck. I never got 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.360 the RoboCop truck. Never got that. I've probably watched a 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.560 lot of violent films too young to be honest, if 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:23.240 I think about it. I remember my uncle was just 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.000 showing me Nightmare on Elm Street when I was like 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:29.039 six years old, and I'm watching like like RoboCop like 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.880 too young, you know, and RoboCop too, and so I 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.520 just wanted the RoboCop toys, but I never got them. 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.520 You want to know something now, that Nightmare on Elm 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.280 Street just had its fortieth anniversary, like maybe a year 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.440 or two ago. I went to watch it for the 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:49.520 very first time in a movie theater, and I'm so 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.839 shocked because I don't know if this is general knowledge. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.359 I've already seen those things because I thought, like, I 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.000 don't like bludgeon films or anything. Nightmare on Elm Street 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.119 you literally see no act of violence. Like I didn't 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.279 realize that at no point does he ever stab someone 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.480 or whatever, Like he'll grab someone from behind a curtain, 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.920 you'll hear screaming or whatever. But I just realized that 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.240 the genius of that whole thing is that all the 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.600 violence we think happens is inside our heads, Like besides 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.560 the suspense music. I never knew that, at least for 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.120 the first one. I've not watched the other one, so 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:28.680 you know, as far as I know, he was on 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.720 a stab of mission. But wow, I didn't realize. 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.120 Yeah, And I always remember just being so terrified of it. 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.200 This day, I can't watch horror movies. It was like, yeah, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.160 my uncles would like be renting these movies and babysitters 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.920 and they were on Elm Street on one after another. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.080 But I'm still kind of like remembering some crazy like images. 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.000 But you're right, it was more like images and the 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.160 imagination and the sound and the suspense. It wasn't like 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:55.800 people having their heads culled. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.400 Right, even the Johnny Depp see with the blood, like 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.240 it's just blood splattering everywhere, but at no point does 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.440 he get stabbed. And halfway through the film, I was like, Yo, 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:06.520 this is no violence. 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.960 We're disappointed by that. Or is it like what did 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:12.920 you think? It's just kind of like a masterclass. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.239 When I left, I was just jaw drop that, like, wow, 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.160 there's no And I only noticed this only because Tarantino. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:23.960 I told him a story about you know, verse of 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.440 our dogs or whatever, and he's like, no, correction, you 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:29.560 never see the ear getting sliced off. And he's like, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.400 I turned the camera away. You hear it, but you 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.559 never see it. And I was like, oh, I never 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:41.720 knew that, but yeah, but still, yeah, that's even scarier 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:46.280 to me. Who's the one person in your life that 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.760 keeps you in check no matter what that grounds you? 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.640 I mean I feel like most of my family do that, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.160 you know. I mean it's good and important to have 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.040 people in your life do not give two ships about 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.200 your quote unquote success, right, you know, who were just 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.840 like there to like have the same relationship with you 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.640 before you started doing you know, any anything or any 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.000 note and and kind of anchor you in that, you know. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.679 I remember when we won an Oscar for Best Short Film. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.280 I remember my cousin's group chat. Someone was like, yo, 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:30.000 you know, congratulations Risman PI four winning and one of 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:31.760 my cousins was just like really, not up on that 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:33.760 kind of stuff. Was like, okay, cool, is that like 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:34.240 a big deal? 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:34.640 Is that? 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.000 Is that like when I won Regional Employee of the Month. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:41.560 They know what. 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.360 Direction this actually wasn't when I Want? Is when I 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.240 got nominated for Sound of Metal? And I said, is 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.720 that like when I got when I Want Regional Employee 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.520 of the Month. And then just before I could respond, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.520 another cousin came in and said, now it's different because 0:09:54.520 --> 0:10:04.880 you actually won that. You need people to take you 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.440 in that way and keep you know, it's important, and 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.640 you know, I don't want to be surrounded by like 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.000 sickophants and like transactional relationships. I'm kind of most of 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.280 my friends kind of kind of pre date any of 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:18.400 that or any of this. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:24.120 So right, Yeah, I've visited or at least performed at 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.920 the Oxford campus twice, but I've always wanted to get 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:33.240 a different perspective on it. So, as a person of color, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.400 what was the reality of being in an environment such 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:39.559 as Oxford? 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.199 I felt like a fish out of water? Really yeah, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.120 on a cultural point of view, but also on a 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:47.199 class point of view, because actually you have different people 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.840 of color there from like different countries, like you got 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.800 the kids of princes and kings and dignitaries and the 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.200 zero point zero zero one percent of Bakistan or Nigeria 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.120 or whatever. They're there as well. But in terms of 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:04.040 like Black British Pakistani British like particularly that in that time, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.480 it's like twenty something, you know, twenty years ago, twenty 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:11.160 five years ago. I definitely felt like an outsider, and 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:13.480 in many ways it was a great kind of lesson 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.840 for me, for like a training ground for going into 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:21.000 the film industry, where like, okay, your difference is also 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.320 something that can no know that can empower you. I 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.760 remember basically at Oxford I had been kind of like 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.160 m seeing at raves and on pirate radio stations and 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:33.800 stuff in London, and the whole kind of grime scene 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.080 was just exploding. Dizney Rascal was coming up, BBC Radio 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.360 had just launched music station Radio one Extra, and it 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.200 was just whole. There was just all this energy around, 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.000 this kind of boom of UK rap and UK sound 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.880 system culture going mainstream, and I was I felt missing 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.400 out on it. So I said, you know what, that 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.280 doesn't exist in Oxford. Let me let me try and 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.640 stop some of that. And so I started a club 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.120 night there was like hip pop and drum and bass, 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.240 and every week I was there on State, you know, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.360 hosting and emceeing of a drum and bass and stuff 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.520 and got to like hone my craft. And it was 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:06.880 a kind of reminder in a way that if you 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.719 feel like you don't belong in a place, you can 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.679 kind of like try and I don't know, stretch, stretch 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.520 the parameters of that environment, you know, to make space 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.280 for you and others like you that actually that space 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.120 might be hungry for that. It might just you to 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.160 stick around in it rather than just be like, nah, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.600 I don't belong here and leaving. So it was. It 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.240 was I think it was a gift and a curse 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:32.720 in many ways. It was. It was lonely at times, 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.920 it was challenging. It was a lot of friction around 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.280 like just be existing there, I felt. But it also 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.240 drove me to kind of like kind of, yeah, create 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.520 space for myself and people like me, And in many 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:46.199 ways I kind of continue trying to do that. In 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:59.559 the film business, what. 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.960 Was the best album that you purchased yourself? 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:09.000 I remember purchasing cassettes of singles, okay, more than albums. 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.760 Does that count? Do you definitely want an album? No? 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:13.680 No, what's your own money? Like, what's what's the first 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:14.880 single you purchased? Would you? 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.880 I remember? Was it Jade Don't walk Away? 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.680 Yeah? Of course, yeah, I remember that. 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.800 And then also it was actually the first album might 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.480 have been a Prince album. It was Diamonds and Pearls? 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:32.680 Was that an album? Was it a single? 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.160 Ninety one? Diamonds and Pearls the album? 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.240 I think it might have been that, And to be honest, 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.080 I think I just it was like I was in 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.679 Woolworths or whatever and it was just like on sale 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:47.800 and you don't. I was like it was cool, But 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.720 Jade was like intentional. I bought the cassette. I accidentally 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.440 put myself onto Prince. It was just like the in 0:13:54.480 --> 0:14:05.960 the like bargain bucket or whatever. But that and I 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.240 remember I had I had that, I very much like 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.000 kind of loved, but they would been gifted to me. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.120 And that was Michael Jackson. That was Michael Jackson. 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.200 Bad Okay, that was. 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.840 The one that I was just like kept, but I 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:20.480 didn't I didn't buy that amount of money? 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:22.280 Yeah I got it? 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:23.480 Remember what yours was? 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.040 I mean, look for years I've lied to the press 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.280 and said, like, it was a Jackson five record, but 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:35.720 my first Gifted Records. Yeah, my mind was a Neils. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.840 I liked Neil Saidaka's bad Blood because I like the 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.720 way that the logo looked spinning on the forty five. 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.680 I meet my diamonds and just thought that's cool. I mean, 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.280 I like the colors, dude. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.760 For me, I'll say that the first ten years of 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.960 record collecting, like was just based on if I like 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.920 the way that the print of the logo looked on 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.840 the turntable, and thus I didn't like Capitol Records. So 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.640 I was not into the Beatles until actually until I 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.520 moved to London. Then I got into the Beatles. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:20.040 But yeah, like, wow, we're just buying books. 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.840 No no, no, no, I group. Yeah, well, yeah, I judge. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:29.120 I judge books based on exactly. It's funny to say 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:34.560 that because one of my favorite films, Ega Wright's Showing 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:39.560 of the Dead is a brilliant Prince joke where I 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:41.680 guess they're trying to fight off zombies and they ran 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:43.760 out of weapon, so now they have to use records, 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.280 and they're going through the entire alphabet and they get 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.600 to the letter P and the guy's like, I can't 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.040 waste my Prints records, And then even as their lives 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.680 are on the line, they're like judging Prints albums, like, well, 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.680 this album was shited, so let's use the Batman album 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:01.400 and like so. 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.320 Hearing oh the Batman. The Batman Album was at a 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.520 special place in my heart because I was a kid 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.120 when that came out. What do you feel about that album? 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.360 I loved it, man, you know, it's so weird and cooler, 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:18.080 like had this weird, like acid kind of situation going 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.800 on in it. And I just remember the hype around 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.440 that Batman film coming out as a kid, and you 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:29.160 just feel the biggest deal ever that you know. It 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.120 just it was special to me at the time. 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.760 As a long like long time Prince fans kind of 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.520 say that that's the beginning of the end, But I 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.440 see that as a necessary album for him to have 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.880 a longer career, like Purple Rain sustained him for the eighties, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:50.160 but then he needed another platform album to sustain him 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:55.560 for another decade. So from a term of effectiveness, I'll 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.960 let it go. But as as a knowing what Prince 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.720 is capable of, and as Cannon, we were kind of 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.359 indifferent on it at the time, but I loved it 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:11.159 only because the day after I graduated high school, my 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.959 dad let me he My dad was a world famous 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.280 like music being shopper, so basically that was like the 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.720 last time he let me just go ape ape shit 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.080 inside of a record store and buy whatever I wanted 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.720 because I graduated at high school and so that album 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.240 came out that day. So I still have like fond 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.679 memories of that album, even though it's not in my 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.439 top five Prince albums of all time, but you know, 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:37.840 it just it just. 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:39.760 Had a special place in my heart because the memories. 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.680 You know, I can see that, what was the very 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:45.680 first live show that you attended? 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.719 Wow, that's a good you know. I don't know if 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.040 it was like the very first one I attended, but 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:57.359 it was. I mean the earliest ones I attended would 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.080 have been like some Pakistani pop kind of bands, and 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.840 like Bollywood, there were a lot of like touring Bollywood shows. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.600 So I grew up in Wembley right and so close 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.120 to the arena and stuff like that, and so back 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:11.920 in those days, how a lot of the Bollywood stars 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.160 would make money is they would go on world towards 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.720 where they would perform the songs from the hits, the 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.280 hit songs from the hit films, right, so you'd acts 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:24.040 like Saman Khan whatever, these guys would come to London 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.800 and like do song and dance kind of things. And 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.920 I remember those for sure, and going to like Pakistani 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:37.080 pop things like Vital Signs and Jannon and these kind 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:39.679 of these kind of bands, you know, like nineties like 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.560 pop and rock bands from Pakistan that would come and 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.280 play like Wembley Conference Center or whatever, like you know, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:46.959 the whole community would show up. It was like it 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.359 was a vibe. But really the first thing I thought, 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:52.840 so I saw those technically before, but the answer came 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:55.520 to my mind. One of the most impactful was I 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.960 think the ten year anniversary of Ninja Tune Records. 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.600 Okay, yeah Tune yeah yeah. 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:04.920 I think it was like a ten anniversary or something 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.560 of that. And I went to that and Kid Kowala 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:14.320 was playing ah yeah, and I bumped into Talvin sing 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.840 over there, and Talvin Singh, who's like, you know, incredible 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:22.800 like Doubler electronic fusion artists from you know, big part 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.359 of that South Asian nineties kind of wave of music. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.359 Him and It and Sonia and people like that Asian 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:32.520 Dub Foundation. I remember there was a cipher of teenagers 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.679 that we were like freestyling on the staircase, right, and 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:41.879 I remember Talvin sing like we stood there watching really 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.280 saw me, and he like yeah, and he like complimented me. 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.760 And I remember just feeling so gashed and I'm just 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.560 so encouraged. Like that sustained me for five years. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:52.840 You know. 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.960 That was like Talvin Singh thought I was doing something, 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.159 you know, and he was like a cool guy in 0:19:59.160 --> 0:19:59.879 the underground of that. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.680 Have you ever still go back and seen him since or. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.600 You know, we connected once like many many years later, 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.480 but not not really not particularly. Yeah, I don't know 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.199 if he's listening, you know, shout out Talvin Singh's like 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:16.720 a real innovator there. 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.040 You go, shout out to Talvim Singh, who are your 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:25.080 north star? Well, I would ask for five who are 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.920 your five north star mcs? 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:34.520 It's just ems well I meant for you Yeah, yeah, okay, 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:35.840 just as. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.040 A lyricist, like who are your north Stars? 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.119 I feel like it's changed a lot. I feel like 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.639 before it was just all about kind of lyricism, and 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:45.959 you know, you know, as a teenager, it was just 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:51.240 all about kind of common and most entirely quality and 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:53.919 you know, the whole raucous kind of camp and all 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:54.680 of those guys. 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:55.800 Right And to this. 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.159 Day, I think Most Death is up there for me. 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.600 But I think it's changed now because it's more about 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.320 the range and the versatility of these artists and they're 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.359 kind of big bench that's really interesting to me now. 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.359 So whereas I would never have said this before, I 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.120 think now one of them is probably Mike Skinner from 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:14.000 the Streets. 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:14.600 The Streets, you know what I mean. 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.359 Yeah, I would say Mike Skinner is up there. I 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.480 would say m i A is up there. You know, 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.320 I'm interested more now more than ever the genre bending. 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.520 I guess you could call them mcs who are kind 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.000 of like bending the form to their style. But I'd 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.240 still say Most Death. I mean, you know, honestly, I'm 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.480