Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeart Radio. All right,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Quest Loft Show.
Speaker 1: I'm here at iHeart Studios, LA today. My guests maybe
Speaker 1: one thousand miles away, but he's right up here on
Speaker 1: your screen. An Oscar, an Emmy winner who's left to
Speaker 1: mark on film and TV. Be it the Night of
Speaker 1: Sounds of Metal, the Long Goodbye. You already know the range.
Speaker 1: And this artist is using his talents and to raise
Speaker 1: discussion and awareness. And right now he's bringing Hamlet back
Speaker 1: to theaters, starring in and producing a new Amazon series Bait,
Speaker 1: and beyond all that, he's a musician. Two awesome MC.
Speaker 1: We're going to get into it. So many people tell
Speaker 1: me how amazing it is to talk to him, and
Speaker 1: I got to see for myself. So please welcome Rizama
Speaker 1: to the Quest Love Show. How are you doing, brother?
Speaker 2: What's up doing well? Man? It's an honor to be
Speaker 2: talking to you.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for the kind intro.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. Where you talking to me from?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 2: I'm in New York. I'm here doing press for.
Speaker 1: Hablet okay, and I know that's a taxing thing, so
Speaker 1: I appreciate you taking the time to do this for us.
Speaker 1: My first question to you is what is the early
Speaker 1: snapshot you have of yourself as a kid as far
Speaker 1: as your memories are concerned.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the most prominent memories I would have
Speaker 2: I was a few, you know. One of them is
Speaker 2: like playing cricket and basketball in my driveway with my
Speaker 2: big brother and spending the whole summers doing that. But
Speaker 2: another thing I used to do on my own the
Speaker 2: whole time is act out movies, fake movies. So I
Speaker 2: would like kind of decide on like a genre, like
Speaker 2: this is a crazy violent like action movie, or this
Speaker 2: is like a Home Alone had just come out, so
Speaker 2: I was like, this is like a kid comedy or whatever,
Speaker 2: and just like act out these elaborate entire stories from
Speaker 2: start to finish. I used to make a note of it.
Speaker 2: I used to I used to name the film, give
Speaker 2: it a title and a rating. If there was you
Speaker 2: PG parental guidance to twelve or eighteen. And I had
Speaker 2: this teenage mutant Ninja Tell's like book notepad with all
Speaker 2: the list of all these, My favorite, the banger that
Speaker 2: I was most proud of was Black Dragon. There was
Speaker 2: a Motorcycle Kung Fu Trilogy. And this is like from
Speaker 2: when I was young man. I just always used to
Speaker 2: do that when I was like into like Bruce Lee
Speaker 2: films and then Jackie Chan. So yeah, I used to
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 1: Wait, did you film these or you just imagine them
Speaker 1: that you were in it yourself?
Speaker 2: No, no, this is much less impressive than you imagining.
Speaker 2: I'd neither wrote these things down nor did I film them,
Speaker 2: just run around and acting out the entire story and
Speaker 2: playing all the different characters of these weird movies. The
Speaker 2: only evidence of them left behind is somewhere in that
Speaker 2: the turtle's note pad. It says black Dragon one, Black
Speaker 2: Dragon two, Black Dragon three, eighteen R rated. Or you know,
Speaker 2: it was just like this. I just was obsessed with it,
Speaker 2: and I used to just make these, you know, action
Speaker 2: explosion sound effects like that. Was My mom's nickname for me,
Speaker 2: was Tush.
Speaker 1: Tush, just because you were your own a fixed guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was my sound guy. I was. Yeah, wrote
Speaker 2: the theme tune.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah. What was the vibe in your house growing up?
Speaker 1: What did your parents do for a living. Were they
Speaker 1: artistically inclined or they.
Speaker 2: Weren't overtly artistic in a sense. But a lot of
Speaker 2: my early memories with my mom would be sat down
Speaker 2: in front of the TV watching VHS cassettes of Bollywood
Speaker 2: films or of Pakistani TV that had been sent asscross
Speaker 2: from Pakistan. My dad was a way a lot. He
Speaker 2: was in shipping. My mom was a homemaker, and she
Speaker 2: was a career for her sister, and she lost her
Speaker 2: mom young, so she was kind of like the oldest
Speaker 2: sibling holding a lot of different things together at the
Speaker 2: same time without my dad around as much as he
Speaker 2: would have liked to have been as well. He was
Speaker 2: working on ships and stuff in different countries. And I
Speaker 2: just remember like sitting in her lap watching these Pakistani
Speaker 2: comedy sketch shows, soap operas, pop music videos, Bollywood films,
Speaker 2: and the Bob Marley legend VHS tape with all the
Speaker 2: music videos on there, like one of the earliest music videos.
Speaker 2: I remember, the Buffalo Soldier, and yeah, it was just
Speaker 2: it was so it was the TV and the music
Speaker 2: and the film and the comedy and the drama. They
Speaker 2: were all mixed together always, you know, on whatever VHS
Speaker 2: cassette had just been sent over from Pakistan or whatever,
Speaker 2: or someone had gone there and visited and brought it back.
Speaker 2: That was like a happy place. You know, that was
Speaker 2: a happy place for my mom, and you know, me
Speaker 2: and her are home. You know, my older siblings were
Speaker 2: at school, so it was kind of present in the house,
Speaker 2: even though they weren't performers themselves. But you know, it's
Speaker 2: interesting I say that, like sometimes there's this trope that
Speaker 2: kind of like immigrant families are like often not artistically
Speaker 2: inclined or kind of dissuade the kids from doing that
Speaker 2: because it's unstable or whatever. But culture takes many forms,
Speaker 2: and like we're steeped in culture obviously, from our food
Speaker 2: to the fashion, to the clothes, the music, to the
Speaker 2: religious songs to the you know, so like culture was
Speaker 2: in the house. We brought so much culture with us
Speaker 2: as an immant family, even if it wasn't kind of
Speaker 2: turned into our over way.
Speaker 1: What was the cool kid item that you always wanted
Speaker 1: in your household that you never got to have?
Speaker 2: Do you remember Mask Mask? Ask the movie Mask Mask. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like it was like an animated non not
Speaker 2: Jim Carrey. There was an animated there was an animated
Speaker 2: action kind of cartoon.
Speaker 1: Called Mask Okay.
Speaker 2: It was like central you know that kind of thing,
Speaker 2: and it was one of them toys. It was. It
Speaker 2: was just like it was like a car that fired
Speaker 2: plastic discs or whatever. You know. I just loved it.
Speaker 2: It was kind of like a night Rider rip off. Really, okay,
Speaker 2: I wanted that or the RoboCop truck. I never got
Speaker 2: the RoboCop truck. Never got that. I've probably watched a
Speaker 2: lot of violent films too young to be honest, if
Speaker 2: I think about it. I remember my uncle was just
Speaker 2: showing me Nightmare on Elm Street when I was like
Speaker 2: six years old, and I'm watching like like RoboCop like
Speaker 2: too young, you know, and RoboCop too, and so I
Speaker 2: just wanted the RoboCop toys, but I never got them.
Speaker 1: You want to know something now, that Nightmare on Elm
Speaker 1: Street just had its fortieth anniversary, like maybe a year
Speaker 1: or two ago. I went to watch it for the
Speaker 1: very first time in a movie theater, and I'm so
Speaker 1: shocked because I don't know if this is general knowledge.
Speaker 1: I've already seen those things because I thought, like, I
Speaker 1: don't like bludgeon films or anything. Nightmare on Elm Street
Speaker 1: you literally see no act of violence. Like I didn't
Speaker 1: realize that at no point does he ever stab someone
Speaker 1: or whatever, Like he'll grab someone from behind a curtain,
Speaker 1: you'll hear screaming or whatever. But I just realized that
Speaker 1: the genius of that whole thing is that all the
Speaker 1: violence we think happens is inside our heads, Like besides
Speaker 1: the suspense music. I never knew that, at least for
Speaker 1: the first one. I've not watched the other one, so
Speaker 1: you know, as far as I know, he was on
Speaker 1: a stab of mission. But wow, I didn't realize.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I always remember just being so terrified of it.
Speaker 2: This day, I can't watch horror movies. It was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: my uncles would like be renting these movies and babysitters
Speaker 2: and they were on Elm Street on one after another.
Speaker 2: But I'm still kind of like remembering some crazy like images.
Speaker 2: But you're right, it was more like images and the
Speaker 2: imagination and the sound and the suspense. It wasn't like
Speaker 2: people having their heads culled.
Speaker 1: Right, even the Johnny Depp see with the blood, like
Speaker 1: it's just blood splattering everywhere, but at no point does
Speaker 1: he get stabbed. And halfway through the film, I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: this is no violence.
Speaker 2: We're disappointed by that. Or is it like what did
Speaker 2: you think? It's just kind of like a masterclass.
Speaker 1: When I left, I was just jaw drop that, like, wow,
Speaker 1: there's no And I only noticed this only because Tarantino.
Speaker 1: I told him a story about you know, verse of
Speaker 1: our dogs or whatever, and he's like, no, correction, you
Speaker 1: never see the ear getting sliced off. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I turned the camera away. You hear it, but you
Speaker 1: never see it. And I was like, oh, I never
Speaker 1: knew that, but yeah, but still, yeah, that's even scarier
Speaker 1: to me. Who's the one person in your life that
Speaker 1: keeps you in check no matter what that grounds you?
Speaker 2: I mean I feel like most of my family do that,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean it's good and important to have
Speaker 2: people in your life do not give two ships about
Speaker 2: your quote unquote success, right, you know, who were just
Speaker 2: like there to like have the same relationship with you
Speaker 2: before you started doing you know, any anything or any
Speaker 2: note and and kind of anchor you in that, you know.
Speaker 2: I remember when we won an Oscar for Best Short Film.
Speaker 2: I remember my cousin's group chat. Someone was like, yo,
Speaker 2: you know, congratulations Risman PI four winning and one of
Speaker 2: my cousins was just like really, not up on that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. Was like, okay, cool, is that like
Speaker 2: a big deal?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 2: Is that like when I won Regional Employee of the Month.
Speaker 1: They know what.
Speaker 2: Direction this actually wasn't when I Want? Is when I
Speaker 2: got nominated for Sound of Metal? And I said, is
Speaker 2: that like when I got when I Want Regional Employee
Speaker 2: of the Month. And then just before I could respond,
Speaker 2: another cousin came in and said, now it's different because
Speaker 2: you actually won that. You need people to take you
Speaker 2: in that way and keep you know, it's important, and
Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to be surrounded by like
Speaker 2: sickophants and like transactional relationships. I'm kind of most of
Speaker 2: my friends kind of kind of pre date any of
Speaker 2: that or any of this.
Speaker 1: So right, Yeah, I've visited or at least performed at
Speaker 1: the Oxford campus twice, but I've always wanted to get
Speaker 1: a different perspective on it. So, as a person of color,
Speaker 1: what was the reality of being in an environment such
Speaker 1: as Oxford?
Speaker 2: I felt like a fish out of water? Really yeah,
Speaker 2: on a cultural point of view, but also on a
Speaker 2: class point of view, because actually you have different people
Speaker 2: of color there from like different countries, like you got
Speaker 2: the kids of princes and kings and dignitaries and the
Speaker 2: zero point zero zero one percent of Bakistan or Nigeria
Speaker 2: or whatever. They're there as well. But in terms of
Speaker 2: like Black British Pakistani British like particularly that in that time,
Speaker 2: it's like twenty something, you know, twenty years ago, twenty
Speaker 2: five years ago. I definitely felt like an outsider, and
Speaker 2: in many ways it was a great kind of lesson
Speaker 2: for me, for like a training ground for going into
Speaker 2: the film industry, where like, okay, your difference is also
Speaker 2: something that can no know that can empower you. I
Speaker 2: remember basically at Oxford I had been kind of like
Speaker 2: m seeing at raves and on pirate radio stations and
Speaker 2: stuff in London, and the whole kind of grime scene
Speaker 2: was just exploding. Dizney Rascal was coming up, BBC Radio
Speaker 2: had just launched music station Radio one Extra, and it
Speaker 2: was just whole. There was just all this energy around,
Speaker 2: this kind of boom of UK rap and UK sound
Speaker 2: system culture going mainstream, and I was I felt missing
Speaker 2: out on it. So I said, you know what, that
Speaker 2: doesn't exist in Oxford. Let me let me try and
Speaker 2: stop some of that. And so I started a club
Speaker 2: night there was like hip pop and drum and bass,
Speaker 2: and every week I was there on State, you know,
Speaker 2: hosting and emceeing of a drum and bass and stuff
Speaker 2: and got to like hone my craft. And it was
Speaker 2: a kind of reminder in a way that if you
Speaker 2: feel like you don't belong in a place, you can
Speaker 2: kind of like try and I don't know, stretch, stretch
Speaker 2: the parameters of that environment, you know, to make space
Speaker 2: for you and others like you that actually that space
Speaker 2: might be hungry for that. It might just you to
Speaker 2: stick around in it rather than just be like, nah,
Speaker 2: I don't belong here and leaving. So it was. It
Speaker 2: was I think it was a gift and a curse
Speaker 2: in many ways. It was. It was lonely at times,
Speaker 2: it was challenging. It was a lot of friction around
Speaker 2: like just be existing there, I felt. But it also
Speaker 2: drove me to kind of like kind of, yeah, create
Speaker 2: space for myself and people like me, And in many
Speaker 2: ways I kind of continue trying to do that. In
Speaker 2: the film business, what.
Speaker 1: Was the best album that you purchased yourself?
Speaker 2: I remember purchasing cassettes of singles, okay, more than albums.
Speaker 2: Does that count? Do you definitely want an album? No?
Speaker 1: No, what's your own money? Like, what's what's the first
Speaker 1: single you purchased? Would you?
Speaker 2: I remember? Was it Jade Don't walk Away?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Of course, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2: And then also it was actually the first album might
Speaker 2: have been a Prince album. It was Diamonds and Pearls?
Speaker 2: Was that an album? Was it a single?
Speaker 1: Ninety one? Diamonds and Pearls the album?
Speaker 2: I think it might have been that, And to be honest,
Speaker 2: I think I just it was like I was in
Speaker 2: Woolworths or whatever and it was just like on sale
Speaker 2: and you don't. I was like it was cool, But
Speaker 2: Jade was like intentional. I bought the cassette. I accidentally
Speaker 2: put myself onto Prince. It was just like the in
Speaker 2: the like bargain bucket or whatever. But that and I
Speaker 2: remember I had I had that, I very much like
Speaker 2: kind of loved, but they would been gifted to me.
Speaker 2: And that was Michael Jackson. That was Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: Bad Okay, that was.
Speaker 2: The one that I was just like kept, but I
Speaker 2: didn't I didn't buy that amount of money?
Speaker 1: Yeah I got it?
Speaker 2: Remember what yours was?
Speaker 1: I mean, look for years I've lied to the press
Speaker 1: and said, like, it was a Jackson five record, but
Speaker 1: my first Gifted Records. Yeah, my mind was a Neils.
Speaker 1: I liked Neil Saidaka's bad Blood because I like the
Speaker 1: way that the logo looked spinning on the forty five.
Speaker 2: I meet my diamonds and just thought that's cool. I mean,
Speaker 2: I like the colors, dude.
Speaker 1: For me, I'll say that the first ten years of
Speaker 1: record collecting, like was just based on if I like
Speaker 1: the way that the print of the logo looked on
Speaker 1: the turntable, and thus I didn't like Capitol Records. So
Speaker 1: I was not into the Beatles until actually until I
Speaker 1: moved to London. Then I got into the Beatles.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like, wow, we're just buying books.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, I group. Yeah, well, yeah, I judge.
Speaker 1: I judge books based on exactly. It's funny to say
Speaker 1: that because one of my favorite films, Ega Wright's Showing
Speaker 1: of the Dead is a brilliant Prince joke where I
Speaker 1: guess they're trying to fight off zombies and they ran
Speaker 1: out of weapon, so now they have to use records,
Speaker 1: and they're going through the entire alphabet and they get
Speaker 1: to the letter P and the guy's like, I can't
Speaker 1: waste my Prints records, And then even as their lives
Speaker 1: are on the line, they're like judging Prints albums, like, well,
Speaker 1: this album was shited, so let's use the Batman album
Speaker 1: and like so.
Speaker 2: Hearing oh the Batman. The Batman Album was at a
Speaker 2: special place in my heart because I was a kid
Speaker 2: when that came out. What do you feel about that album?
Speaker 2: I loved it, man, you know, it's so weird and cooler,
Speaker 2: like had this weird, like acid kind of situation going
Speaker 2: on in it. And I just remember the hype around
Speaker 2: that Batman film coming out as a kid, and you
Speaker 2: just feel the biggest deal ever that you know. It
Speaker 2: just it was special to me at the time.
Speaker 1: As a long like long time Prince fans kind of
Speaker 1: say that that's the beginning of the end, But I
Speaker 1: see that as a necessary album for him to have
Speaker 1: a longer career, like Purple Rain sustained him for the eighties,
Speaker 1: but then he needed another platform album to sustain him
Speaker 1: for another decade. So from a term of effectiveness, I'll
Speaker 1: let it go. But as as a knowing what Prince
Speaker 1: is capable of, and as Cannon, we were kind of
Speaker 1: indifferent on it at the time, but I loved it
Speaker 1: only because the day after I graduated high school, my
Speaker 1: dad let me he My dad was a world famous
Speaker 1: like music being shopper, so basically that was like the
Speaker 1: last time he let me just go ape ape shit
Speaker 1: inside of a record store and buy whatever I wanted
Speaker 1: because I graduated at high school and so that album
Speaker 1: came out that day. So I still have like fond
Speaker 1: memories of that album, even though it's not in my
Speaker 1: top five Prince albums of all time, but you know,
Speaker 1: it just it just.
Speaker 2: Had a special place in my heart because the memories.
Speaker 1: You know, I can see that, what was the very
Speaker 1: first live show that you attended?
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a good you know. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it was like the very first one I attended, but
Speaker 2: it was. I mean the earliest ones I attended would
Speaker 2: have been like some Pakistani pop kind of bands, and
Speaker 2: like Bollywood, there were a lot of like touring Bollywood shows.
Speaker 2: So I grew up in Wembley right and so close
Speaker 2: to the arena and stuff like that, and so back
Speaker 2: in those days, how a lot of the Bollywood stars
Speaker 2: would make money is they would go on world towards
Speaker 2: where they would perform the songs from the hits, the
Speaker 2: hit songs from the hit films, right, so you'd acts
Speaker 2: like Saman Khan whatever, these guys would come to London
Speaker 2: and like do song and dance kind of things. And
Speaker 2: I remember those for sure, and going to like Pakistani
Speaker 2: pop things like Vital Signs and Jannon and these kind
Speaker 2: of these kind of bands, you know, like nineties like
Speaker 2: pop and rock bands from Pakistan that would come and
Speaker 2: play like Wembley Conference Center or whatever, like you know,
Speaker 2: the whole community would show up. It was like it
Speaker 2: was a vibe. But really the first thing I thought,
Speaker 2: so I saw those technically before, but the answer came
Speaker 2: to my mind. One of the most impactful was I
Speaker 2: think the ten year anniversary of Ninja Tune Records.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah Tune yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it was like a ten anniversary or something
Speaker 2: of that. And I went to that and Kid Kowala
Speaker 2: was playing ah yeah, and I bumped into Talvin sing
Speaker 2: over there, and Talvin Singh, who's like, you know, incredible
Speaker 2: like Doubler electronic fusion artists from you know, big part
Speaker 2: of that South Asian nineties kind of wave of music.
Speaker 2: Him and It and Sonia and people like that Asian
Speaker 2: Dub Foundation. I remember there was a cipher of teenagers
Speaker 2: that we were like freestyling on the staircase, right, and
Speaker 2: I remember Talvin sing like we stood there watching really
Speaker 2: saw me, and he like yeah, and he like complimented me.
Speaker 2: And I remember just feeling so gashed and I'm just
Speaker 2: so encouraged. Like that sustained me for five years.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: That was like Talvin Singh thought I was doing something,
Speaker 2: you know, and he was like a cool guy in
Speaker 2: the underground of that.
Speaker 1: Have you ever still go back and seen him since or.
Speaker 2: You know, we connected once like many many years later,
Speaker 2: but not not really not particularly. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 2: if he's listening, you know, shout out Talvin Singh's like
Speaker 2: a real innovator there.
Speaker 1: You go, shout out to Talvim Singh, who are your
Speaker 1: north star? Well, I would ask for five who are
Speaker 1: your five north star mcs?
Speaker 2: It's just ems well I meant for you Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: just as.
Speaker 1: A lyricist, like who are your north Stars?
Speaker 2: I feel like it's changed a lot. I feel like
Speaker 2: before it was just all about kind of lyricism, and
Speaker 2: you know, you know, as a teenager, it was just
Speaker 2: all about kind of common and most entirely quality and
Speaker 2: you know, the whole raucous kind of camp and all
Speaker 2: of those guys.
Speaker 1: Right And to this.
Speaker 2: Day, I think Most Death is up there for me.
Speaker 2: But I think it's changed now because it's more about
Speaker 2: the range and the versatility of these artists and they're
Speaker 2: kind of big bench that's really interesting to me now.
Speaker 2: So whereas I would never have said this before, I
Speaker 2: think now one of them is probably Mike Skinner from
Speaker 2: the Streets.
Speaker 1: The Streets, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say Mike Skinner is up there. I
Speaker 2: would say m i A is up there. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm interested more now more than ever the genre bending.
Speaker 2: I guess you could call them mcs who are kind
Speaker 2: of like bending the form to their style. But I'd
Speaker 2: still say Most Death. I mean, you know, honestly, I'm
Speaker 2: a I'm just a huge, huge Kendrick fan again because
Speaker 2: of the range of what he does and how he
Speaker 2: bends as well. And I think I know someone who
Speaker 2: I just really really love and rate that's like kind
Speaker 2: of more contemporary to right now is Jay huss.
Speaker 1: In the UK.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's that's not necessarily my all time top five,
Speaker 2: but off the top of my head, I mean I
Speaker 2: think those a some mcs just always kind of think
Speaker 2: they're just themselves, do you know what I mean? I
Speaker 2: think that's the thing that I rate more than anything
Speaker 2: now is someone who sounds like no one else, someone
Speaker 2: who's like that could only be averse by them. You know.
Speaker 2: It's just immediately distinctive in that way, in the way
Speaker 2: that ODB was. I think, more than anything, I'm inspired
Speaker 2: by people who are unapologetically themselves and doing something different,
Speaker 2: Whereas before it was all about just lyricism and I
Speaker 2: was skilling them junkie, right, yeah, just just just like
Speaker 2: technical craft, you know what I mean, That's what I
Speaker 2: was a big junkie. I think it's a different skill
Speaker 2: to be like purely yourself.
Speaker 1: Yourself, Like, yeah, I feel for you.
Speaker 2: What was Can I just pause? Was going to say,
Speaker 2: I'm talking to quest Love. I can't move on from
Speaker 2: that question without asking you the same question me, I
Speaker 2: really you got an all time top five.
Speaker 1: Well you just reminded me. I totally forgot when like
Speaker 1: my period in London was between like ninety three and
Speaker 1: I think we gave up our flat ninety seven ninety
Speaker 1: eight in kennish Town, and but coming back I definitely remembered.
Speaker 1: I think we did some shows with the streets. You
Speaker 1: reminded me how much I used to listen to his
Speaker 1: first record, his first few records. I like weird EMCs,
Speaker 1: you know, like I dig and I'll chance, yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: like I know that I have a world class athlete
Speaker 1: in my own band, which I think because Tarika is
Speaker 1: so technically proficient as an MC, I'll tend to champion
Speaker 1: those that might not ever wind up on anyone's like
Speaker 1: top ten list, even though I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: still early cool Keith Edon Cool, Keith Paul Barman, Pastuus
Speaker 1: of De La Soul, you know, of course, like Doom,
Speaker 1: like just anyone that's like super weird like that too
Speaker 1: out into Right now, I'm going through like my Doom
Speaker 1: phase again, so I'll go through stages.
Speaker 3: But you know what's really interesting about Doom is that
Speaker 3: he's right in the middle of that ven diagram of
Speaker 3: weird m season like technical masters that like just really
Speaker 3: headsy lyrically oriented fans would always also turn to.
Speaker 2: It's interesting, you know, I can't move on without talking
Speaker 2: about Black dought for a minute because I think in
Speaker 2: that period when I was most just like purely listening
Speaker 2: to rap, I think, you know, most it would have
Speaker 2: been Black Dot. And I actually got to tell you
Speaker 2: that that Things for the Part album was just a
Speaker 2: life changing album for me. Man. It was life changing
Speaker 2: on so many levels in particular, like, yeah, just to
Speaker 2: find a certain period of time in my life. And
Speaker 2: I tell you something that I was just really gassed off,
Speaker 2: and so many people in London were so gassed off.
Speaker 2: Is I'm sure you heard this. The drum and bassed
Speaker 2: lick at the end, the drum and bass break at
Speaker 2: the end, Yeah, yeah, worry about me, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? Yeah, And so at the end when it
Speaker 2: just drops and drummer and it only does it for
Speaker 2: like twenty seconds or whatever. But I just felt, I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, that was that was like mid nineties, right,
Speaker 2: so it's like the heyday of jungle and drummer bass.
Speaker 2: I'm going to this and it just brought in together
Speaker 2: in a way that was just I don't know, man,
Speaker 2: it just felt like I felt seen. I feel like
Speaker 2: it made that track even more beloved in the UK
Speaker 2: that it just went into that double time drummer based
Speaker 2: thing at the end of that track. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean that's that's probably one of the first That and
Speaker 2: I think the Mystery of chess Boxing were the first
Speaker 2: two things that I like learned off by heart, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know my I've told the story before of
Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was fortunate enough to kind
Speaker 1: of be there at the very beginning of when like
Speaker 1: jungleists and drum and bass were like starting to be
Speaker 1: a thing, and when we decided to move to London
Speaker 1: for real, for real. The first thing we did was
Speaker 1: we went to a nightclub and they started playing Anita
Speaker 1: Baker and we were like laughing at London, like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, why are they listening to like slow jams?
Speaker 1: Why are they playing sweet Love in the in the
Speaker 1: in the nightclub? And then when that hook came up, Yo,
Speaker 1: I was scared for my like, we I wish did
Speaker 1: you guys.
Speaker 2: Meet to London? Why did you meet to London? You
Speaker 2: guys just wanted to change up, taking some new influences.
Speaker 1: You know, it's weird. Okay. So we had spent two
Speaker 1: years in this massive bidding war. We got the record
Speaker 1: deal of our dreams and then the album was finished,
Speaker 1: and then we realized that the label not only did
Speaker 1: the label who just started a black division we were
Speaker 1: on Geffen Records, that they weren't prepared to really promote us.
Speaker 1: But then on top of that, you know, ninety three
Speaker 1: was kind of like a shifting year for creativity and
Speaker 1: black music, of which we got by because suddenly it
Speaker 1: was a novelty being a band, like we were one
Speaker 1: of that when we got first got signed, I think
Speaker 1: seven black bands still had a record deal, whereas you
Speaker 1: know in the seventies there were thousands, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So we just decided the very last minute,
Speaker 1: we have to do what Jimmy Hendrix did. So the
Speaker 1: second we finished our album, we met Giles Peterson. We
Speaker 1: booked a week at the Jazz Cafe, and then with
Speaker 1: the money we made from that, we just got a
Speaker 1: flat in Kennish Town and just never came back home.
Speaker 1: We decided to make London our hub, and then we
Speaker 1: just worked Europe literally for four years, and eventually the
Speaker 1: label was like, all right, you guys got to come
Speaker 1: back home and like be for real. So for things
Speaker 1: fall apart. We finally came back to America, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, Like I don't think we would have
Speaker 1: made a dent had we just relied on on whatever
Speaker 1: buzz we were going to get America, Like we felt
Speaker 1: we had to go to London to the world and
Speaker 1: then come back home newly, newly improved, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, asol, I love that. I love that. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: it's so it's so kind of amazing to see more
Speaker 2: of that cross pollination between you know, music coming out
Speaker 2: of London in the UK and the US and seeing
Speaker 2: the moment that the UK rappers also having as well
Speaker 2: over there just out of interest, would you say you
Speaker 2: got me? Is still like the most played and like beloved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's our most popular And I literally did it.
Speaker 1: Like when we left London and you know, came back
Speaker 1: home to start recording, I knew that, Like the last
Speaker 1: project I worked on that was like London Base, I
Speaker 1: did something with Ronnie Size, and you know, I was
Speaker 1: just like, yo, man, I want to I want to
Speaker 1: do something that you know, it gives us a a
Speaker 1: tip of the hat or not to where we came from.
Speaker 1: Like I thought Jungle was going to be like the
Speaker 1: biggest thing ever. So I was just like, I want
Speaker 1: to come out the gate before like America catches on
Speaker 1: and America didn't. However, I do believe now that we're
Speaker 1: flirting with like Jersey house, especially where like where lil
Speaker 1: Uzi Verd is going and like these artists that are
Speaker 1: using Jersey House music and the speed of it. I
Speaker 1: think maybe now we might be ready for it, because
Speaker 1: at least where we are as far as where the
Speaker 1: country is, even though we're trying to remain zen and
Speaker 1: calm through this ordeal that we're going through. I almost
Speaker 1: feel as though the soundtrack to junglest is like this
Speaker 1: is the time to unleash it, like that feeling of
Speaker 1: urgency in the air. So yeah, man, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to do it just as a tip of the hat
Speaker 1: to the place where we came.
Speaker 2: From a ran that deep. I thought maybe you guys
Speaker 2: were just playing around with different drum breaks, but it's
Speaker 2: so beautiful to know that it came from being steeped
Speaker 2: in that and around that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, jungle music is like, you know, a very particular,
Speaker 2: very UK thing, and I think it caught on a
Speaker 2: lot more in Canada, Toronto in particular, because the kind
Speaker 2: of Caribbean kind of connection. It's obviously, so much of
Speaker 2: UK black music comes out of that connection to like
Speaker 2: dance or and Caribbean music and how that blends with
Speaker 2: like electronic music. But but of course it's always been
Speaker 2: that bridge. Like if you think of garage, garage came
Speaker 2: out of like what it's called garage because the Paradise garage, right,
Speaker 2: and it was like US H and G as they
Speaker 2: see H and G was house and garage that was
Speaker 2: American stuff and your two step carriage which is called
Speaker 2: UK garage, right, and then that was just you know,
Speaker 2: slightly different. But to this day, I would say that Gabriel,
Speaker 2: that the Roy Davis Junior pevn ever Itt sung is
Speaker 2: at least for my generation, a lot of people's number
Speaker 2: one track, you know, of all time. That's the kind
Speaker 2: of redemption song or whatever of garage heads. Do you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Is it's a US track, is
Speaker 2: Roy David Junior and Peven Ever So, yeah, I'm glad
Speaker 2: to see that kind of like that dance floor kind
Speaker 2: of cross put pollination more.
Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned him because one of my favorite
Speaker 1: songs of his that I spend there's a jazzy tune
Speaker 1: that he did call you get Me, which it's more
Speaker 1: of a two step uh production. But yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: a song that I think has fallen under people's radar,
Speaker 1: and I feel as though that song is waiting to
Speaker 1: be discovered.
Speaker 2: So is this a Roy Davis Junior's track or.
Speaker 1: Yeah you got Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's kind of like he's just he's so incredible
Speaker 2: and so talented and and from what I understand, it's like,
Speaker 2: you know that there was like a whole crazy backstory
Speaker 2: around that track, and yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Got one day and find out about it. I finally
Speaker 1: connected with him, like I think like two or three
Speaker 1: years ago, finally got to meet him and give him
Speaker 1: his his flowers. I always wanted to know, So, what
Speaker 1: is the one lesson in life that you had to
Speaker 1: learn the hard way?
Speaker 4: So many man, but I think I think, like I'm
Speaker 4: trying to find a way of saying is that doesn't
Speaker 4: sound super basic, but I'm gonna say it.
Speaker 1: Just come with it.
Speaker 2: It's about kind of like not of like just just
Speaker 2: just not the power of not performing. And what I
Speaker 2: mean by that is I grew up code switching a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, I grew up in a certain kind of
Speaker 2: word that was not privilege, but you know, it wasn't
Speaker 2: like crazy intense or violent or anything which was not privileged.
Speaker 2: And I've got a government scholarship to a private school.
Speaker 2: So there was like this class code switching that came
Speaker 2: from an immigrant Pakistani background and household. But I was
Speaker 2: in Britain and there was that code switching, and it
Speaker 2: was the nineties of it said, and it was like,
Speaker 2: you know, this explosion of South Asian British culture and
Speaker 2: you know, garage and drum and base, and there was that,
Speaker 2: and I had all these different identities and I feel
Speaker 2: like for so much in my life I had been
Speaker 2: code switching, so much so that when I was starting
Speaker 2: out both as a professional actor and MC, I was
Speaker 2: really eager to keep those two things different, just kind
Speaker 2: of some kind of just like instinctive compartmentalizing I would do.
Speaker 2: And I think I feel like I'm almost making up
Speaker 2: for lost time now of just really bringing together those
Speaker 2: supposedly contradictory parts of myself in the things that I'm
Speaker 2: making and bringing together the music with the film, bringing
Speaker 2: together the just those unapologic sides that I would sometimes
Speaker 2: instinctively like edit right. And it sounds like a kind
Speaker 2: of pretty basic lesson to learn. But even when I
Speaker 2: thought I was being unapologetically myself, I was still kind
Speaker 2: of like shifting gears instinctively, you know. And I want
Speaker 2: to kind of like come into the room with all
Speaker 2: of my mess and just be like, yeah, this is
Speaker 2: my mess, this is it is all of it. And
Speaker 2: I think that's something that has just helped me feel
Speaker 2: more calm and in touch with who I am, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so like with a show like Bait that we made,
Speaker 2: you know, bringing a soundtrack together around that and having
Speaker 2: tracks on them myself and bringing to my favorite artists
Speaker 2: from around the world into that, or with the Long
Speaker 2: good Bye the short film, you know, just kind of
Speaker 2: blending almost like soliloquies and spoken word with like that
Speaker 2: action thriller kind of film language and just trying to
Speaker 2: kind of put it all in one part. And I
Speaker 2: think that's what I like, you know, I have that
Speaker 2: kind of eclictic taste, and I have those different sizes
Speaker 2: of myself and I want to kind of express it
Speaker 2: all and not kind of whole different parts of myself back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have to build your own platform so
Speaker 1: that you can express all the facets of yourself.
Speaker 2: Thank you very succinctly put yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's understandable. You once said that you'd rather be
Speaker 1: broke than to be type cast. Now looking back, what
Speaker 1: was the hardest what was the hardest know you had
Speaker 1: ever had to say? And you know, I know how
Speaker 1: integrity and personal code is to manage in an industry
Speaker 1: in which, you know, minorities are constantly having to jump
Speaker 1: hurdles and codes, which but like for you, what was
Speaker 1: one of the knows that you had to give that
Speaker 1: would have been like either lucrative for you or.
Speaker 2: I mean, I I guess I'm just wondering if I
Speaker 2: should say it, But like there's a there's you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want to say.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you don't just say the movie or whatever.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I mean, when I came off the
Speaker 2: back of the Night Of, I offered a big lead
Speaker 2: role in a big TV series on net Please, playing
Speaker 2: a lead roles like an actually kind of thriller thing,
Speaker 2: And it went on to be a huge, huge, huge hit,
Speaker 2: and it was very successful, and you know, I think
Speaker 2: it probably would have done a lot for me kind
Speaker 2: of straight off the Night Of into something like that,
Speaker 2: And and I couldn't do It wasn't even so much
Speaker 2: about the role that I was playing in terms of
Speaker 2: type casting. It was definitely for me kind of like
Speaker 2: would have been a great look. It was just the
Speaker 2: basic storyline was was about terrorism, and it was very stereotypical,
Speaker 2: and it's portrayal of Muslim characters. And even if I
Speaker 2: would get to transcend that stereotype and I would get
Speaker 2: to play that, you know, just kind of like lead
Speaker 2: guy role and be unshackled by that, I saw what
Speaker 2: it was doing to everyone else around me and the story,
Speaker 2: and it was I just do it, And sometimes I
Speaker 2: kind of look back it was like, man, that would
Speaker 2: have you know, that would have been a great look.
Speaker 2: But if you at the overall of my journey, I'm
Speaker 2: very pleased that I didn't do it because to me,
Speaker 2: like having a career is not an end in itself,
Speaker 2: Like telling stories, it's kind of not an end in itself.
Speaker 2: It's about what you're saying with it. It's about how
Speaker 2: you're trying to push culture and try and challenge people,
Speaker 2: challenge yourself, you know, and like falling back on some
Speaker 2: of the lazy narratives for me is like that's the
Speaker 2: opposite of what I want to be doing with my time?
Speaker 1: Are you given agency to have a conversation with the
Speaker 1: screenwriter or the director or the producer that, look, I'd
Speaker 1: like to adjust some things in this character or given
Speaker 1: more of a soul.
Speaker 2: Course I've done that loads, But I mean, I just like,
Speaker 2: sometimes it's baked into the story. You're not going to
Speaker 2: change a thing, Like do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: If it's that is it's not like icing on the cake.
Speaker 2: It is the cake. Sometimes it was that okay.
Speaker 1: So Baita is a series that draws some parallels frankly
Speaker 1: that you know that we're living in right now as
Speaker 1: far as like you know, xenophobia, anti immigration views. But
Speaker 1: when when did the idea start to crystallize as far
Speaker 1: as you developing this.
Speaker 2: Well, crystallized quite late on. But I've been scribbling down
Speaker 2: kind of ideas and anecdotes for about since about twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: Obviously what started happening started to become more well known
Speaker 2: in America, and kind of there was this widening gap
Speaker 2: between my public and private self. You know, it's I
Speaker 2: don't know. The same week that it got announced I
Speaker 2: was in Star Wars was the same week I got
Speaker 2: banned from my local Tesco supermarket for suspected shoplifting just
Speaker 2: because I was like wearing bizarre clothes. My washing machine
Speaker 2: had broken. I was dragging around a massive laundry bag
Speaker 2: full of dirty clothes. They thought, like, who is this guy?
Speaker 2: Is he like unhoused, like you know whatever. It was.
Speaker 2: The whole thing was just it was just like you know,
Speaker 2: people think as soon as people think you're going to
Speaker 2: be on a yacht with hand solo, but it's like
Speaker 2: you still go to your laundry washing me see still breaks.
Speaker 2: It's still human world. Yeah, And so that gap between
Speaker 2: your public and private self started creating more stressful and
Speaker 2: kind of slightly hilarious situations, and I just kept starting
Speaker 2: making a note of them. And I knew I wanted
Speaker 2: to make something about that. And someone once told me
Speaker 2: that gap between your public and private self is how
Speaker 2: much shame you carry, right, And I knew I wanted
Speaker 2: to make a kind of suppersive comedy within that playground
Speaker 2: of shame, and and and so I started drawing from
Speaker 2: all these very very specific and personal things, and so
Speaker 2: many things in the show. I mean, I remember in
Speaker 2: the end of You doing My Kennich Town at the
Speaker 2: end of episode one. My character has a panic attack
Speaker 2: at Kenish Town Forum. Okay, that that happened to me
Speaker 2: when I was booed off stage supporting Wu Tang clan.
Speaker 2: What yeah, yeah, Wu Tang were like two and a
Speaker 2: half hours late. So when someone finally came out on stage,
Speaker 2: you know, I came out and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's not method.
Speaker 1: Man, oh you got Oh no, that's unfortunate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I stayed. I stayed the course and just
Speaker 2: did an a cappella and I knew there would be
Speaker 2: kind of a more lyric our in the crowd, and
Speaker 2: you know, the booze turned to cheers. Short set I've
Speaker 2: ever done two minutes, turned the booze around some cheers.
Speaker 1: And got out of it.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: That was me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, too many, thank you. And and so there's so
Speaker 2: many things like you know, my character gets jumped as
Speaker 2: a kid in a park in Wembley. That was the
Speaker 2: park behind my parents' house. You know, it's a sweet
Speaker 2: shot they do to get sweets on Eve. We'd go
Speaker 2: there like it's even being approached by m I five
Speaker 2: to spy for them. That's happened to me like three
Speaker 2: times since I've becoming actor.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, as you mentioned that,
Speaker 1: have you ever unfortunately had to name drop who you
Speaker 1: are in terms of getting out of a situation that
Speaker 1: if you weren't who you were, it would have gone downhill?
Speaker 2: This is what I'm talking about is the opposite. They
Speaker 2: approached me because I was an actor that was increasingly
Speaker 2: well known. When when the security services were approaching me,
Speaker 2: they were like, you're an actor with a profile almost
Speaker 2: can you can you inspire for us? Can like? Can
Speaker 2: we talk to you? Can you help us with messages? So?
Speaker 2: And I just kind of shut the door to that,
Speaker 2: you know, But that's why I's depicted in the show. Right,
Speaker 2: let's happened to you several times. But what in terms
Speaker 2: of name dropping who I am? Now, it wasn't that,
Speaker 2: But I had a weird thing happened actually once at
Speaker 2: the airport in America. Was in Canada, Canadian border.
Speaker 1: Next thing he threw, Yes, they're the most intense he
Speaker 1: throw in Canada.
Speaker 2: Canada is intense, and MYAMMI is intense. Miami with the
Speaker 2: Cuban staff there who are like super like you know, Patriot,
Speaker 2: like there's a whole thing there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's ass backwards.
Speaker 2: I went to this thing while I was getting pulled
Speaker 2: aside in Canada or something, and they will keep you
Speaker 2: there for a long time. And this guy called me
Speaker 2: up and he goes. Finally, after the age is waiting
Speaker 2: and being rude, he goes and usually talk to someone.
Speaker 2: And I took the phone from him and it was
Speaker 2: a woman and she goes, can I tell you at
Speaker 2: home we have a light sabered pizza cutter.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: What. I was like, okay, And he took the phone
Speaker 2: back and he goes to my wife and I was
Speaker 2: like okay, and he starts nodding and filling in the paperworkers. Okay,
Speaker 2: now you've done that and performed for me in some
Speaker 2: way like you can bounce. And then I go with
Speaker 2: your wife, yeah, he goes, yeah, he goes, she's over there,
Speaker 2: and he points down the desk and like five kiosks
Speaker 2: down it's his wife is also a border control person
Speaker 2: of the desk, didn't me. I was like, this is
Speaker 2: so surreal. So it probably did help it go me
Speaker 2: out in some situations. And I didn't get stopped as
Speaker 2: much off that. But it was like a decade where
Speaker 2: coming to the US was like three and a half hours.
Speaker 1: You know, I apologize it, trust me. It got different
Speaker 1: once I turned forty five and suddenly people my age
Speaker 1: were the border patrol people. But even then I knew
Speaker 1: I had to look like questlove. So I had to
Speaker 1: wear a lego heart and have my afro pick out
Speaker 1: and you know.
Speaker 2: And yeah before your public self. Yeah, it's guess what
Speaker 2: bait is about. Really, it's about that, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 2: trying to see what people expect you to be.
Speaker 1: You made this for me wearing like a so let
Speaker 1: me ask. So, Shakespeare has been a passion of yours
Speaker 1: since your teens, and this year you're in Hamlet. So
Speaker 1: what about the classics, especially for this one attracted you
Speaker 1: to this role and in this particular interpretation of it? Like,
Speaker 1: what was the journey that it took to get here?
Speaker 2: You know, it was a long journey, he said. Like
Speaker 2: when I was a teenager, I felt like Shakespeare was
Speaker 2: the exact thing that I was. Epitomized everything that I
Speaker 2: was on the outside of. Right, it's like this stuffy
Speaker 2: British establishment thing. And I had an amazing teacher, a
Speaker 2: white Jewish guy from Wolverhampton who happened to speak fluent Punjabi.
Speaker 2: He took me under his wing, he gave me the plane, said,
Speaker 2: you feel like an outsider. Well, actually, sort of the
Speaker 2: characters the heart of these plays. So this guy Hamlet,
Speaker 2: you know, the most famous was Revered Shakespeare plays the
Speaker 2: heart of all this stuffiness you feel like doesn't belong
Speaker 2: to you. Check it out. He feels like you feel,
Speaker 2: And like so many teenagers and so many people of
Speaker 2: all ages around the world, like I saw what this
Speaker 2: guy's feeling, and I think it's actually how we're lot
Speaker 2: also feeling right now, which is like, is the world
Speaker 2: going crazy? Or have I lost my mind? You know,
Speaker 2: that's the central kind of thread in a way in Hamlet,
Speaker 2: and that feeling is something I latched onto and I've
Speaker 2: felt to different degrees throughout my life, and I think
Speaker 2: we all feel that way right now, and so I
Speaker 2: just really connected with it emotionally. I created connected with
Speaker 2: the language, the rhythm, the flow, the percussion of it.
Speaker 2: It reminded me of rap music in that way. But
Speaker 2: also a thing that really kind of struck me was
Speaker 2: that this quintessentially British play felt like this is the
Speaker 2: brownest thing I've ever read. This is like growing up
Speaker 2: in Wembley. This is about family due to honor, love
Speaker 2: kind of being you know, who you can and can't marry,
Speaker 2: being a family decision. You know, spirits in the afterlife
Speaker 2: feeling like they're part of people's lived experience. It just
Speaker 2: felt like very very relatable to me coming from an
Speaker 2: immigrant community. You know a lot of these old classic
Speaker 2: feel more relevant and more real almost setting some of
Speaker 2: these kind of just now. So yeah, all of those
Speaker 2: things kind of blew me away and it changed out
Speaker 2: how I saw myself in relation to the culture, and
Speaker 2: I thought I wanted to. I want to make a
Speaker 2: film of Hamlet, Like when I was seventeen, I remember
Speaker 2: thinking that. I was like, I want to, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: kind of blow it open and create a version that
Speaker 2: like a lot of people can see themselves in.
Speaker 1: Right now, What is your relationship with making music?
Speaker 2: I just put out of track two days ago. It
Speaker 2: was my first track in about four and a half
Speaker 2: years with Cass is Dead. You know Cass, the UK rapper.
Speaker 1: I've heard, but not not overly familiar.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, man, you You've got to checking stuff out.
Speaker 2: He's like a cult kind of figure.
Speaker 1: Okay, UK.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we've got the Bait as a soundtrack, and
Speaker 2: I've got a couple of tracks on there, so I
Speaker 2: exec produced the soundtrack. Georgia Smith is doing the lead
Speaker 2: song on it.
Speaker 1: Ah damn sure you know, of course.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a Bond themed TV show, right, so we
Speaker 2: needed a Bond song. So Georgia is doing our Bond song.
Speaker 2: It is a timeless, four blown Bond song.
Speaker 1: It's like nice, she's doing her shairly bassy thing.
Speaker 2: She's doing that full blown.
Speaker 1: Yeah nice.
Speaker 2: And then and so I just dropped this track with
Speaker 2: cass is Dead. All we good. It's just dropped two
Speaker 2: days ago. And that's also on the Bait soundtrack.
Speaker 1: Okay, My second to last is how has fatherhood changed you?
Speaker 2: It's maybe a lot more tired.
Speaker 1: Just look on your face right now, tell.
Speaker 2: Me, you know see how he's changing broke Like I
Speaker 2: mean it just you just have less time to like
Speaker 2: fuck around with stuff that you can't be bother to do,
Speaker 2: or you just start at the time, just you just
Speaker 2: start stripped back to the essentials that what do you
Speaker 2: really care about? Who do you really care about? It's
Speaker 2: just that you know, and if you're going to kill
Speaker 2: yourself make a TV show over like ten years or
Speaker 2: a movie over fifteen years, you better really care about it.
Speaker 2: So I'm proud to say, like these two things that
Speaker 2: are at the same time, they're very different, but I'm
Speaker 2: deeply passionate about what they have to say and putting
Speaker 2: them out there in the world. And yeah, I hope
Speaker 2: people can feel that when they experience it.
Speaker 1: Well, my final question is food related though, what is
Speaker 1: what is your local food heaven destination spot.
Speaker 2: Local food heaven destination spot. Yes, I'm going to shout needus.
Speaker 2: Grill Needs is a classic East London curry house and
Speaker 2: it features heavily an episode four of Bait. It is
Speaker 2: like every episode of Bait is like almost takes place
Speaker 2: in the different genre. And episode four is like Richard
Speaker 2: Lincolay a walk and talk, and it's a walk and
Speaker 2: talk through immigrant East London rather than like touristic Paris, right,
Speaker 2: And so it starts in Needs and it's in Needws
Speaker 2: and it's just banging Beryanni and Helem and Nihari and
Speaker 2: my mouth is watering even talking about it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: sharing Needs, man, it's just one of my faves.
Speaker 1: Well, I thank you for doing this, uh, I appreciate
Speaker 1: your artistry. Man, and you know, hopefully we can have
Speaker 1: a longer conversation about your because I have a billion
Speaker 1: questions about sound of metal. But I really admire you
Speaker 1: as everything that you've done in music and in film
Speaker 1: and and your artistry.
Speaker 2: Man, And thank you so much brother. Likewise, man, you
Speaker 2: know your music and what you what you've created, it has
Speaker 2: been a has inspired me for years and years man,
Speaker 2: And what you're doing now is doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: So thank you, Bro, appreciate it. Ris I met on
Speaker 1: the Quest Love Show and we'll see you guys next Gogram,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Quest Love Shows hosted by Me Mirror Questlove Thompson.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Sean g Brian Calhoun and Me. Produced
Speaker 1: Brittany Benjamin Jacob Payne. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown,
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