Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere [2016]

For everything that the Donald Trump/Brexit era has brought upon the world in the past 4 years, it hasn’t really brought as many politically charged musical performances and albums that people thought it would. Sure, “Fuck Donald Trump” was a huge protest song and Kendrick said some shit about it on DAMN., but in the mainstream people have been unusually tame, and besides one-off comments and remarks to finish a bar there isn’t much to sink your teeth into. While it’s probably lost in the maelstrom of truly terrible things that have come about in this time over here in America, over in Britain the resentment and mistreatment of people of Middle Eastern, Indian, and Muslim decent has been an ongoing an campaign waged by the conservative elements in that country. Trump famously wanted a “Muslim Ban” on people from Muslim majority countries, but this pales in comparison to the rampant and deep-rooted Islamophobia that has taken hold in the UK, and it’s an issue that, unlike in the United States, seems to be getting worse as time goes on. In comparison to America (where most people who harbor hatred have never seen a Muslim/Hindu in their lives), the proportion of white Britons to Indians/Pakistanis/etc. is much more equal, with whole neighborhoods in London and other major cities being dedicated to those nationalities. The tensions that arise from these groups living in London, and the discrimination they face both in the UK and here in America on a governmental level, are at the heart of the Swet Shop Boys, and their debut album as a group, Cashmere, is not only a rebuke to these racists elements, but also a celebration of the Indian/Pakistani cultures that make up the identities of the group’s members.

With Redinho (left) on the boards, Riz MC (middle, who you may recognize from films such as Venom and Star Wars Rogue One) and Heems (right) tell the tales of their respective peoples.

The Swet Shop Boys are a trio that formed in 2014, being made up of the Queens rapper and former Das Racist member Heems, the London rapper and well-known actor Riz MC (Rizwan Ahmed), and the London producer Redinho. Heems is the one with more skin in the game, having been around for a minute with the irreverent joke-rap group Das Racist with Kool AD. Since the group’s breakup Heems has been down for more introspective and culturally poignant rapping, which being with Riz in this capacity accomplishes. His rap style is very lazy, suave, scratchy, and still retains a little bit of the tongue-in-cheek nature of his Das Racist days. He never really gets… “deep” in the same way that Riz does, but his wordplay and his determination to be the more unconventional rapper on the cut is admirable. Riz on the other hand is a much more traditional emcee, with his pool of influences being distinctly American despite his London upbringing. People like Eminem, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne in some of his punchlines, round out his skills as a rapper, which I will say is noteworthy in the way he can string bars together, but I will admit some of his bars can be a bit corny. He’s never the “lyrical miracle” status that people like J. Cole throw around, so at least there’s that. However, the most profound and culturally relevant statements usually come from Rizwan, who seems willing to get down into the emotional tolls of living in places where anti-brown sentiment is at it’s highest.

Riz and Heems didn’t necessarily form the Swet Shop Boys to combat said “anti-brown” sentiment that has grown exponentially in the past five years. Case in point, their first project, Swet Shop EP, which was more of a feel-good indulgence of Eastern culture, and lyrically trended more towards party songs that heavily referenced things like Bollywood pop culture. But as the climate started to change around the world, especially in London, Heems and Riz (who were good friends beforehand) decided that the two together can make a profound statement in the Muslim/Hindi world. The combination of the two cultures alone is enough to respect, with the history between their respective countries and all the nastiness that comes with it put to the side in the pursuance of creating positive culture. Just on the surface of this record with its name, Cashmere, you can see the breaking of barriers; Heems heritage lies in India, and Riz’s family emigrated from Pakistan at an early age, and the clear reference to the Kashmir province demonstrates the importance culturally of bridging that gap. But this album is also inherently political, with many, many references to experiences of a brown man in Queens/London creating this large web of injustices and what have become social norms living in these places of deep discrimination. The album’s opener, T5, is an intense critique of the mistreatment of anyone who looks vaguely Muslim/Middle-Eastern travelling or fleeing as a refugee, with Heems summing it up with “we’re in trouble, TSA always trying to burst my bubble / always get a random check when I rock the stubble”. No Fly List continues this theme but with a more ignorant slant to it, with the hook “I’m so fly bitch / but I’m on the no fly list” being a backhanded compliment to the baller life Heems is leading.

The namesake of Cashmere, the Kashmir province has been point of major contention between India, Pakistan, and China for over half a century.

Shottin’ is the strongest political statement on the album and the best storytelling, telling the tale of a drug dealer turned devout Muslim; the man used to sell crack, and while the police were on his case while he was slinging, whenever he decided to go straight, grow a beard, and turn himself to the faith, the attention paid to him from the law was even more severe. As a “Terrorist sympathizer”, they get him on tape saying jokingly that he should build a bomb for ISIS in Syria. Both Heems and Riz MC have fantastic verses with the former saying “cause I like Islam they think I build bombs / I would quit, but too bad cause I is strong”, and Riz’s stellar storytelling with “He used to move weight down Grove / had a mate in the freight game move down low / but since he put the stick down bro and grew a beard now the pig at his door like WOAH”. The hook is a strong as hell, with the great back and forth between Riz and Heems cementing their partnership, and the lyrics really sending the message of the track home: “He had less heat when he was shottin’ / now the feds on his case say he’s plottin'”. The beat is a wonky distorted synth-bass with this smooth chime melody, but the drums, like much of the album, draw from more traditional Indo-Pakistani origin. It really is a banger, with those steady kicks hitting hard, creating an inviting pocket for rapping.

The beats on here show some interesting decisions on how to go about creating an album of Middle Eastern influence. I read in an interview while researching this album, where Riz said in instructions to Redihno that he didn’t want Cashmere to just be “sitars with drums behind it” like people would expect; he wanted deep, culturally relevant music of both Pakistani and Indian origin. Well, Redihno came through for these dudes, because not only are the moods and feels different across the project, but the influences are widespread while still remaining cohesive. While a few tracks like T5 and Din-e-llahi are more traditional, older sounds from the region like Qawwali devotional music, other cuts like Aaja, Tiger Hologram, and Half Mogul Half Mowgli are much more modern reflections of genres like Bhangra (popularized by the overwhelming Bollywood attachment) and other Indo-Pakistani dance music. Tiger Hologram with it’s cheap synths, club chirps, and it’s danceable groove sound like something you’d hear coming from Delhi Club. Aaja is a rather boldfaced tribute to Bollywood, with it’s heavily inspired hook, traditional drums, and it’s super fast ascending and descending sitars, almost like a dueling sitars situation. Half Mogul Half Mowgli is a much darker cut, with the biting and multi-perspective lyrics given weight by it’s mystical flutes and rigid and marching drum scales. Like the previous track, Din-e-llahi (which basically means religious harmony among people) slows it down with its lethargic and sludgy guitars, muffled and distorted in front of haunting vocal adlibs from Heems and Riz; it’s lowkey scary listening to this cut, but I think the audio darkness here is slightly unintentional. Shoes Off is even more hands off with spacey reed flutes, and an almost boom-bap feel to the drums. But the king of the minimal tracks on here is Phone Tap, which features rolling bongos, a slick repeating guitar lick, and buried keyboards; the whole thing together is a mysterious refrain from the normal bustle of the album. But I think the bangers are where this album really takes off for me. Swish Swish, a Heems solo track, is a bassy track fronted by chirpy synths; the percussion is particularly details with all sorts of clicks and swipes, making it sound like the track is performed in some sort of cave. Zayn Malik, the lead single off of this project, stuns with it’s crispy Indian drums, fuzzy and furiously distorted guitar chords, and these almost industrial notes that rip the track apart. No Fly List has an absolutely insane drop, with the shrill synth lead-up giving way to a deeper futuristic synth melody with wet bass slaps and claps; the track gives off heavy Das Racist vibes in it’s goofiness, but the subject matter firmly roots it in Cashmere’s motif. But the intro track, T5, was one of the most explosive openers of 2016 for good reason: the kicks are strong, and I honestly don’t know what instrument it is, but this stretched and pitched-down ?horn? that wails away during the track is super provocative. The way Heems and Riz attack this beat is vicious, and their chemistry is set immediately on this track, both thematically and instrumentally with Redihno behind the boards.

The imagery of the Swet Shop Boys is also very intriguing: here is a tiger paw, which is clearly Indian inspired, and a unmanned drone, which is symbolic of the survailence state many people of color face here in America and over the pond in the UK,

The UK recently had another election, one that ended up with the Conservative Party claiming a majority government, all but ensuring that the chaotic situation that has been unfolding for years would continue well into the future. In many ways the stories and perspectives presented on Cashmere are more relevant than ever, especially over in London, for with the rise of this ignorant, “victimized” wave of grassroots hatred comes *actual* victimization of minorities. Heems lived this life in Queens, and Riz MC lived it in London, and coming together to not only celebrate the deep cultures they have come to represent, but also shed light on the targeted attacks on their peoples is not only a noble endeavor, but it is also the ESSENCE of Hip-Hop. The genre is where the marginalized can come together and, poetically and sometimes aggressively, spit their life experiences. In that way, Cashmere earns the highest of recommendations from me. It’s a shame the group has been so quiet in the past few years. Sufi LA, a short EP released the year after Cashmere came out, came out to little fanfare and applause on Record Store Day (but that probably had more to do with the fact that it was a vinyl exclusive for a long time), and while it was a fun listen, didn’t have the depth of their debut album. Inshallah, Riz and Heems will come together again, especially in a time that seems to need them now more than ever.

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