Beats, rhymes and life

A very impromptu Fabric outing on Friday lead me to see the world famous, my favourite, DJ Craze, and he did not disappoint. Always a master of the decks, this guy's showmanship is legendary - not just banging out the dirtiest beats and scratching like the DMC master he is, he flips records, spins around and is basically like a highly skilled cocktail maker, using vinyl instead of mixing jugs.

So wanting to relive the experience, I logged in to my FabricFirst online account to see if the live mix recording had been uploaded. Of course not, but what I did come across was Riz MC. I very, very, vaguely knew this guy at university, and through small worldness, we have current friends in common. Whilst his acting career is currently blazing, I was impressed by his MCing session. His lyrical content had the intelligence you'd expect of an Oxford grad, and I particularly liked his acapella, "Losing my religion to tomorrow's headlines." The spit was all about the misplaced fear in the modern media of Islam, and the failure amongst many leading politicans to realise that much of the frustration amongst this community comes from social deprivation, lack of opportunities and the capitalist system failing. Cilvaringz is another intelligent rapper who discusses similar issues, you can check him out on Wu Tang records. Riz also has a track called, "Radar", which explores ingrained stereotypes and how they create barriers within communities. I look forward to his album dropping and wish him luck.