Riz MC
Microscope
Release Date: Jun 19, 2012
Genre(s): Rap, Pop/Rock
Record label: Tru Thoughts
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Album Review: Microscope by Riz MC
Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
So what we’ve got here is 10 noisy Brit-rap songs, four electro-experimental “skits”, and eight remixes, all of which somehow yields four versions of “All of You”, Riz MC’s worst song and maybe not coincidentally his sex song. Not that sex raps are necessarily bad—Florida’s Trina and White Dawg have clearly proven as much. But when Riz turns to love, he sounds like he’s reading from the Harlequin Historical series.
Based on rating 3/5
You’ll know Riz Ahmed as one of a bunch of hapless terrorists in Four Lions, and you’ll soon know him as the lead in Plan B’s film iLL Manors. But unlike fellow thespians who’ve embarrassed themselves by picking up the microphone (Depp, Crowe, Hasselhoff), Ahmed as Riz MC has stepped up to the plate as something of a hard hitter. Thought-provoking social topics pepper ‘MICroscope’, perhaps unsurprisingly from an Oxford University PPE graduate.
Based on rating 3/5
Overlooked when it came out early last year, this accomplished debut by Riz Ahmed is being rereleased as a deluxe package, with added remixes, by his new label Tru Thoughts. Though better known as a film actor – he recently starred in Trishna and ill Manors – Ahmed radiates ambition and promise as an MC. No question his lyrics are smart – spiked with sardonic humour on All in the Ghetto; nuanced and refreshingly honest when he tackles Islamophobia on Sour Times – but they can sound studied, valuing intricacy over flow.
Opinion: Very Good
The equivalent of setting up a city-sized PA system and cranking it to maximum. Adam Kennedy 2012 Given hip hop's topicality moves with such velocity that references in last week's hot record are often superseded come the following Monday, reissuing a record that originally saw the light of day over 12 months previously appears a tad futile. Quite a bit, however, has passed since the original release of London rhymer Riz MC's MICroscope.