Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere

Swet Shop Boys (Heems & Naz from 'The Night Of') announce LP, share "T5," playing NYC

Rap duo Swet Shop Boys, comprised of Das Racist’s Heems and British rapper/actor MC Riz (aka Riz Ahmed), released their debut EP back in 2014. Since then Riz has acquired quite a bit more notoriety as an actor, appearing as Naz in HBO’s acclaimed The Night Of in addition to appearances in the likes of Nightcrawler and Jason Bourne (not to mention an upcoming role in Star Wars: Rogue One). So the announcement of a debut LP from the duo and the sharing of a new song called “T5” might come as a surprise to people who didn’t know that Ahmed was a rapper. But he is, has been for a long time, and is a very good one! The pair recently spoke to the New Yorker about their music:

They were influenced by both Qawwali Sufi devotional music and by American rap. “Rap is a protest form of music,” Heems said. “If I was writing, like, indie-rock songs about racism, that might not really work, you know?”

For its part, “T5” is a powerful track, an angry-funny, politically charged take on the racial profiling at airports that the Indian-American Heems and the British-Pakistani MC Riz undoubtedly have to deal with on a regular basis.

The new album is called Cashmere and it drops on October 14 via Customs. Listen to “T5” and check out the tracklist below.

The duo will play NYC on November 17 at Rough Trade. Tickets go on sale Friday (9/16) at noon.

Swet Shop Boys — Cashmere tracklist
01 T5
02 Shottin
03 Aaja
04 Zayn Malik
05 Tiger Hologram
06 No Fly List
07 Phone Tap
08 Half Moghul Half Mowgli
09 Swish Swish
10 Shoes Off
11 Din-E-Llahi