UK rapper MC Riz — aka Riz Ahmed, the Emmy Award-winning actor from The Night Of and Rogue One — is releasing his debut album this spring. In a press release issued today, Riz revealed the album’s title and release date, as well as describing it as, “a breakup record about being dumped by the country you call home.” It’s called The Long Goodbye and it’s due March 6 on Riz’s own Mongrel record label. It’ll be his first release without the MC Riz moniker as just “Riz Ahmed.”
Produced by his Swet Shop Boys collaborator Redinho, the nine-track album will address the current climate of xenophobia and nationalism currently sweeping Riz’s native England. In this climate of ‘immigrants out!’ it’s about that feeling of being kicked out of a house that you built,” he says of the album’s theme. The project will also be accompanied by a short film of the same name directed by Sundance jury prize-winner Aneil Karia. The film will also examine prejudice, institutional racism, and the tribalism that often prompts violence and its made in conjunction with the editorial platform of WeTransfer, WePresent.
Riz plans to go on a short tour of secret shows in both Manchester and New York. You can get more info here.
The Long Goodbye is out 03/06 via Riz Ahmed’s label Mongrel.
