British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed debuts hard-hitting rap 'Sour Times' as mirror to society

"I'm losing my religion to tomorrow's headlines," he sings

"In these sour times, please allow me to vouch for mine,
Bitter taste in my mouth, spit it out with a rhyme,
I'm losing my religion to tomorrow's headlines."

These are the opening words of the Sour Time, a spoken-word poem written by Pakistani-British actor Riz Ahmed. The actor - who is known for films such as The Reluctant Fundamentalist - performed the 10-years-old rap on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon yesterday, in the wake of the Charlottesville incidents.



The event saw a car driven onto a group of protesters in the North Carolina city. "I wrote this piece ten years ago and I keep hoping that it will become irrelevant but every year, it seems to become more and more relevant," Riz told the show's host Jimmy Fallon before starting the rap.

"See, there's thousands of angry young men that are lost,
sidelined in the economy, a marginal cost," reads another passionate line from Sour Times. "They're easy targets, that be getting brainwashed by these knobs who say that spilling innocent blood is pleasing a god."

This is not the first time Riz has made headlines with his nuanced insight on socio-economic discrepancies. He  dubs skewed representations of minorities and unequal opportunities  as the root cause of terrorism.

The actor has previously gone on record saying, "If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism. In the mind of the IS recruit, he’s the next James Bond, right? Have you seen some of those IS propaganda videos? They are cut like action movies. Where is the counter-narrative? Where are we telling these kids they can be heroes in our stories?”

Riz's acting career has also been the flag-bearer of dismal realities of Muslim diaspora. His most noteworthy performances have been in the realm of race, religion and labels about Muslims, just like the words of his poem. "Well, it sounds good when you don’t see no justice or jobs, the gas bills are piling up, but all the oil's getting robbed," he continues.



“Right now, the story that seems to have taken over people’s imagination is that we live in an ‘us versus them’ world. And, we have to push back against that. We’re all in this together,” Riz said at the Elle Style Awards back in February. His stance is aptly summarised in the lyric "The truth is, terrorism ain't what you think it is. There ain't no super-villain planning these attacks from some base."

Watch the video here:


Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.