Riz Ahmed

And so in the same way that when I listen to...

Some of my favorite rappers, new songs.

I don't know what they say the first time around, but I am totally rapped.

I'm totally leaning in.

I'm engaged.

I feel it emotionally.

It's the same way.

Your first experience of this thing is supposed to be like music.

You didn't catch all of the words, but that word there felt weird enough to make you sit up.

And what you're supposed to do is receive an electric charge of rhythm and melody and musicality, just like rap music.

But that's not the actual experience of these plays.

So I wish people, more people spoke about Shakespeare in that way because to me it is much more like music than it is like, you know, an English class.

You know, I think it's an inevitable one to make, really.

You know, if you're interested in poetry, if you're interested in lyricism, if you're interested in rhythm, like Shakespeare's doing that.

He's playing in all those arenas.

And so it was clear to me very early on, but something that isn't also lost on me is at the same time I was studying under Rob Clair and doing a master's in classical acting, which is essentially just a master's and just in Shakespeare performance.

That's when I started on the rap battle circuit in London and things like Jump Off and Battle Scars and Bombay Bronx and...

you know, competing in all these championships.

And so it did somehow in my mind feel like it's one thing.

So I grew up in the mid-90s in the UK.