Idris Elba enlisted Guy Ritchie to direct Rudimental’s new music video.
The 52-year-old actor appears on the track London Burning, taken from the new album by the drum-and-bass trio – Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon “Locksmith” Rolle – called RUDIM3NTAL, and they were shocked when they found out he asked the Hollywood director to work with them.
Piers told the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column: “Idris Elba was in town and he came in the studio, and just started rapping. We had sent him the record and he loved it, and so it was just a real organic thing.
“But then in the middle of the studio session, he just calls Guy Ritchie, and he’s on a shoot, but Idris is like, ‘Have you ever done a music video? You should do their music video.’
“And so it was just a funny day because he was just casually calling Guy Ritchie, one of the best, most famous directors, a legend.”
Idris – best known for starring in the BBC thriller – sings on London Burning, which has been described as having a heavy sound.
Piers added: “It’s got like a Prodigy element to it. Which we are all big fans of, and it’s just a really, really great tune.”
Whilst Idris was working with Rudimental, Kesi decided to take the opportunity to ask if he could record a birthday message for his girlfriend.
He recalled: “He is one of the coolest people in Britain, and when he was with us, I got him to do a video for my girlfriend because it was her birthday the next day.
“That’s probably the best present I’ve ever given her, I didn’t even realise how much it would mean to her.”
And Piers said making RUDIM3NTAL was “a lot of fun”.
He added: “The album is drum and bass, some jungle flavours too, but it is our first fully drum and bass album, all the others have been multi-genre.
“It was a lot of fun to make that kind of album, and we’ve played a lot of it in our shows over the past two years.
“It does go off, yeah!”