Roots Manuva
Awfully Deep
(Banana Klan)
Two albums ago, on Run Come Save Me, Roots Manuva laid down the British MC styles that spawned the sounds of UK hip-hop phenoms The Streets and Dizzee Rascal. His third album, Awfully Deep, reaffirms that Roots Manuva remains a forward-moving and current artist. He speaks a seemingly arhythmic rap that tips its hat to Jamaican toasting but comes at you with a rat-a-ta-tat, seemingly off kilter. The beats are a landscape of video games, world beat and ambient electronica. Everything comes together perfectly, sounding like it shouldn’t: “… I don’t give a damn about UK rap/I am UK black, making you tracks/I got love for every one of them scenes/and them pigeonholes were never nothing to hold me….”
—Colin MacKenzie
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
