Roots Manuva, C or D?

I like him. I mean, last year was meant to be "the year" for British hip-hop, but all we really got chartwise was Mark B and Blade's faux- Americanisms, and Mr Manuva. He's important as a kinda focal point for the scene, for starters. "Run Come Save Me" is great, and easily the best of the Mercury shortlisted albums.

Point of course being that he has no hope in hell of getting over outside of the UK to any great degree, because, like the best British rappers, he can only really speak to a British audience. The bitter, the cheese on toast, etc etc.

Well, I'm in Australia. Obviously it's a very Anglo-centric culture here, but I'm not sure that you have to be American, or poor, or black, or in the hood or whatever to appreciate to appreciate Gangsta rap, just as you don't have to be English to appreciate Roots Manuva.

I think what you're really trying to say, and I hope I'm not being too presumptuous here, is that Roots Manuva will never catch on in America, because Americans on the whole tend to be very insular, etc. etc. and would rather listen to Eminem or Snoop or whatever than make an effort to appreciate something too far outside of their own cultural vicinity.

yeah, but amaericans are also unlikely to wanna hear an english artist faking americans - Mark B and Blade have eben LESS of a presence 'over there'...

i know Roots is well respected in the States amongst hip-hop artists themselves, and has performed at Lyricist Lounge, etc. he'll never be huge, granted.

but i'd have to say classic, all the way. 'brand new second hand' is a stunning album as well. i love the woozy, melancholic and menacing twists his music can take, while still being pretty minimalistic in its instrumentation. the brittle synths on the first record, and the dub/reggae influences on the second suggest that he's bringing to bear a more colloquial dialect of hip hop, and that's no bad thing in my book...

I don't know if anyone really listens to hip-hop word for word, anyway, do they? I know I just tend to zoom in on particular phrases and things on repeated listenings. I do think it's a bit much to say that one line's going to 'alienate' listeners--they'll probably just shrug it off and move onto the next line.

Strangely, for ages I preferred Brand New Second Hand, I loved the whole seedy undercurrent running through it which you don't get so much of in the second album. It reminded me of a lot of things about where I come from that I love, and equally a lot of things I've always tried to keep away from... it felt like someone wandering throughout London, from the City to Peckham and back and recording what they saw, in the same way that Karl Hyde used to say he did, but at the time it didn't sound *quite* like anything else I'd ever heard.

I think, with Roots, The Voice is everything. If you can't get past that (as I know a fair few people can't) then you're not going to get anywhere with him.

Any Manuva fans out there who haven't listened to Alternatley Deep for fear of it being a bunch of inferior offcuts should definately check it out - I got it the other day, and It's as good as if not better than Awfully. The grooves are much more minimal and dirty. I'd go as far as to say it's my favourite of his albums, but I'm in my honeymoon period with it.

Agreed. It's stunning. It's a pity he's thinking of retiring, because he's only getting better - as his beats get harder, dirtier, darker. Remains so underrated...

New single!:
http://www.rootsmanuva.co.uk/rootsmanuva/

He seems to be sticking with the dirty groove thing.

I don't know if anyone really listens to hip-hop word for word, anyway, do they? I know I just tend to zoom in on particular phrases and things on repeated listenings. I do think it's a bit much to say that one line's going to 'alienate' listeners--they'll probably just shrug it off and move onto the next line.

-- OCP, Monday, August 12, 2002 8:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^ this guy

new single isnt very good. seems like that type of novelty/silly/lightweight/ZANY! dancehall big dada seem to specialise in. i dont care if toddla t produced it.

Anyone else excited for new album on Monday? I see the lex gave it a good review today.

Loved Awfully Deep, hoping this will be half as good.

I didn't like Awfully Deep much. Liked Run Come Save Me.

Alternately Deep>Awfully Deep. Awfully is still great though.

Lex gives it four but I don't know.

Is someone i.e. Lex going to tell me whether the Mavado album is worth getting?

First impression: really excellent.

Any other impressions? I forgot this was out.

http://www.juslikemusic.com/roots-manuva-slime-reason/

oh i didn't see this marcello. i don't have the mavado album - you mean the one from last year right? unless he has a new one out. obv 'touch di road' is classic and i like the bits & pieces i've heard otherwise. should really get it myself.

don't think i'm as into the new roots as i was into awfully deep but it's still very good.

it wouldn't be a grating article about roots manuva if it didn't mention that he mentions pints (!!!!) and other quaintly english things in his records.

http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2009/02/roots-manuva-smith-london

A LondonIST? What?

"a piece of Jamaican pop culture embedded in the DNA of the hypothetical "nation" of London"

well, if we're going to give nations dna, we may as well give it to hypothetical ones too.

dunno about the last album. hhc made it their best album of 2008 but i thought it was prob his weakest. i preferred him before he started getting so much mainstream love, not cos i want to claim him for the underground or anything, just that i think thats stifled him a bit, or made him feel he has to tick certain boxes each time out now.

he's been getting mainstream love for literally ten years.

Shoulda really got tround to listening to the last album coz everything before that is great but I just couldn't be arsed. Toddla T and all that.

Would like to see a pie chart showing how many Roots Manuva articles drop the fact that he once mentioned 'cheese on toast'.

maybe, but when awfully deep came out, thats when he really started getting write ups in say, the standard and places like that. thats when the 'oooh he talks about cheese on toast and pints of bitter' brigade got all excited.

I gave Slime & Reason a couple of listens but nothing about it made me want to get to know it any better, which is sad given how much I love the previous one.

i feel sorry for him in a way - he prob thinks he has to act more chappier with each new album lol

he just seemed to be going through he motions on slime and reason. i miss him just rhyming for the sake of rhyming like on run come save me (his best album imo). i dont need him to undergo self psycho analysis on each album.

Roots Manuva on coke > Roots Manuva on weed

I'm a big fan of S&R. Themeatically and lyrically it's a bit more rote than previous efforts, but musically a lot of it is astonishing.

I think I've done it before, but I must big up the overlooked Alternately Deep, which is possibly my favourite of his, it certainly trumps Awfully. There's some filthy bass on that album.

a lot of roots' (and big dada albums in general) could do with a bit of sonic beefing up. his albums sound weedier than they should do. maybe thats down to his apparent interest in techno and dance, i dunno.

I've just realised I'm a RM 'stan', to use the parlance of our times.

i feel sorry for him in a way - he prob thinks he has to act more chappier with each new album lol

There is no way in hell Awfully Deep is "chappier" than Run Come Save Me.

I didn't like Awfully Deep much compared to Run Come Save Me. Can't remember if chappiness (or lack of) was a factor in that tho.

he needs to do a chappy concept album.

Maybe a cover of Parklife?

Slime is terrific for beats, probably his best. I agree that Alternately Deep is his classic so far. Also a huge "stan."

Was thinking of starting a Manuva PO10 thread, but he doesn't seem to be enormously popular here, so I'll just hijack this one.

Movements
Soul Decay
Clockwork
Witness (1 Hope)
Dreamy Days
A Haunting
Toothbrush
Double Drat
Nobody's Dancing
A Man's Talk

Pretty hard, I could name 20 I love easy.

4everevolution is fantastic. Depressing that this thread will die, that any comments will be about Revolverlution or whatever that Chuck D album was called, and that he's been so terminally unhip that I can barely get a 40 year old lol. Anyway, it's great, energetic, and lyrically as absorbing as ever.

Had no idea he had a new one out, will get on it pronto.

Yeah, it's terrific. Slightly too long but a great diverse reminder of all the things he does so well plus some new twists, eg The Throes Of It.

Never really got into the last album despite adoring Awfully Deep. Think I just veered away from any kind of hip hop at all, for some reason.

im scared of hearing the new one. i dont know if i want to hear RM doing his 'pop' album

crap title though

Still not heard it, but I read a review which said he does more singing on it, which I´m excited about. he has a great reggae voice.

It's not really his "pop" album. Some pop moments but then there always have been, and there's equal amounts of sub-bassy paranoia.

Crap title agreed

I could get with him singing more.

Listened, it's very good indeed. The more electro-y production was a good move, it's lifted him out of the doldrums.

Can't stop listening to Revelation. Last verse is killer.

Excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYtuovbh6Rk

New single out, A side produced by Four Tet though I actually prefer the B, produced by Machinedrum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2I6fOudBag

New album a little heavy on the self-consciously mature ballads, but this one is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0w2A76JA2c

Love this album.

Cargo > Me Up! > Stepping Hard > One Thing is an amazing run of songs.

i like the new album. much more than the last two which seemed lighthearted-borderline-lightweight. it is weird reading some reviews of it though, its like people are still quoting that cheese on toast line, and seemingly unable to critique his music beyond him being eccentric (which obv he is, more so than ever before i think), or just with any sort of seriousness they would another artist of his stature/reputation. some of that wrongtom collabo album i think was some of his all time best of the last decade or so though. its good just to hear him going for it rather than trying to make a proper serious album etc etc.

His best since Run Come Save Me, imo.

I interviewed Rodney for the Quietus last month, apologies for the self-promotion http://thequietus.com/articles/19228-roots-manuva-interview-bleeds

His best since Run Come Save Me, imo.

As a coherent album certainly, though there's at least an album's worth of terrific tracks which could be plucked from his work in the interim.

awfully deep was his last good one....

Awfully Deep remains his peak, just much more consistently great than RCSM. I thought Slime And Reason was really good tho, even tho even at the time it seemed like a bit of a temporary diversion into a sound that he was never gunna stick with, I think it helped having one producer throughout. The last album I remember absolutely nothing of. The new one I have only played once so far, but it may well be up there with his best. I don't have any year end lists to write, so I can take my time, prolly get back to this sometime in the new year, when I'm back riding around in cars with people and staying nights in other peoples beds. My living room is too big and chilly for this sort of thing right now, I need warm fuzzy enclosed spaces.

stevie : ta for the link.
not read that before.
and i had no idea that the new album is basically an on-u production !!?
or is that just a couple of tracks?
loved roots answer re doug.

my fave roots manuva album is the oft forgotten wrongtom collaboration album.

most of the tracks are produced by a bloke called Fred, but Sherwood is credited with additional production and mixing on most tracks - i get the impression he was overseeing the project, like an executive producer or summat

four tet does one song too.

"my fave roots manuva album is the oft forgotten wrongtom collaboration album."

this is totally underrated. i think his efforts to sate those who buy into the roots brand has meant that the proper albums are good but kind of mindful of who seems to be buying his albums these days/going to his shows. the wrongtom album seemed like something he did more for fun/less overthinking/less careerism/more - and this might be TOTALLY specious - what he would prefer to make.

yeah, facety is great. is that sample "boat-race"? great bit of cockney slang flavour, if so.

not sure. but i kept thinking it made me think of an old diplo/MIA kind of thing.

The Machinedrum produced b-side to Facety, which I posted upthread, is good too.

http://thequietus.com/articles/19228-roots-manuva-interview-bleeds

very good interview btw

thank you!

So is Roots Manuva well and truly retired now? Eight years now with almost no presence in the public eye (except that "Jazzy B" vid). I know his mental-health issues caused some on-stage breakdowns in the mid 2010s, and I get the impression that even for the recording of Bleeds he had to be propped up by his entourage. But Bleeds was such a strong album, with such a fresh and honest lyrical approach, and I sure hope he's got more work in him.

Bleeds was one of his best works - dark as fuck, absolutely unforgiving and very powerful. He was definitely struggling back then - I interviewed him for The Quietus, having interviewed him a few times before, and it was clear he was going through stuff and not totally on top of it. I'd love to hear another album but I want him to get as well as he can first.

I saw him at Islington Town hall just before Bleeds came out and it was a great show - Rodney seemed sober and totally on top of his material.

A year or so later what was supposed to be his 'biggest hometown show ever' at the Troxy was an alarming contrast. He stumbled onto stage after the poor backing band had been touting his arrival for a good ten minutes, cut songs off after eight bars to incoherently (yet cheerfully) ramble at the audience, and every time you thought he was carrying a rhyme you soon realised it was actually a back-up rapper stepping up.

The only thing saving it from being an utterly depressing experience was the evident affection and goodwill towards him from the crowd despite all this. He was gently herded off the stage after about half the intended set at best. The discrepancy in togetherness during his duet with Charli 2NA was particularly painful.

Anyway, I'm glad he has been avoiding the limelight if that was what it led him towards. Get well, Rodders.

I assumed he had been completely silent since there was no new music, nor anything in the news. I should have checked for an official Facebook page first. There he acknowledged that he had a "serious brain injury" in 2018, spent months in hospital then, and still has not regained full mobility. This both explains the lack of new music, and shows I was quite wrong about him keeping entirely out of the public eye.