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 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.The gospel according to Mr Smith. Stockwell rapper Rodney Smith is in an enviable position. His first album went silver, his second went gold and his third, Awfully Deep, is receiving praise from all sides on the eve of its release. And rightly so – it’s an absolute corker that sees him move up a gear after the success of Run Come Save Me. “The first two records had a kind of minimal vibe,” he muses. “A dusty, crusty, makeshift vibe. But now I’m really getting into the studio science of it all, creating a wider sonic picture. Before it was more about subtlety. This time it’s a kind of over-exuberance, it’s ‘Welcome to the studio!’.” Don’t worry though, the elements that make Roots Manuva a unique proposition - warped baritone chants, lucid leftfield patter, off-kilter beats and digital dub bass - have not been diluted by the extra production. If anything they’re more pronounced. There’s extra variation, too. Rebel Heart picks up the tempo to an almost Grime-y level (although he disputes the Grime tag) and A Haunting sounds like Gil Scott-Heron on mushrooms.  Roots Manuva in conversation and session at BBC Maida Vale But to him it’s still just hip-hop. “What I’m doing is my own interpretation of what Dr Dre would do, or Ludacris or Eminem. I’m making a hip-hop record. I’m not trying to make a record for people who don’t like hip-hop.” But people who don’t like hip-hop do like Roots Manuva. I suggest it has something to do with the lyrics, the fact that he makes himself vulnerable, admitting to all sorts of inner unrest, that it’s not riddled with machismo and “frontin’”, that it’s more British. He’s not convinced. “My rap IS about machismo and it is showing off linguistically, and showing off the imagination. It may not be as stereotypical as the standard American rap might be. But their whole socialism and their cultural background is totally different. The elements are still there but it surfaces in a different way. People like Eminem – he’s really discussing stuff about the detail of his personal life. Me, I’ll throw in a little splash, but it’s all done with an underlying feeling of dark humour. I’m laughing at myself laughing at myself. It’s a crazy kind of blues.” It’s no secret that Rodney’s had his “issues”. A religious upbringing gave him “a guilt complex and a strange perception of right and wrong”, and his love for getting high and wild nights out have caused exploratory visits to clinics “for drying up, getting off drugs”. Not to mention the odd hallucination (“I’ve seen a cab driver turn from a lizard into a human”). But it’s not to be taken too literally: “I’m aping a misery. I can get moody but I’m not that moody,” he laughs.  So where next for the UK’s premier rap star? “I really want to get back into the studio and write another one. I feel I’m so much more prepared to make a better record now. I didn’t feel like that after Run Come Save Me. Then I was like, ‘Ah cool, I don’t care if I don’t make another record.’ But after this one I’m gagging to go back and make another.” And America? “I’ve shunned it for most of my career. I think the insight’s going to hit me one day. I’m going to have to face up to my responsibility and try to put my finger on the record that can do it. It may not be a Roots Manuva record, it might be a collaboration with a number of people. Whether I’m the person that’s right for the job I don’t know.” Based on Awfully Deep he’s our best shot. But who cares, he will always be a British treasure.
Alastair Lee
Roots Manuva – Awfully Deep, released 31 January 05 on Big Dada.
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 big dadalabel profile  roots manuvasingles #110
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