Roots Manuva - Bleeds, album review: 'remains our most original rapper'

Rapper Rodney Smith has lost none of his edge - despite a move to suburban Surrey - on his sixth album
Witty wordplay: Roots Manuva references Walkers crisps and sends up cliches on album six
Shamil Tanna
Andre Paine30 October 2015

Rapper Rodney Smith has surprised everyone – including himself – by swapping Stockwell for suburban Esher.

Roots Manuva - Bleeds

“What the heck are you doing in Surrey?” he asks on his sixth album. Yet there’s no sign that the artist known as Roots Manuva has lost his edge.

The sweary social commentary of Hard Bastards is an uncompromising opener on a record that utilises the sharp production of Four Tet and Switch. Smith is also famed for his witty wordplay on songs that send up hip-hop clichés.

True to form, the bleepy, bouncy One Thing rhymes Lamborghini with snakeskin bikini and even manages to reference Walkers crisps. On Don’t Breathe Out he fashions a beguiling hybrid of hip-hop and disco from a Barry White sample.

Often eccentric, never boorish, Roots Manuva remains our most original rapper.

(Big Dada)

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