Three long time on from the dark that was Awfully Deep, Stockwell's Rodney Smith returns. In an genre dominant with up-and-coming MCs all vying to knock the crown from the head of stream rulers of the mic, such a gap may seem like a suicidal career move. But when you're as original, interesting and well, deep as Mr Manuva the usual rules don't apply. Slime & Reason should shut up any young pretenders out at that place, at least for a while.
Of path another reason for the hiatus has been Smith's not-so-private battles with his own demons. Those apprehensive that his flow has been...erm...blunted by indulgence volition be relieved at the first playact of this many-sided album. Jauntily delivery a muscular slice of Studio One deep remnant and dancehall smarts to the opener Over And Over, it seems like Roots has had time to lighten up up as well. That's not to say that he doesn't address personal issues. It's Me Oh Lord inside information his struggles trying to preach the gospels of truth and light. The pentecostal strand learned in childhood rings as loud as ever here. And On I'm A New Man he makes atonement for past times indulgences.
As if to signal his awareness of the post-pubescent competition he does upgrade the sound somewhat. There are more burbling parallel synth sounds and the mix is sparser, relying on the bass to carry you through. Oddly it's this head drooping towards newer hybrids that mark the album's broken points. The Toddla T-assisted Buff Nuff visits the same priapic territory that Dizzee Rascal's recently visited. But urban music's about asserting your pedigree and as he points out in that fabulous mocknee growl on Well Alright, "They got a little chatter but they got no brain". Elsewhere the string-led R'n'B of A Man's Talk is only too squarely hip hop compared to the other delights on offer here.
But it's really the Carribean flvours of the hilarious Do Nah Bodda Mi or the dubwise Well Alright that show that his pen is just as sharp as it was. As incessantly, the man serves up a fulgent mixture of fun, doomy retribution, guilt-ridden dread and loping oddness. Welcome back Rodney...
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