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FallGuide2009

Roots Manuva | Slime and Reason

Big Dada/Ninja Tune (2008)
By ANDREW GRAHAM  |  October 15, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars
rootsmaunvaINSIDE.jpg
By the time rap music arrived in California, it had already outgrown its original Bronx blueprint: early Left Coast tracks, released in the same year as classics by De La Soul, Public Enemy, and BDP, sound passé for their era. No surprise, then, that it took the UK a while to produce rap that reflected more than a reworking of already retired US sounds. Dizzee Rascal, the Streets, and Lady Sovereign have had transatlantic “crossover” success, but the richest fruit of British rap’s gestation period is the growing catalogue of Roots Manuva. Slightly less coherent than his previous stunner, Awfully Deep, Slime & Reason has tracks intended to fill dance floors and cuts that are more layered, their intricate beats and rhymes better suited to headphone enjoyment. The opener, “Again & Again,” does marry the floor filler with the head nodder; that established, bombastic bangers like “Do Nah Bodda Mi” and the single “Buff Nuff” can live comfortably alongside moodier, more introspective cuts like “Let the Spirit,” “I’m a New Man,” and “Struggle.”
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  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music,  More more >
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ARTICLES BY ANDREW GRAHAM
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  •   DOOM | BORN LIKE THIS  |  April 21, 2009
    It's been more than three years since the infamous masked rap anti-hero Doom dropped an album — a long time for any musician, and an eternity in the mercurial, often fickle world of hip-hop.
  •   ROOTS MANUVA | SLIME AND REASON  |  October 15, 2008
    The richest fruit of British rap’s gestation period is the growing catalogue of Roots Manuva.  
  •   DAVID BANNER  |  July 22, 2008
    It would be a stronger statement if it weren’t for the conflicting cornerstones of conscientious-rapper soapboxing and standard-issue gangsta themes he’s laid at its foundation.
  •   CHROMEO  |  July 01, 2008
    It’s no surprise that their sweet sophomore-sleeper-turned-instant-classic is being reissued with extras.
  •   AKROBATIK  |  February 26, 2008
    One of the hallmarks of Akrobatik’s style has always been his sincerity.

 See all articles by: ANDREW GRAHAM

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