CD Reviews

Roots Manuva | Slime and Reason

Big Dada/Ninja Tune (2008)

By ANDREW GRAHAM | October 15, 2008

3.0 Stars

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.”

Review: Speech Debelle | Speech Therapy
It's unfortunate that there's a glass ceiling in the US market for British hip-hop — but for the lovely, clipped London accent that gives truth to Speech Debelle's delivery, this release would be huge stateside.
From ’Ye to mixtapes
To get the full taste of where hip-hop is at, you also have to seek out the unofficial releases, the mixtapes, which often have a bigger impact than the official albums.
Chairmen of the boards
Not unlike Swedish, Tagalog, and Esperanto, music is a language, with its own conjugations and (lewdly) dangling participles.
War of the words
50 Cent has a long history of initiating beefs before he releases a new album.
Top 10 Hyphy Videos of all time
With Warner Bros. snapping up the cream of the Yay Area rap scene , TVT capitalizing on Hyphy Hitz , and even indie-rock geeks learning how to ghost ride the whip , we figured it's high time to take a quick look back at how we got here. So get your stunna shades on and get ready to go dumb: it's the top 10 hyphy videos of all time!
Bay Area beats
Although Oakland’s hyphy movement got its name from a bastardization of the word “hyper,” at this point that could just as easily stand for “hype.”
Dead, or immortal?
When Chuck D challenges the status quo, a bunch of fortysomethings nod their heads, but Nas can put the young rappers on the defensive.
Diversified incoming
It’s a testament to the strength of hip-hop, as the medium enters its third decade, that 2006 would see such a wide range of sounds so well represented, from commercial anthems to abstract beat tapes.
Larger than life
Although predictions that Jay-Z, in his comeback, would pull in the biggest sales numbers of the year were proved wrong (at 680,000, his Def Jam release Kingdom Come ranks third behind Rascal Flatts and Justin Timberlake in 2006), that’s hardly the story worth telling.
Birth of the DVDJ
Much of the hype swirling around the show was that Peanut Butter Wolf was going to "scratch" DVDs, thereby inventing a whole new style of performance. Slideshow: Stones Throw Anniversary Tour at the Paradise Rock Club, November 1, 2006
JeknowwotI’msayin?
“People have this kind of problem with me,” says Lady Sovereign over the phone from her London home. “They think they know me, and they don’t know me — and it’s dis gustin ’.” Lady Sovereign, "Gatheration" (mp3)
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