Roots Manuva

So grime is becoming a bit of an underground success in the US, right? I'm sure you're all having great fun having such fantastic hip-hop innovation like Lady Sovereign forced down your throat with all her fantastic lyrical structure, not to mention that lovely little voice she raps with that has all the charm of those girls that ask me to buy them cigarettes every time I walk past an offlicense or supermarket. Not to mock your choice in the artists you import from these parts, but if you want her, you can fucking have her. We do however, have some hip-hop musicians worth your time, and here's a fine example. I'm not really sure if he's getting much attention across the ocean but the UK rapper I'd get behind is the ever enjoyable Roots Manuva. Keeping an interesting blend of grimey urban realities as well as self consideration as the main focus in this lyrics and the use of spot on production to give proceedings a nice flow, Roots Manuva possesses the unusual talent of keeping both elitist vicious little hip-hop jerks happy whilst finding an audience in the middle-class kids who would generally find such a gritty slab of reality to be threatening. He's also got that too-cool-for-you London arrogance going that causes his music to give off that of a charming semi-intellectual instead of a moaning dweeb when the lyrics take the more philosophical turn. He's also a decent live act and a humorous read when he decides to do an interview.

Roots Manuva - Witness The Fitness
Roots Manuva - Colossal Insight
Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep

Pick up Roots Manuva's back catalogue from Amazon