Roots Manuva: Bleeds
When you hear the name Rodney Smith, aka Roots Manuva, the description along the lines of Britain’s greatest rapper is never far. For the last 20 years Roots Manuva has been producing eccentric and valuable hip hop that continues to defy any kind of traditionalistic sounds, rather pushing as many boundaries as he can. It’s now time to relive Bleeds, Roots Manuva’s sixth studio album, as it’s re-packaged in a deluxe edition.
The Arctic Monkeys and Dizzee Rascal have cited him as an influence, his album sales sell in the hundreds and thousands, and he is known the world over. With albums like Brand New Second Hand in 1999 where he introduced his unique Brixton Patois as Pitchfork once described, then onto Run Come Save Me in 2001, where his innovation met his fearless lyricism – it has been a fine time for British hip-hop.
A few years and a few releases later he released his sixth studio album Bleeds where yet again he pushed those boundaries – which he may have very well set in the first place. Featuring production from the Switch, Adrian Sherwood and Four Tet (the latter producing the hypnotic, puncturing sound of Facety 2:11) tracks like the murky Stepping Hard, Manuva echoing throughout, make it easy to understand why Bleeds was lauded as a stunning return to form for the highly regarded British rapper.
Bleeds is now being re-packaged in a deluxe edition, with ten brand new and exclusive tracks and remixes, including the new track On A High, dreamixes from Kode 9, Pinch, Champion and rLr (XL’s Richard Russell) and studio off-cut gold. The album’s art has been lovingly designed by Leif Podhajsky, the zeitgeist-adjusting visual artist behind covers for Grimes, Bonobo, Foals and more.
With Roots playing sets at Field Day, Latitude Festival, Sonar and more over the summer, ’tis Manuva season once again. Savour him while you can.
Bleeds (Deluxe Version) is out today, Friday 19 August 2016 on Big Dada via Inertia Music.
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