Roots Manuva, aka Rodney Smith, is back again with an offering that sees him returning to his roots (lolz) and the fuzzed up lo-fi dancehall sound that he made his own on his debut, Brand New Second Hand. I’ll be honest. My appreciation of Roots has been on a downward curve since that record. Somehow, Run Come Save Me (Bleurgh) and Awfully Deep (admittedly catchy in places) never lived up to the same benchmark. But, Fuck Yeah! Slime & Reason is largely a banger although still not without its flaws.
Opening with the seemingly Linton Kwesi Johnson influenced dub deliciousness that is ‘Again & Again’, Roots manages to instantly dispel any bad feelings I may have harboured when I first saw the video for the single off this album, Buff Nuff, which is pure fluff although arguably the most superficially catchy track of the record.
Watching it, I couldn’t help get the feeling that Roots had been up one night, high, watching Mika’s Big Girls on MTV when a little light bulb went on over his head. But maybe that was because I was high when I was watching it on Youtube. I somehow got the impression it was written as an ode to the morbidly obese.
Do Nah Bodda Mi is easily the strongest song on the album. It’s pure dancehall magic. Joined by Mr Versatile as a brilliant hype man and produced by Toddla T; listening to this reminds me why I got into Roots Manuva in the first place. It’s also nice to listen to a dancehall song without being repeatedly reminded how much the MC hates gays.
Kick Up Ya Foot is one of the weakest songs on the album. Lyrically it makes no sense and the beat is tinny and generic so boo to that one. If you’re the kind of person who only downloads a few songs off an album then avoid this. It’s lame.
Do for Self comes laden with big ass Biggie Smalls era beats that you don’t hear much in hip hop anymore, which is a pity. Then again, it’s best not to mention American rappers in the context of English ones because American rappers are pretty much all better than our own. Loads of people won’t like me saying that, but it’s just like saying Brazil is better at football than England.
Well Alright sounds like a reject from his third album. Sample lyric, “They wanna tie me to a cross and hurt my gonad [singular] cos I’m doing stuff with my pen and my pad.” Not his best line but indicative of the lyrical quality. Despite moments like this, all of the last few songs on the album are a bit of a let down.
It’s a shame that Roots Manuva doesn’t release a full on dancehall album because he does it in a genuinely original way. It’s when he slips into the standard UK hip hop classical music type sample with an equally standard beat, rapping about how crazy he is, that he becomes uninteresting to listen to. Make a Dancehall album Rodney!
Dan Robinski
Posted In Album Reviews, Sep 05 2008.