Roots Manuva Awfully Deep

Cultural hegemony is bad news. The very nature of it serves to restrict all that is slightly off the beaten path of the norm. You can take that definition and closely associate it with the current state that hip-hop is in at the moment. Forgive me for clambering onto my soapbox here, but when was the last time a mainstream hip-hop album really stood out from the crowd and demanded repeated listens? Even Outkast's hugely popular last album struggles to bear up to repeated listens and, at the end of the day, it still had all the usual dull references to bitches, oral sex and objectification and the same old macho bullshit that seems to permeate so much of the genre. Even hip-hop's so-called 'Paragon Of Virtue' Mos Def decided to get in on the act with the dreadfully ill-conceived A New Danger. Parallels could easily be drawn between the current state of mainstream hip-hop and mainstream rock in the 1970s. Could 50 Cent and Nelly really be our modern day equivalent to Peter Frampton and Fleetwood Mac? If it really is the case, maybe it really is about time fans of the genre should start voting with their ears and check out something new. After all, the underground has so much to offer.

You might be wondering what all this has to do with the new Roots Manuva album. After all, he is the most successful UK hip-hop artist of all time, and has won awards left right and centre for his unique, dub-infused sound. Well, to be perfectly honest, what I've said in the opening paragraph applies to Roots and countless other artists both here in the UK and over in the States: when will the general public actually sit up and take notice of what is under their noses?

Musically, Awfully Deep is the same old unpredictable Roots Manuva, with skittish, dense beats and abstract rhymes still very much the order of the day round his manor. Whilst much of Awfully Deep is less obvious and hook -based than previous album Run Come Save Me, this album is certainly a lot more rewarding, and even stands up to repeated listens. You know when you are onto a winner when you realise that the tracks you listen to least on the album are the singles (the uptight digital funk of title track Awfully Deep and the squelchy-yet-minimal Colossal Insight). The undoubted highlight of this sonic delight is the wonderfully spooky skank of standout track A Haunting, a chilling update on the menacing funk of The Specials' Ghost Town, with stream of consciousness rhymes that take in everything from 'Goatskin Paraphrase' to 'Sonic Mathematics', and (also in keeping with the recurring theme of the album) often referring a renewed struggle to keep on the straight and narrow and do the right thing following the birth of his son.

Of course, it'll sell peanuts compared to the new 50 Cent album, or any other piece of homogenised production-line toss that seems to dominate the genre nowadays. As usual, the record industry seem to be intent on force feeding listeners aural lobotomies when maybe they should be encouraging people to check out something new. THAT is why 'mainstream' hip-hop is dying on its diamond-encrusted arse at the moment. And this is why music needs more sonic mavericks like Roots Manuva at the moment. It's very rare for an artist to remain potent and relevant after their third album, but Roots Manuva has carried this off with aplomb. Own it if you know him, own it if you don't , but more importantly, sit up and LISTEN to it!