Singles

Roots Manuva - Collosal Insight

Alex Worsnip 23/01/2005

Rating: 4/5

Dizzee Rascal may have all but taken over UK hip hop but for many, Roots Manuva was always the best MC in Britain. After the superb Run Come Save Me album, he returns with this single, running along the same lines of futuristic cyber-rap with African and Jamaican dub influences.

There is a seedy electro feel to this track and the lyrics run with confidence and disgust (decrying, amongst others, with almost spitting contempt, "those bourgeois blacks" and people who namecheck him: "people who call my name like it's some kind of game like"). He declares that he may be reaching the end of his career and shows two fingers to the music industry: "those pigeonholes were never nothing to hold me". More importantly, though, the hooks are catchy and the production is superb. It doesn't quite reach the level of tracks like 'Witness' from the previous LP, but that's hard to live up to. Of the remixes included, the Jammer Remix is the pick of the bunch, sounding desolate and urban, featuring extra freestyle rapping, and a turn from Ricky Ranking (no, me neither) on the mic