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Album Details

• Artist: Roots Manuva
• Album: Awfully Deep
• Label: Big Dada
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-06-06

Roots Manuva is now officially a hip hop veteran with three studio albums (Awfully Deep is his third) under his belt. And it proves to be that three times is a charm because the rhymes on Awfully Deep are some of his best yet. Some may argue that Run Come Save Me takes the cake but time well spent with Awfully Deep will peel back layers that you don't notice on first listen. Case in point, I pretty much completely missed the beat poet styling of "A Haunting", now one of my many favorite tracks here. He can hit hard with big beats too on "Rebel Heart" with some M.I.A. style garage with much better production. Although I've felt that Roots Manuva was mature from the get-go, Awfully Deep just seems like he has taken that next step. He could have easily gone the way of country-mate Dizee but instead kept to his roots and delivered the next logical album in his catalog. Honestly, give this album time and you will fall in love with it. It is slightly more complex but that is what gives you the pleasure in the end. And one of the best things about Rodney and his Roots Manuva alias is that he refrains from unnecessary skits and filler, pieces that really date albums. Another sign of his maturity.
It's just out and it's already a hip hop classic. American Hip Hop artists need to pay attention to Roots Manuva and his skills.

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