In the closing years of the 1990s, Rodney Smith emerged under the Roots Manuva name and issued a string of well-received albums on Big Dada. His sound drew heavily on dub and ragga while folding in trip-hop elements commonly linked to Ninja Tune, the U.K. label that frequently handled distribution for Big Dada releases.
The MC entered the scene in 1999 with Brand New Second Hand, a debut that attracted widespread notice from the global hip-hop audience and captured Britain’s MOBO award. Work on the follow-up Run Come Save Me began in the studio late that same year, and the completed set appeared on Big Dada in 2001. Self-production on the breakout single “Witness (I Hope)” helped turn the album into a domestic success and lifted his profile abroad. Although it came close to the Mercury Prize without winning, the record prompted the strong dub companion Dub Come Save Me, issued one year afterward.
Awfully Deep, his third album, surfaced in 2005; introspective and somewhat compressed, it climbed inside the U.K. album chart’s Top 30. Alternately Deep arrived the next year, presenting remixes alongside original tracks cut during the same period as its predecessor and taking a freer approach. Signs of lighter themes surfaced, yet Slime & Reason, released in 2008, again centered on inward and occasionally stark material. Wrongtom supplied versions of seven cuts for a two-disc edition and was later granted access to the entire catalog, resulting in Duppy Writer in 2010.
The most wide-ranging Roots Manuva album, 4everevolution, followed in 2011 and included appearances from Skunk Anansie’s Skin and Cass Lewis. Additional singles and EPs emerged in 2012 and 2013, among them collaborations with Jamie Cullum, Ill Audio, and Hiem. Smith next prepared a new Roots Manuva full-length slated for 2015, previewed by the double A-side “Facety 2:11”/“Like a Drum,” produced by Four Tet and Machinedrum. Singles “One Thing” and “Don't Breathe Out” preceded Bleeds, which also carried production from Adrian Sherwood and reached stores in late October 2015.
