There’s always a worry that a talented rapper such as Roots Manuva will only be remembered for his greatest hit, in Rodney Smith’s case ‘Witness The Fitness’.
In my opinion, his last great album was 2005’s Awfully Deep though 2008’s Slime & Reason has its moments and 2013’s ‘Stolen Youth’ was a return to form. But it’s good to hear a Roots Manuva track with production by one of the best. Four Tet provides a weird “boat race”-featuring rhythm for Smith on ‘Facety 2:11’ (Facety is patois slang for being rude). The end result is a weird and wonky tune that makes Smith sound vital and current too.
The B-side features production from Machinedrum too so it may not be a one off for the album to come.
The song is on iTunes and vinyl.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
