Live Review: Roots Manuva ‘One Thing’

UK rap veteran ROOTS MANUVA is back with a murky reverberating track in the shape of ‘One Thing’. It’s not exactly poptastic Amerie's ‘One Thing’ but a dirty, grimy song – if you’ve been enjoying listening to Skepta on Triple J and FBi recently, then give Roots a listen.

The single is a comment against homogeneity in a music scene in which ‘one thing leads to the next thing leads to the next thing’, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from listening to Roots Manuva over the years it’s to never try to predict what he’s going to put out next. His rap style is distinctive, and we hear him enunciate every iota of syllable in lines like ‘Damn fool I am, I lost my cool, o hooligan’.

It’s been a while, but in that time the Big Dada-signed rapper, known to his mum as Rodney Smith, has ensured he defies the next obvious step. He spent two years in the studio recording, and came back with the jerky Four Tet-produced ‘Facety 2:11’.

Now he’s branching out with further experimentation on the poetic ‘One Thing’, a rumbling dubby bass heavy track in which Roots explicates on money, creativity and sacrificing one thing for the other. Or perhaps he’s celebrating the one-dimensional pursuit of money, with playful lines like "I do my best to get a lamborghini / my girlfriend loves a snakeskin bikini". Either way, he concludes that "money is a simple thing".

‘One Thing’ is out now via Ninja Tune.

Words by Katie Rowley

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