Roots Manuva

A South West London original, Roots Manuva masterminded a style of rap that could only have come from his stomping grounds. Born to Jamaican immigrants in 1972, the artist—a.k.a. Rodney Hylton Smith—grew up in the multicultural neighborhood of Stockwell, where he absorbed the influence of Caribbean sound-system culture. He began putting out records in the mid-’90s, then signed to Ninja Tune subsidiary Big Dada for his 1999 debut album, Brand New Second Hand, where he introduced a sui generis mix of dancehall, hip-hop, and downtempo, overlying dubby, staccato grooves with tightly knotted rhymes. His 2001 album, Run Come Save Me, marked a high point for the era’s left-field electronic music, as did the following year’s remix album Dub Come Save Me. The rapper’s stern, stentorian voice has scored him cameos on records from Gorillaz, Leftfield, and others, and in 2007, the UK teen drama Skins commissioned him to record the triumphant single “Stolen Youth” for the series finale. He has continued to hone his style; his 2015 album, Bleeds, features some of the most enveloping production and most pointedly political rapping of his career.