Awfully Deep

And truly, this is a long dark night of the soul: on the excellent "Colossal Insight," Smith turns to God to save his sanity; on pitch-black soul number "The Falling," he's lost in an apocalyptic reverie, fantasizing about smuggling hand-grenades onto an airplane. But luckily, Smith is agreeably incapable of presenting his predicament without moments of dark levity: see the title track, which recalls a stint at a mental hospital populated by "crooked doctors and kinky nurses." A man who dispatches the Reaper with a nudge and a wink, Roots Manuva remains one of British hip-hop's most potent forces. --Louis Pattison

Album Description
The triumphant return of Roots Manuva, the trailblazer in what has become a steady flow of UK hip-hop to charm the world over. Delivering 51 minutes of self-produced, dub-wise ingenuity, Awfully Deep is his most realized lyrical record to date, with rousing rhythms, and a barrage of bass. On tour with M.I.A. of Arular fame.