Ahead of supporting Basement Jaxx at One Live in Birmingham, Roots Manuva joined Steve Lamacq on the Evening Session to talk about the success of his year. From being a studio engineer he's found himself on the Radio 1 playlist and in all the fashionable magazines, but he hasn't had a chance to enjoy it.
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What a year it's been for you hasn't it?
It hasn't stopped since March; I don't know what is going on. I haven't had time to appreciate it.
What has been the most satisfying point of the year?
Just being on tour and feeling the response from the people.
Did you see any of this coming?
You always silently think that one day, but I never saw it coming with rapping, it just surprises me all the time. As a genre it's just more widely accepted.
Why do you think that is?
Because a lot of people who are in positions now, producers at the BBC and other commercial stations they have grown up with hip-hop, so it's slipping through the net.
Did you start on a government scheme?
Not exactly. I kinda carved out my own one, signing on and doing a little bit of engineering.
What sort of music were you into when you started off?
I was in a community studio in Brixton and I was just thrown in at the deep-end. I had to engineer loads of different kinds of sessions from guitar stuff over programmed beats, to dance-hall stuff to just straight up dance. It opened up my head because I had to know when a client came in and wanted a '909 kit' I had to be in touch with the sounds that were happening at the time. I was a sound freak.
Your word play is something that is an attractive part of the make-up, even though some of those words aren't in the dictionary are they?
I had a really good English teacher but I want to rebel now, I want to develop my own language.
So sooner or later there will be a Roots Manuva language, get a rhyming thesaurus and you've cornered the market...
And the fridge magnet phrases as well.
Where does your old-school English come from? No one says 'potty' or 'bonkers' anymore.
It must be my Dad, he's a bit of an eccentric. He hates the way I speak - 'the bastardisation of language'. My mum also used to say strange things.
Tell us about the track 'Evil Rabbit'...
It was just me tripping up, I was trying to go into the space of what it would sound like just before a revolution happened, the evil rabbits are just supposed to be a tangible symbol of the beast and the evil of the world.
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