Gimme some skins

Promotional gifts are seldom as practical as a custom-made pack of high grade rolling papers, but that’s exactly what Big Dada Records (also responsible for the fabulous futuritistc hip-hop soundscapes of Cloudead) did when plugging the release of the current UK top 40 opus Run Come Save Me. Maybe it’s not quite as illegal or headline grabbing as Ming the Merciless posting spliffs to every member of Dail Eireann, but at least it’s the most welcome and novice publicity stunt to pop through my post box in a long time.

Toking aside, a few biographical details. Rodney ‘Hylton’ Smith was born into a Jamaican family and grew up in the South London enclave of Stockwell which borders Brixton. Aptly enough for a man advocating rolling your own, he was born in Lambeth where the current relaxation of cannabis laws was piloted last August. “It’s a good thing because you always had police officers sitting down having a cup of tea and spending hours filling out forms for nothing when they should be out catching criminals,” opines Rodney comfortably hunched on the floor of his Ambassador dressing room. “All around Lambeth are serious smoking areas so it was a pretty good place to start.”

Apart from the herbal influences, Smith’s musical passion was weaned on London’s plethora of pirate radio stations and street parties.

“You’d tune into reggae, drum n’ bass, funk, hardcore, roots, dancehall, soul, r’n’b. Everything,” he explains. “It was all about that and street culture and loads of cassettes and being exposed to gospel at Church that really tuned me into music and making it. There was so much to take in, but the most important thing as far as I was concerned was what the girlies were dancing to. When I started, I just wanted to have one hit 12” in the shop and then go off and set up my own cab firm. It hasn’t quite gone to plan.”

The plan all went a bit weird after released his first single in 1995. Four years later, he released his first album Brand New Second Hand (titled after the London Jamaican tradition of pre-used gift-giving) which instantly achieved immense acclaim and considerable sales. His second album Run Come Save Me was released last September and achieved even more acclaim and sales, led by the wonderful single ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ boasting the fabulous refrain “witness the fitness.” Rodney beautifully sums up his non-difficult second album as: “A patchwork reflection of the bittersweet-tainted joys and pains of progress. It’s so easy to get cynical in these big, bad corporate times – so this be a declaration of good hearted ghetto hoorah intent.

“It got really insane after the release,” Rodney continues. “I expected to sell something between 5,000 and 10,000 records and possibly 15,000 in my wildest dreams. It has sold 37,000 already and everyone is saying ‘This is only the beginning, its going to sell a lot more’. So, they really want me to keep plugging and pushing it. It’s fantastic, but I’ve never been in this position before so it’s very strange. For my first album, I did lots of promotion and over 200 interviews, and didn’t think I’d be into selling a record like that again. This time around, it’s serious but not being taken too seriously which I like. There are things like the skins, doing good videos and doing shows like Later With Jools Holland which have been really pleasurable. I think I’ve learnt a bit of how to work it properly but I’m also really lucky. It’s strange because you are never given a job description when you do this.”

Smith acknowledges that album number three will definitely present more pressure to cross-over, but he remains refreshingly non-plussed about the current talk of a renaissance in British hip-hop being spearheaded by himself and Mark B and Blade. “Hip-hop has become so huge in America and the world, it brings every hip-hop community along with it. I think it’s that simple and not some flash in the pan case of British hip-hop breaking through or whatever. Jurassic 5 and Eminem are good for every scene.”

Aside from forging new shapes and sounds with dubbed-out pop reggae, sense-shuddering beats and sweeping dramatic strings, Roots Manuva provides an online source of street wisdom with his funny and insightful thoughts for the day such as; “In times of agitation, mop the kitchen floor. I find this a great stress reliever.” Any season’s musings for the hotpress readership massive Rodney? “In times of economic distress, never forget that there is always the pound shop.”

So there you are. All you need to get through the recession is a bag of skunk, some Roots Manuva papers, a load of pound shop goodies and an earful of Rodney’s tunes.

Run Come Save Me is out now on Big Dada. For thoughts for the day and a whole lot more visit www.rootsmanuva.net