Manage -

UK hip-hop has been disrespected by a media that associates rappers with the caricatures of East or West Coast American crews - Manage is one UK rapper who has remained in the shadows, honing his craft and discovering a distinctive British identity. '(Live) In Protest' features a roll-call of English talent: he hits his politics hard, twisting the Yankee style around a British vernacular and calling the government to account for its hypocrisy and corruption. London is re-imagined as an apocalyptic waste-land of concrete and sin, the police are the enemy, freedom of speech is the only salvation and collectivism the sacred path. Inevitably, there is a great deal of macho posturing and political incorrectness ("you better dodge me like an AIDS victim dodges flu"), but the consistency and certainty of Manage's vision is gripping. [Gareth K Vile]