MANGA – Three Hundred and Sixty

Following a successful year with Roll Deep and a strong feature on Wiley’s album, Manga is back!!!

The Roll Deep/A list artist is showing that musically he is running circles around the game and has all angles covered from the mainstream to the underground. So I guess its rather fitting that he titled his mixtape Three Hundred and Sixty, which drops tomorrow.

Check out this freestyle he dropped

The mixtape starts with a kick up the back side. A motivational speech fades into a laid back melodic beat produced by Eric B. Then Manga’s words sway with the beat as he tells us his 360 thoughts, journey and thank you to the fans. The next track “Too Cool To Care”, produced by top producer Thomas Mellor is anything but laid back and has a bubbly grime tempo laced with typical Manga humor.

“Screaming out time is money but your sitting down wasting minutes”

Pirate Radio Hearts is definitely one for Grime historians as Kaze, Manga and Ghetts takes us down the cultural history of Grime and their contribution to it. Whereas Soundboy, produced by Double A provides a sick musical platform for Maxsta, Tre Mission and Manga to deliver an array of lyrical punches. The Patois sounding soundboy on the hook is only fitting for the track.

“Don’t need a wheel up to show I’m a ryder” Manga

Manga shows the versatility in his flow when he goes from merking a Skrillex dance riddem with Young Kye to sitting comfortably with Maxsta and A Dot on a horn blowing Hip Hop club banger, which has the posh British women on the chorus repeating “Never Let The Party Stop”.

He continues to illustrate this diversity on Love V Like, which is the 1st track on the mixtape that shows his emotional side. Since Fem Fel’s Eyes Closed album, I have personally been a massive fan of Dan Dare and he proved his worth with a beat that sounds amazing yet confusing and correlates with Manga’s line of thought towards the young lady.

“Now I am paying the price, no profit / Shouting at each other but not sticking to the topic / Then it all gets out of hand like we dropped it” Manga

Honestly, Mastermind is reload music and “Am I a mad man or mastermind / Am crazy or genius” the breaks and apostolic feel to this track really does compliment the exhibition of flows from Dot Rotten, Big Shizz and Manga.

“Even Picasso said art is a lie that shows us the truth” Manga

“If a girls gassed by a buzz, I’ll be next to shock her (shocka) like I’m next to Double S” Manga

The 2nd half of his mixtape has a more reflective feel to it. I guess Roll Deep and Grime vets Wiley and Flow Dan over this trance feeling track “Right Way” is no different but still has that aggressive edge to it and Roll Deep

Hudson Mowhawke produces an uplifting beautiful up beat yet soulful hip hop track, which Manga floats on by painting an image of a woman he is proud and wishes to sail away with. Definitely one for the lovers. This kindly takes us to Austin Millz’s soft guitar number “Honest”, which sees Manga bare all regarding his journey to success. He shows his humane attributes, such as fear, doubt, frustrations, limitations and who he is. He is anything but a “false prophet”, he s honest.

This is the most powerful track on the mixtape for me personally. There are timeless tracks in Manga’s catalouge and this is definitely one of them. Queens ft A Star produced by Eric G is really one hailing and showing an appreciation for “good girls” and challenges society’s recent celebration of “Bad Bitches”. The intro to this track is an innocent child who speaks of her aspiration to be a doctor and the outro to this track is conscious women who critically analyses misogyny. This contrast is amazing yet they both exemplify the importance of a woman valuing herself. Putting the message to one side, the way this track is compiled is a real work of art.

“Virgin Mary and Mary Madeleine shared the same name but not the same crown” (Manga needs to tell me this woman’s name)

“In this kingdom of concrete your the heartbeat… its like they think being cold hearted will get them further buts don’t forget its in your nature to nuture”

The mixtape ends with Airbourne, which ft Bartoven and Bruce Lee snippet feel sells the notion of positive thought and the importance of striving for our goals.

New skool Manga fans check out Manga’s last mixtape

Manga ‘Three Hundred and Sixty’

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