Mane Rok delves deeper into The Ugly Truth

​Mane Rok's latest album, The Ugly Truth, which dropped last summer, is chock full of thought-provoking lyrics delivered with the MC's typical vitality. While each track stood out on its own, production and performance-wise, one joint in particular, the Ichiban produced, police brutality-centric "This One's," struck a pretty massive chord. Still charged by the timeliness of the topic, Mane is preparing to release five remixes of the single featuring five producers with a completely different blueprints.

Since the album's release, there have been many high profile instances of police brutality contributing to the ever deteriorating relationships between the police and the community. And nationally, within days of The Ugly Truth's release, seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was killed by Detroit police, who were issuing a warrant to an individual who may or may not have been in the apartment where she was sleeping.

"Police brutality is an issue that transcends race," says Mane. "When I made the song originally, although it's about anger and frustration with the cops, it's more like giving a voice to people who are victims of violence by the police."

The five producers who will provide the mixes are Dyalekt, one-third of Diamond Boiz, 800 the Jewell, Timeline, and an as-yet unfinished mix from Strange Powers, which Mane says will be electro influenced and particularly "strange."

"The styles that the remixes come in really make the song more palpable because again, police brutality and the relationship between people and cops in general is something we can all speak about," he points out. "QKnox being a more jazz trained musician, you hear that in his remix. I told Dyalekt and 800 that if they need inspiration, to think about Chamillionaire's 'Ridin.'"

The project is set to drop in about a month, along with a poignant video the MC is reluctant to give details about but promises will be dynamic and convincing.