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The Streets: Why Should I Care?

TREWTREW 2,037 Posts
edited July 2006 in Strut Central
so after trying hard to avoid listening to The Streets (and to a lesser extent Lady Sovereign) I was trapped in urban outfitters, discussing throw pillows with my fiance when one of the employees decided to rock The Streets (they may of had it piped in muzak-style, who knows?)anyhow, after having listened to half of the album, i still can't understand the hype.. every review i've read seems to be conscious of the horrendous lyrical content but the rewiewer will still give the album a pass...can anyone shed some light/opinions/related urban outfitters horror stories?
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  • Birdman9Birdman9 5,417 Posts
    so after trying hard to avoid listening to The Streets (and to a lesser extent Lady Sovereign) I was trapped in urban outfitters, discussing throw pillows with my fiance when one of the employees decided to rock The Streets (they may of had it piped in muzak-style, who knows?)

    anyhow, after having listened to half of the album, i still can't understand the hype.. every review i've read seems to be conscious of the horrendous lyrical content but the rewiewer will still give the album a pass...

    can anyone shed some light/opinions/related urban outfitters horror stories?

    Some of the most awful music ever foisted on an unsuspecting public...I have only ever heard it in stores(Borders,Old navy,etc), and been forced to leave whatever shopping I might have been doing. Terrible shit.
  • Imperial_MaoImperial_Mao 1,119 Posts
    I like the streets but they are not a "hip hop" act as such, more an off-shoot of the Grime scene (much as Massive attack were an offshoot of the early UK hip hop scene) and as such probably don't travel well...
    However I find Lady Sov totally unlistenable...(This years Neneh Cherry/MIA etc...)
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    Yeah, I think if you take out the UK context The Streets probably doesn't stand up so well. Lady Sov, on the other hand, is fucking useless regardless of context.
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    As a Brit, I can sympathise here. The huge amount of critical praise heaped on Mike Skinner leaves me baffled; not because he gets bracketed as a rapper by the UK media, or because I might believe his music has little or nothing to do with rap as I understand it, but because his lyrics are laboured, clumsy and painful to listen to, and his beats are fucking awful. I don't know much about how the corresponding media outlets in the US have responded to him, but over here he seems to be championed on the basis that his records are little slices of working-class urban life in Britain set to music, and therefore he's this week's Voice Of A Generation. Personally, speaking about your day-to-day life and surroundings, whether they be mundane or glamourous, isn't necessarily going to be interesting in and of itself - for me, this applies whether you live in Houston or Hounslow - and the way it becomes interesting is as much down to how it's delivered as anything else. Anything I'm likely to want from a Streets record, I can already get from something by Devin or Jay-Z or any one of a dozen other rappers, and I'm more likely to actually enjoy listening to their records as well.

    Last time I was in a branch of Urban Outfitters, I heard D'Angelo's version of "Feel Like Makin' Love", which I'd hitherto managed to miss completely. For a song that's become somewhat played-out down the years, it's pretty good.
  • Imperial_MaoImperial_Mao 1,119 Posts
    Lady Sov, on the other hand is fucking useless .

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    A colleague of mine (Marc Savlov) at the Austin Chroncile wrote the following review of The Streets' 2nd album back in '04"

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-04/music_phases.html

    The Streets
    A Grand Don't Come for Free (Vice)
    Britain's Mike Skinner has thrown down a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album[/b], bursting with heart and Northern soul. So sharp are his rhymes, you could eunuchize 99% of the gall that passes for rap in the States[/b] and still have enough edge to shave your willie for your big date next weekend. Clever segue that, since A Grand Don't Come for Free is one of the most knowing breakup albums ever cut, one that slices deep into your battered romantic psyche. Skinner's sophomore opus is also a concept album, on which he plays the hapless Mike, an East End geezer who, in the course of a single day, loses ??1,000, his girlfriend Simone (voiced by MC C-Mone), and very nearly his sanity. His ongoing woes sputter out in the flat cockney accent of a mate with too much time on his hands and not half as much smarts. There's more story than songs, but between the garagey UK beats of "Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way," which finds Mike stoned and joyous on his girlfriend's couch, and elegaic closer "Empty Cans," with Mike mentally waging war against the world, there's a wily narrative previously unheard in any genre. Of course, this being the Streets, it's all about being, at the end, in the dark, all by your lonesome. "This is the beginning of hard times to come," sings Skinner, but he's wrong. This is the ending of the first hip-hop classic of the new millennium[/b].
  • DJBombjackDJBombjack Miami 1,665 Posts
    Lady Sov

    Queen of Chav-Hop
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    A colleague of mine (Marc Savlov) at the Austin Chroncile wrote the following review of The Streets' 2nd album back in '04"

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-04/music_phases.html

    The Streets
    A Grand Don't Come for Free (Vice)
    Britain's Mike Skinner has thrown down a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album[/b], bursting with heart and Northern soul. So sharp are his rhymes, you could eunuchize 99% of the gall that passes for rap in the States[/b] and still have enough edge to shave your willie for your big date next weekend. Clever segue that, since A Grand Don't Come for Free is one of the most knowing breakup albums ever cut, one that slices deep into your battered romantic psyche. Skinner's sophomore opus is also a concept album, on which he plays the hapless Mike, an East End geezer who, in the course of a single day, loses ??1,000, his girlfriend Simone (voiced by MC C-Mone), and very nearly his sanity. His ongoing woes sputter out in the flat cockney accent of a mate with too much time on his hands and not half as much smarts. There's more story than songs, but between the garagey UK beats of "Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way," which finds Mike stoned and joyous on his girlfriend's couch, and elegaic closer "Empty Cans," with Mike mentally waging war against the world, there's a wily narrative previously unheard in any genre. Of course, this being the Streets, it's all about being, at the end, in the dark, all by your lonesome. "This is the beginning of hard times to come," sings Skinner, but he's wrong. This is the ending of the first hip-hop classic of the new millennium[/b].


  • soulmarcosasoulmarcosa 4,296 Posts
    I was sent the latest Streets 12" but it was so embarrassing that I couldn't listen to more than 5 seconds of it.

    A colleague of mine (Marc Savlov) at the Austin Chroncile wrote the following review of The Streets' 2nd album back in '04"

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-04/music_phases.html

    The Streets
    A Grand Don't Come for Free (Vice)
    Britain's Mike Skinner has thrown down a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album[/b], bursting with heart and Northern soul. So sharp are his rhymes, you could eunuchize 99% of the gall that passes for rap in the States[/b] and still have enough edge to shave your willie for your big date next weekend. Clever segue that, since A Grand Don't Come for Free is one of the most knowing breakup albums ever cut, one that slices deep into your battered romantic psyche. Skinner's sophomore opus is also a concept album, on which he plays the hapless Mike, an East End geezer who, in the course of a single day, loses ??1,000, his girlfriend Simone (voiced by MC C-Mone), and very nearly his sanity. His ongoing woes sputter out in the flat cockney accent of a mate with too much time on his hands and not half as much smarts. There's more story than songs, but between the garagey UK beats of "Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way," which finds Mike stoned and joyous on his girlfriend's couch, and elegaic closer "Empty Cans," with Mike mentally waging war against the world, there's a wily narrative previously unheard in any genre. Of course, this being the Streets, it's all about being, at the end, in the dark, all by your lonesome. "This is the beginning of hard times to come," sings Skinner, but he's wrong. This is the ending of the first hip-hop classic of the new millennium[/b].


  • jdeezjdeez 638 Posts
    A colleague of mine (Marc Savlov) at the Austin Chroncile wrote the following review of The Streets' 2nd album back in '04"

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-04/music_phases.html

    The Streets
    A Grand Don't Come for Free (Vice)
    Britain's Mike Skinner has thrown down a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album[/b], bursting with heart and Northern soul. So sharp are his rhymes, you could eunuchize 99% of the gall that passes for rap in the States[/b] and still have enough edge to shave your willie for your big date next weekend. Clever segue that, since A Grand Don't Come for Free is one of the most knowing breakup albums ever cut, one that slices deep into your battered romantic psyche. Skinner's sophomore opus is also a concept album, on which he plays the hapless Mike, an East End geezer who, in the course of a single day, loses ??1,000, his girlfriend Simone (voiced by MC C-Mone), and very nearly his sanity. His ongoing woes sputter out in the flat cockney accent of a mate with too much time on his hands and not half as much smarts. There's more story than songs, but between the garagey UK beats of "Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way," which finds Mike stoned and joyous on his girlfriend's couch, and elegaic closer "Empty Cans," with Mike mentally waging war against the world, there's a wily narrative previously unheard in any genre. Of course, this being the Streets, it's all about being, at the end, in the dark, all by your lonesome. "This is the beginning of hard times to come," sings Skinner, but he's wrong. This is the ending of the first hip-hop classic of the new millennium[/b].



    sounds about right. but definitely not accurate. ha.
  • TREWTREW 2,037 Posts
    A colleague of mine (Marc Savlov) at the Austin Chroncile wrote the following review of The Streets' 2nd album back in '04"

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-04/music_phases.html

    The Streets
    A Grand Don't Come for Free (Vice)
    Britain's Mike Skinner has thrown down a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album[/b], bursting with heart and Northern soul. So sharp are his rhymes, you could eunuchize 99% of the gall that passes for rap in the States[/b] and still have enough edge to shave your willie for your big date next weekend. Clever segue that, since A Grand Don't Come for Free is one of the most knowing breakup albums ever cut, one that slices deep into your battered romantic psyche. Skinner's sophomore opus is also a concept album, on which he plays the hapless Mike, an East End geezer who, in the course of a single day, loses ??1,000, his girlfriend Simone (voiced by MC C-Mone), and very nearly his sanity. His ongoing woes sputter out in the flat cockney accent of a mate with too much time on his hands and not half as much smarts. There's more story than songs, but between the garagey UK beats of "Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way," which finds Mike stoned and joyous on his girlfriend's couch, and elegaic closer "Empty Cans," with Mike mentally waging war against the world, there's a wily narrative previously unheard in any genre. Of course, this being the Streets, it's all about being, at the end, in the dark, all by your lonesome. "This is the beginning of hard times to come," sings Skinner, but he's wrong. This is the ending of the first hip-hop classic of the new millennium[/b].


    haha.. these critics (no offense to your hommie) don't seem to realize that his flow is off in a major way.
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    I was hoping I still had the email I sent to my editor for even thinking about printing that rubbish review...but I must have deleted it.
  • LordNOLordNO 202 Posts

    To echo DocMcoy and diverge a bit, as an american living in London when I talk to your average UK hip hop listener (non specialist) there is the perception that most thug cats are completely fronting and somebody who's basically talking about everyday working class shit is easier to relate to.

    While I agree that the majority of the famous American cats bragging about crack cooking and shootouts are fronting, to dismiss all of that as being image-oriented undermines the role Hip Hop has had traditionally of letting people know what goes on in the hood, which is important.

    But uh, music-wise the Streets are wack. no question.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    I like some of the stuff from the new album. I don't look at it as hip-hop at all, but I like some of the jawns.
  • p_gunnp_gunn 2,284 Posts
    I like some of the stuff from the new album. I don't look at it as hip-hop at all, but I like some of the jawns.

    to me, it sounds like a british version of Eminem's "look at me, i'm sensitive" songs like "cleaning out the closet" etc etc, with the all the off-key vocal hooks...

    when i heard the first streets LP, i didn't like it, but i could understand why people would.

    however, hearing some guy go on about how hard is to be famous, b/c you can't do a line b/c someone might have a camera phone, etc etc is pretty fucking boring.

    when it comes to touchy feely UK rap, Wiley does it much better...
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    I think a lot of it really lends itself to British humor though, like the camera phone song.

    Hotel Expressionism is the shit though.
  • sticky_dojahsticky_dojah New York City. 2,136 Posts
    I like some of the stuff. I don't look at it as hip-hop at all

    maybe this is better:

  • LamontLamont 1,089 Posts
    Correct. The third album had only a few decent cuts.

    Original Pirate Material is an important document, wether you like it or not.
  • p_gunnp_gunn 2,284 Posts
    I like some of the stuff. I don't look at it as hip-hop at all

    maybe this is better:

  • m_dejeanm_dejean Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. 2,946 Posts
    I can't stand The Streets. Just not my cuppa, but I do respect Mike Skinner for the success he has achieved with his DIY approach. I saw a interview with him recently in his "studio", which was really nothing but a tiny schack and all his vocals are done in the minuscule loo.
  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    lol, Harvey, you just gonna throw yr boy under the bus like that huh?

    He probably should stick to the flicks I guess.....
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Marc's a cool dude, but...
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    The thing I hate is how this shit gets played on "alternative" radio -
    it's like, if I want to hear hip hop, I'll listen to Hot 97 or college
    radio or whatever - but if I wanna get my Doc Beezie on and dive into
    nostalgia for the early-90's with some Alice in Chains and Smashing
    Pumpkins, why I gotta have my grunge-reverie disrupted by some godawful
    cockney rhyming slang over playskool beats??

    Nothing exposes the racism of american popular radio more than the
    fact that these so-called "alternative" and "Rock" stations will play
    rap if it's performed by white people or an in-their-eyes clever but
    harmless Brit, but would never in a million years represent That Real Schitt??

  • verb606verb606 2,518 Posts


    Nothing exposes the racism of american popular radio more than the
    fact that these so-called "alternative" and "Rock" stations will play
    rap if it's performed by white people or an in-their-eyes clever but
    harmless Brit, but would never in a million years represent That Real Schitt??






    I've always found that to be bullshit too. Although I never would have stated it so eloquently.(no sarcasm) Then again, the urban stations won't even play De La Soul, so That Real Schitt is getting the bozack all around.
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    I like some of the stuff from the new album. I don't look at it as hip-hop at all, but I like some of the jawns.

    to me, it sounds like a british version of Eminem's "look at me, i'm sensitive" songs like "cleaning out the closet" etc etc, with the all the off-key vocal hooks...

    when i heard the first streets LP, i didn't like it, but i could understand why people would.

    however, hearing some guy go on about how hard is to be famous, b/c you can't do a line b/c someone might have a camera phone, etc etc is pretty fucking boring.

    when it comes to touchy feely UK rap, Wiley does it much better...

    Yeah Treddin' On Thin Ice is a criminally slept on album.

    As for the Streets, put much of the hype down to the UK media getting overly excited about anything that seems to offer a "true british voice" in the world of so called urban music.

    I still think his first album has a certain appeal due to it's basic nature and amusing lyrics but the rest of it leaves me pretty cold. His new album is utter shite by the way.
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,954 Posts
    I've always thought of The Streets as bad stream-of-conciousness chav poetry. It's like the kind of shit most kids bang out in English when they are nine or ten years old.

    The critics are correct in only one respect - he may be one of the true voices of urban youth because seriously, he's barely literate, like 99% of his generation. It has absolutely no artistic merit. Just because a generation is too lazy to learn anything beyond text-message English does not make it acceptable.

    Good luck to him, in a Jade Goody way, for spinning shit into gold, but it's more a sad reflection of the public's low standards and inability to seek something not directly placed under their noses than him flexing any modicum of talent.
  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    I enjoyed good portions of the Streets first album. Its obv not rap music but getting mad at his flow is stupid, its heavily influenced by rap but he's obviously not working in the same vein. And he's not coming out of grime either, although he and grime share similar source material in that whole sound-of-the-pirates locked-on type 2-step/garage shit. His best songs to me work in that style, shit like "Let's Push Things Forward."

    I entirely agree that the most annoying thing about him is how he's used by critics in the u.s. to hammer at american rap music, which is obsenely stupid and borderline racist.
  • p_gunnp_gunn 2,284 Posts


    Yeah Treddin' On Thin Ice is a criminally slept on album.

    .

    the new one is better, IMHO...
  • 33thirdcom33thirdcom 2,049 Posts
    so after trying hard to avoid listening to The Streets (and to a lesser extent Lady Sovereign) I was trapped in urban outfitters, discussing throw pillows with my fiance when one of the employees decided to rock The Streets (they may of had it piped in muzak-style, who knows?)

    anyhow, after having listened to half of the album, i still can't understand the hype.. every review i've read seems to be conscious of the horrendous lyrical content but the rewiewer will still give the album a pass...

    can anyone shed some light/opinions/related urban outfitters horror stories?

    Their music is just bad, no need to justify it or care about it.
  • ayresayres 1,452 Posts
    Blinded By The Lights has an amazing beat/hook. I listen to The Streets for the funny stories. If you listen to him as a rapper it's awful but dude is funny and has a few good beats here and there. I understand why other people don't like him though.
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