Find The Streets discography, albums and singles on AllMusic. Original Pirate Material. Original Pirate Material Atlantic A Grand Don't Come for Free.
Biography
The Streets is a stage name of young and up-and-coming musician Mike Skinner. Skinner was born in Birmingham, England. He loved music a lot and wanted to become famous but he had to work dead-end and underpaid jobs. Skinner started to record his first tracks in early 90s. He organized band The Streets together with his friends, but in a short time the band broke and Skinner remained the only member of it. In 2000 he signed a contract with Locked On, a well-known sound recording studio. His single Has It Come to This managed to hit Britain's Top 20.
The first album of The Streets Original Pirate Material (2002) became very popular among widely varying audiences not only in Great Britain but also in the United States. Thanks to this collection The Streets was nominated for Mercury Prize, a prestigious prize for the best British album, and for Brit Awards. The critics of NME, Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Times, USA Today and LA Times included Original Pirate Material in the lists of the best collections. The next album A Grand Don't Come for Free, released in 2004, was very successful commercially mostly due to smash-hits Fit But You Know It, Dry Your Eyes, Blinded by the Lights and Could Well Be In.
In 2005 The Streets made a remix of Banquet, a popular song of British band Bloc Party, and a video for this remix. The Streets became so well-known that Skinner was invited for the shooting of an advert for Reebok “I am what I am”. The next creation of The Streets The Hardest Way To Make an Easy Living (2006) was a real masterpiece as well as the previous works. The song When You Wasn’t Famous was called the single of the week shortly after its release. The Streets’ last creation Everything Is Borrowed (2008) managed to grip the attention of the audience and critics in no time. Skinner’s numerous fans are waiting impatiently for the coming gifts of their musical superhero.
Studio AlbumsComputers and Blues
The fifth and the last album by The Streets, released under the title Computers And Blues, will remind Mike Skinner's followers of all highlights og his previous works. A beautiful end to the whole story
Everything Is Borrowed
The Streets' fourth record Everything Is Borrowed presents the confessions of a man who decides to think his mistakes over, make a review of his values and in general finally think of life's meaning
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
The Streets' third album, The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, sees him switching up his rapping, twisting out the production and laying open some heartfelt lyrics across its eleven tracks. This is one of the year's most greatly anticipated albums
5
It appears that many of those who have faced the challenge of reviewing this album are in agreement that word count is a real bind. There is just too much to say. In fact, a small book could, and probably will, be written examining what The Streets has achieved with the execution of Original Pirate Material.
It could be argued that not since Never Mind The Bollocks... has there been a record that has said as much about being young and living in the UK. Moreover, what makes this album even more remarkable is that it is the work of a one unassuming 22 year old, namely Mike Skinner.
Despite an early passion for hip hop and house Mike was never embroiled in the London's pirate radio scene, in fact he was working in Australia when the UK garage cemented its position in the mainstream. Perhaps it is this cultural and geographical distance that has kept Skinner's musical slate clean and allowed him to forge this unique 'high rise' style. Ska, dub, house, drum and bass, hip hop and UK garage have all been thrown in to The Streets' sampler for processing and rearrangement. When combined with his vocal delivery the results are mesmerising - not quite hip hop, not quite an MC and not quite slam poetry but somewhere in between. He's engaged, enlightened and writes with a degree of insight that is humorous, heart-wrenching, humbling and worthy of so much more than this little review.
By his own admission Original Pirate Material is the 'day in the life of a geezer' yet amongst the bitter sweet, inner city anecdotes of drugs, violence, playing computer games, trips to the garage and going clubbing, Mike's best punches are pulled when he is at his most sensitive. In 'Weak Become Heroes' he muses 'It's easy, no one blames you, it's that world out there that's f**ked!... you're no less of a person and if God exists he still loves you, just remember that'. In 'Has It Come To This' he announces, 'The music's a gift from the man on high, the lord and his children'. More of these gems are revealed with successive listens and it is clear as the title in 'Let's Push Things Forward' suggests Mike is on a mission.
In the years to come if you're ever asked what it was like being young at the start of the twenty first century you could do a lot worse than dig this album out of your collection provided, of course, you've taken it out of your CD player. Genius.
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