The Streets

Mike Skinner (born November 27, 1978), more commonly known by his stage name The Streets, is a rapper from Birmingham, England.^[1]

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History

Skinner acquired his first keyboard at the age of five after moving to Birmingham from Barnet, North London. As a teenager, he built a miniature recording studio in his bedroom. He began writing hip hop and garage music in his home in West Heath in Birmingham, with a crew of other rappers including best friend Chris Panton. He describes his background as "Barratt class: suburban estates, not poor but not much money about, really boring".^[2] Skinner started making songs at the age of fifteen.

He has suffered from epilepsy since the age of seven. ^[3]

In the late 1990s, Skinner was a student at Sutton Coldfield College, near Birmingham, and was working in fast food jobs while trying to start his own independent record label and sending off demos. The Streets started out as a group project but quickly became a one-man act as band members fell away. At the end of 2000, the Locked On label, who had had success with The Artful Dodger featuring Craig David, agreed to release "Has It Come To This" under the name The Streets. Skinner moved from Birmingham to Brixton to pursue his recording career.

Despite having been raised in Birmingham, an area with a distinctive regional accent, he speaks with a London-influenced accent. Some critics have accused Skinner of using a "Mockney" accent.^[4] He can be heard speaking in his normal accent at the beginning of the song "Fake Streets Hats." Because of his accent, Skinner is identified with Birmingham; a keen supporter of Birmingham City, he even wore the club's replica shirt on stage.

Career breakthrough

"Has It Come To This" proved to be a breakthrough hit for The Streets, going top-twenty in March 2001. For his debut album, Original Pirate Material, Skinner wanted to take UK garage in a new direction with material reflecting the lifestyle of clubbers in Britain. The track "Let's Push Things Forward" reflects the philosophy of the album. The album was released and proved to be successful both with critics and the general public alike. In the UK, the album was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize and was favourite with the bookies to win it (it was later won by Ms. Dynamite). The Streets was nominated for best album, best urban act, best breakthrough artist and best British male artist in the 2002 BRIT Awards. The NME named it as one of their top five albums of 2002. The cover image is Towering Inferno by the acclaimed photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg.

Subsequent singles included "Don't Mug Yourself", "Weak Become Heroes" and "Let's Push Things Forward" which all reached the top 40 in the UK. Many of his songs have a UK garage feel but have in the main found popularity in the 'indie' scene. Original Pirate Material had debuted and peaked at number 12 in the UK album charts, and wouldn't reach any higher until his next album was released.

The success of Original Pirate Material in the UK led to a US release of the album through Vice/Atlantic in late 2002. Despite Skinner's lack of understanding of hip hop culture in the US and failure to catch on with American audiences it quickly became a critical favourite with Rolling Stone, Spin Magazine, The New York Times, Blender, USA Today and the LA Times all nominating it as one of the albums of the year. The album was named Entertainment Weekly's "album of the year". The album reached number two on the Billboard electronic charts and the top 20 on the independent and Heatseeker charts in the US in 2003.

Live Line-up

The Streets regularly plays live, and has also performed at several Festivals.

Up until recently his playing line up was: Mike Skinner, Leo "The Lion" singing backing vocals, Eddie "The Kid" playing keyboard, Johnny Drum Machine playing drums, and long-time friend Morgan Nicholls playing bass and guitar.

His current live-line up consists out of Kevin Mark Trail on backing vocals, Wayne Vibes on guitar and bass, Chris Brown on keyboards, Magic Mike on samplers and Johnny Drum Machine as drummer and Musical director.

Topping the charts

In May 2004, he released a new single, "Fit But You Know It" which became his highest debuting and highest selling single to that point, reaching number four in the UK. Skinner revealed the song was an ode to his lust for pop star Rachel Stevens.

"Fit But You Know It" is from his second album, A Grand Don't Come for Free which is a concept album about a short period in the protagonist's life. The events depicted include losing a thousand pounds, the start of a new relationship, going on holiday, breaking up, and eventually finding the grand again. The MC's remix of "Fit But You Know It" features formerly underground MCs such as Kano, Tinchy Stryder, Donae'o and Lady Sovereign.

The album debuted at number two in the UK album charts, but later reached the number one position. Soon after the album was released, his success grew even larger in July 2004, with the second single "Dry Your Eyes" debuting at the top of the chart in the UK. The success of this album and its singles led to a re-kindling of interest in the first album Original Pirate Material, which re-entered the UK album charts and beat its original chart peak of two years earlier. "Blinded By the Lights", the third single from "A Grand Don't Come for Free", hit the Top 10 in September 2004, and a fourth and final single, "Could Well Be In", was released in late 2004.

The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living

Skinner's third studio album under The Streets moniker, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, was released on 10 April 2006 in the United Kingdom and on April 25 2006 in North America. In the UK it debuted at #1 on the album chart. It was a change in direction from the last two albums, the lyrical theme of "Hardest" moved away from the stories about working class Britain and now studying on the ups and downs of fame, a problem Skinner has encountered since the huge success of his last album.

The lead single, titled "When You Wasn't Famous", was released two weeks prior to the album. The song is about Skinner's troubles with trying to date a famous person, following his new found fame. It was also named 'Track of the Week' by NME in early March 2006, but when it came into the UK singles charts, it only reached the latter course of the top 10, peaking at #8. There has been much speculation over which celebrity "When You Wasn't Famous" is about - Rachel Stevens and Cheryl Cole are two names that have been ruled out, despite Skinner dedicating the song to Cole on Top Of The Pops.^[5] This reluctance to reveal the subject may be more than simple politeness, as some of the descriptions of the unnamed starlet in the track are potentially damaging. At one point, Skinner discloses "my whole life I never thought I'd see a pop star smoke crack".

The second single, "Never Went to Church", is a tribute to Skinner's late father, and appears to use the chord progression of The Beatles' "Let It Be" as a backing beat.

The Streets appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on June 26, 2006 to promote the new album.

The 4th Album

Skinner is currently in the process of mastering his fourth studio album which is, as of yet, unnamed.^[6] One song from the new album, entitled Everything is Borrowed was on Skinner's myspace page for a while before being replaced with a cover of "Your Song." The sound is reminiscent of Skinner's earlier work on Original Pirate Material. In a blurb about the album on Skinner's myspace, he says "This album started off life as parables but then I realised that it might get a bit cheesy so I got rid of the alien song and the devil song and replaced them with more straight up songs. I've pretty much kept my promise that I made to myself not to reference modern life on any of them though which is hard to do and keep things personal at the same time."

He has stated on his blog on his website that the fourth Streets album will be released in 2008.^[7], and he turned in the unmastered tracks on Monday, October 1.

Promotional and campaign work

• Skinner is an ardent fan of Reebok Classics shoes; he is often seen wearing a pair of white Workout Plus trainers, and has even mentioned them in the lyrics for his song "Let's Push Things Forward," in which he raps, "Let's put on our Classics and have a little dance, shall we?". In 2005 he signed up to appear in a 12 month ad campaign for Reebok, joining other prominent celebrities in Reebok's "I Am What I Am" campaign.^[8][9][10]
• Skinner collaborated with PETA2 in a campaign urging KFC to demand that chickens raised for them be treated more humanely.^[11]

Discography

Album sales

Singles

References