The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free

[Peking O]

If you're looking for musical innovation and lyrical intelligence you can't go far wrong with the first two Public Enemy albums. (Yo Bum Rush The Show, and It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back). Don't think I'd exactly liken it to John Hegley set to music, but give it a whirl anyway....

[dan dirty ape]

Is that it?

I shall check Sage Francis out, but I was hoping when I got home they'd be a load more recs.

Come on whores, or I'll start a thread, you try and stop me!

You could also do worse than to check out Aesop Rock/El-P/Cannibal Ox/Edan/Antipop Consortium/Slug/Buck 65/Slick Rick/Company Flow/Kool Keith/High & Mighty/Ugly Duckling/Beans/De La Soul/Diamond D/Del Tha Funkee Homosapien

By no means a comprehensive list, but all great.

[Utter Shit]

Sage Francis!

Agreed, though I don't like this pretentious 'beat poetry' stuff he's taken to doing.

Anyway...intelligent hip-hop...

Aesop Rock

Talib Kweli

Mos Def

Ras Kass (although in my opinion he takes the 'intelligent hip-hop' thing too far, and sacrifices entertainment and listenable music for his attempt at teaching, which really comes off as preachy...it's great in small doses, but can get irritating. Just download 'Nature Of The Threat' which depending on your perspective is a fantastic journey through the ages of black society and culture, or a disgusting anti-white diatribe that, if the shoe was on the other foot, would see some white guy get lynched.

Common (early stuff especially, Resurrection in particular is an all-time classic)

Nas

Immortal Technique (this guy mixes his fierce fierce FIERCE political agenda with some of the craziest, funniest shit you'll ever hear...one example off the top of my head, a diatribe against the lack of so-called constitutional freedom of speech, set to a beat comprising of samples from Disney's Pinnochio, "I got no strings to hold me down...", fantastic artist)

A Tribe Called Quest

...all the above are the real cream of hip-hop IMO, if you don't like them, there's really no converting you to hip-hop, you may as well throw away your urban dictionary now.

[morgs]

I agree in part with Mayer and with Borboski.  (I was going to leave it at that, but I will expand on that comment...)

Having played it a LOT over the past few days, I don't think it's as good as OPM.  However, it has it's moments and I find the Soundtrack-Of-A-Day-In-The-Life-Of-A-Chav amusing.

Don't really appreciate hip-hop though and although I ound Eminem quite fresh at first I am bored with him now.  And the new D12 'My Band' single (or whatever it's called) is a heap of old shite.

Which Radio 1 love

[Utter Shit]

My Band is a clever concept, well thought-out and lyrically excellent...but it's wrapped up in a fucking TERRIBLE, cheesy pop beat that just destroys it as a song. IMO it's a brilliantly clever track, playing on people's perceptions of each member's role in the group and how they all interact...it's kinda annoying that they packaged it so terribly (well, from a hip-hop fans eyes, from the eyes of the record execs it's probably great news because it's sold shitloads), because to me that was one of the most original and intelligent pieces of lyricism in modern day commercial hip-hop.

[chand]

That's part of the problem for me. Some people think he's being ironic, some people like me think he genuinely is just going on and on about kebabs and trying to shag birds. At least you know where you stand with MC Paul Barman or Pitman or Goldie Lookin' Chain.

All Skinner's doing is writing about a lifestyle that he can identify with. For most young English fellas, life is very much about kebabs and trying to shag birds.

Yeah, but that's what Nuts is for. I guess I find him too prosaic. I sort of prefer my hip-hop with phatter beats, tongue-twisting lyrics, metaphors and...well, rhymes. Like, when MF Doom on the Madvillain album rhymes 'borderline schizo' with 'sorta fine tits though'. Or M Sayyid rapping 'So what I'm saying is this/Sayyid's on top of this shit/like I'm walking around with a toilet strapped to the hip'. Or when Gift Of Gab embarks on a long breathless rhyme that can make your jaw drop. Or freestyling. That kind of shit makes me grin. I always feel Skinner rhymes the way I wrote poems as a kid at school, make the last word rhyme vaguely, and that's it. And it's not just the lyrics, he doesn't have a flow. There's no rhythm to the lyrics, and so it feels like there's no real hook. For me, anyway.

I guess it wouldn't matter so much if I enjoyed his beats, but it just feels like everything I enjoy in hip-hop is missing from Skinner, and so to me it just comes across like a guy talking about the time he was looking at a girl while he was queueing up in KFC or what a hangover he has. Maybe it's the press coverage, maybe it's this 'urban poet' bollocks, the idea that he's the 'voice of a generation', maybe that's what gets my goat. But I just don't find anything that grabs me in what he says, or the way he says it. When he's telling a story or trying to be emotional, I feel like I'm hearing someone read out from their Livejournal.

[chand]

My Band is a clever concept, well thought-out and lyrically excellent...but it's wrapped up in a fucking TERRIBLE, cheesy pop beat that just destroys it as a song. IMO it's a brilliantly clever track, playing on people's perceptions of each member's role in the group and how they all interact...it's kinda annoying that they packaged it so terribly (well, from a hip-hop fans eyes, from the eyes of the record execs it's probably great news because it's sold shitloads), because to me that was one of the most original and intelligent pieces of lyricism in modern day commercial hip-hop.

I think it works really well as a video, but on the radio it's a bit lifeless.

[The Boston Crab]

This thread has become really interesting.

I agree about D12, great great subversive concept for a purely commercial record. The first few times I heard it, it was lyrically so much fun that I barely noticed the tune, but now I can't get past it I'm afraid. I don't know whether it was produced by Dre or he's just passed on that cartoon/circus of horrors production style to Em now, either way, it's annoying as hell. The video does still work much better though, I agree. They took shit to the next level there, son.

I was a bit perturbed about the MC Paul Barman reference before in relation to Pitman and GLC. While GLC in particular make me laugh like a bastard, and Pitman's pretty funny for a short while, I think it's unfair to Barman to discuss him in the same circles.

Lyrically, he really blows most people out of the water. If you ignore the sillier tracks, Cock Mobster etc. he's definitely got more to offer than novelty rudeness. Check out the album Paulellujah! because it's pretty much all killer. To be honest, it sometimes get a little too cerebral, and the wordplay can make your mind boggle. He's definitely worth checking out though, that album's probably my favourite hip-hop LP since...ooh...Mos Def's Black On Both Sides. The beats are also incredibly inventive, I mean he's got some sick people involved on there, it's not some home-produced affair, so I think it's unjust to put him in with those other guys. Prince Paul produced his debut E.P. for goodness sake.

As for The Streets though, let's face it, the production is skank, guy. Default midi beats in the house! It does work though, because it's hardly supposed to be at the fore, it's just all about him telling stories, which he just about pulls off, even with the world's cuntiest voice. They guy doesn't need any hardware at all, you 'could' produce something that sounds at the level just with Fruity Loops. I like that idea, that he's able to do it through sheer force of personality. Let's be honest, love him or not, it's all about the man himself.

The lyrics veer from hyper-observant (it's not just 'I eat kebabs and get pissed'), being genuinely moving and funny, to the point where you're not sure whether he's taking the piss, it sounds so bad. I don't think he is taking the piss, it's just part of who he is, he must like those bits, I suppose, and he's got carte blanche to do what he likes. No record company people are going tostep in and make him remove the parts which are essentially him.

He's done well, and writes some deceptively simple songs which genuinely affect people in one way or another, he's not to be dismissed so simply, in my opinion.

[mrpants]

I used to quite like The Streets and Eminem until I discovered Buck 65.  If we're comparing white rappers who produce their own beats and are known for their lyrics then Buck 65 wins I'm afraid.

A lot of the time (most of the time) his stories in his songs are totally made up but they're told so well.

He also writes his stuff in his bedroom on an 8-track tape recorder with a sampler and a turntable yet his music sounds so much better than The Streets and so much more goddam funkier!

If you want the stories try Talkin' Honky Blues or Square or possibly Man Overboard.  If you want the more traditional (in the loosest sense) hip hop stuff, try his earlier albums like Vertex and Language arts.

[mayer]

has anyone seen a live streets bootleg about? i'd sell my grandmother (and pawn my grandfather) for a boot of him at Reading a few years back. that failing i'll offer family member's of decreasing age and stature for other gigs.

the net helps not, and i curse my lack of ability/desire/patience to bootleg things myself.

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

I like a lot of Skinner's lyrics, they're words I can relate to...greasy spoons, kebabs shops, clubs and pubs, it's something I can understand, which I don't get very often with US rappers.

[chand]

I was a bit perturbed about the MC Paul Barman reference before in relation to Pitman and GLC. While GLC in particular make me laugh like a bastard, and Pitman's pretty funny for a short while, I think it's unfair to Barman to discuss him in the same circles.

Oh, absolutely, Barman is on a different level to GLC and Pitman, if only for the fact that he can do those head-spinning rhymes, and there's far more depth to it than GLC's pissing-about.

Anyway, I can understand why people like The Streets, but it's just not for me. I mean, I don't find him funny enough to enjoy his jokey side, I don't find his beats addictive enough to rival the dozens of great beatsmiths there are out there, he never wows me with his rhymes, and there are many other lyricists (inside and outside of hip-hop) whose stuff I find more affecting. But, like I say, that's just me, he just seems to fall between a load of stools for me.

[garlicberet]

just back to the Streets album for a sec... for my own rabid opinion...

I don't really GET where all the fuss is coming from for the new record, I liked OPM and I like the new album... but it's hardly anything revolutionary! the concept is nice, and the fact it is more lyrics driven is welcome... but as a whole piece its very confused and for lack of a better phrase "up and down"... "Dry Your Eyes", for instance, is just cringe-worthy...

also, Dizzee Rascal did this style of production a billion times better on his debut... it's kind of apparent where Skinner has been taking his influences...

okay, back onto D12... and shit

[Jimmy]

With regards to Eminem, no way. I accept that the immediate impact Eminem has is at least partly related to the fact that as a white person, white people think they can identify with him, but after that initial perception, what draws you in is the fact that he's just a supremely gifted lyricist. The Slim Shady LP is up there with the very best hip-hop albums ever made....

I agree completely. He's got the skills to pay the bills as the beasties might say... Sure he does really commercial and novelty type stuff at times- but more often than not his vocal dexterity, delivery and rhyme schemes are fucking fantastic.

A quick note about D-12, mostly shit to average I find, Eminem alwaysoutshines the rest by a mile (which My Band played on), though Proofs got his moments. Most of their content is gothic, "ooh look how sick we are" bullshit though, they never seem to be saying anything new to me. And the less said about Bizarre the better... For fuck sake could he at least TRY to flow on beat..

As for the Streets, I like OPM even if I accept that Skinner isn't the best lyricist. For me that doesn't matter though because I never considered him strictly hip-hop/rap  (and I don't think he does either) more garage/spoken word if anything. I'm not feeling that new single though Ive only heard it once, its just that I knwo he normally rhymes off-beat but he seems ridiculously off on the new one?? Maybe its just me.


Final point of a long and dull post, I don't like the way that Skinner is touted as a leading light in British rap. Yes he may have had some commercial success, but as anyone who knows the scene a bit will testify, there are British rappers who lyrically destroy Skinner, and even many of the US acts out there, but the demand for it just doesnt seem to be there.

[garlicberet]

I don't even get how The Streets is even considered rap in the first place... its spoken word isn't it? Skinner is just reciting poetry...

[Benny J. Fish]

I don't even get how The Streets is even considered rap in the first place... its spoken word isn't it? Skinner is just reciting poetry...

He recently said in an interview, something like, "I cant do audiobooks all my life"

[garlicberet]

ooh great! an instrumental album...

[mr rou-rou]

something you might enjoy

Infinite Livez - the adventures of the lactating man (streaming realplayer video)

more infinite livez here

[chand]

That's really bizarre, I got the Infinite Livez album on Friday and this is the first time I'm listening to it, then I click on this.

[Z/Sb]

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[Z/Sb]

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[peterperv]

Does anybody have an acapella version of Dry Your Eyes? I'm convinced it sounds exactly like Tender, by Blur, but the only way I'll get it to work is if I have an acapella version. Kazaa/Soulseek/etc doesn't appear to have anything...

[chand]

I thought 'Dry Your Eyes' sounded like 'Fake Plastic Trees' but not as pretty.

[gazzyk1ns]

I would call myself a "fan" of the streets but "Dry your eyes" is appalling... embarrassing, in an Audio Bullies style.

[MrManson]

Mike Skinner sounds as though he could write another 'Bug Powder Dust' if he put the effort in, so why doesn't he do that instead of faffing about with all those lazy kebab references?

Meanwhile, I'm currently listening to the new Weird War album for the eighteenth time since Sunday.

Sorry to drag this back  up but what is 'Bug Powder Dust'?

[Almost Yearly]

Google is your friend.

[non capisco]

Mike Skinner sounds as though he could write another 'Bug Powder Dust' if he put the effort in, so why doesn't he do that instead of faffing about with all those lazy kebab references?

Meanwhile, I'm currently listening to the new Weird War album for the eighteenth time since Sunday.

Sorry to drag this back  up but what is 'Bug Powder Dust'?

It's a track Justin Warfield did with Bomb The Bass in '94. I like the Kruder and Dorfmeister mix of it the best.

[Cambrian Times]

Sorry to ressurect this thread, but I didn't want to start a new thread and risk the wrath of other whores.

Mike Skinner and some mates came into my pub and did the Sunday quiz, which I was hosting.

He didn't win. But then again he's probably used to that