Why We’re Listening to The Streets Again
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When was the last time you heard something truly original? For me, it was 2002. I was a budding Anglophile in my early 20s, reading NME weekly. I hadn’t made it past classic Britpop like Oasis and Blur or the indies of the moment like The Libertines and Cornershop for many reasons. When The Streets’ classic debut album, Original Pirate Material, was released, it honestly blew my mind.
That album created a huge moment for The Streets, a.k.a. South London via Birmingham producer and rapper Mike Skinner. Things unfolded in time-honored Brit-sensation fashion from there: Skinner followed up with a more ambitious and cinematic concept album (A Grand Don’t Come for Free) and then an indulgent third LP about the costs of living hard (2006’s The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living.) Then he went relatively quiet; last year’s The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light was the first “proper” Streets album in 12 years.
But Skinner has been on my mind since last week, when Overmono, a Welsh electronic music duo, released a remix of “Turn the Page,” the opening track from Original Pirate Material. They sped it up and gave it a more glitchy club-appropriate feel. It’s not my usual cup of tea, but I quite like it.
But maybe I just miss The Streets. Original Pirate Material is more simplistic than the typical UK garage and drum n’ bass tracks that inspired its sound, but Skinner added charm and moved the focus toward the lyrics. It was so profoundly British that many phrases (“Last night was some beer-lairy-ness done our way”) and wordplay didn’t make sense to me, but it felt like something special that I needed to understand.
We all remember Noel Gallagher playing a hollow-body Epiphone emblazoned with the Union Jack; Skinner’s take was much less patriotic, a realistic, sometimes grim, but always honest view of British life. Curry, kebabs, chips, cocaine, ecstasy, nightclubs, being broke, and cannabis are mentioned often, but his intelligence always shined through. I had never heard anyone describe being on drugs so well. I remember playing it for people and the reactions being very polarizing; you either got it or didn’t, making it feel even more special.
I was coming to New York City a bit during this time. Some friends from Atlanta had moved to a proper shithole in Bushwick long before Roberta’s christened the neighborhood. I had been distributing the then very cool and cutting-edge Vice magazine for a few years. They would ship 30 boxes to the clothing store I worked in; I would load them into my Honda Civic trunk and drop them off at a few spots in town. It paid like shit, but I made some good friends at Vice who I would often visit at the office on North Seventh Street in Williamsburg.
Vice had a record label that actually put out a few outstanding records, including the U.S. release of Original Pirate Material. I vividly remember being in the office, hungover, shooting the shit with my buddies, when Mike Skinner walked in. Some people possess that magnetic pull. When Skinner walked through, everyone turned their heads. He was the face of the Reebok S Carter shoes in the UK. He had a pair on his feet, his signature Fred Perry polo—collar popped, of course—and several pieces of jewelry from Surface2Air. (The brushed metal three-finger ring was having a moment.) Everyone played it cool, but tongues were wagging. It was one of the first times I witnessed star power. I was hooked.
If you haven’t heard the album, go listen to it. The Overmono remix sent me down a deep rabbit hole that reminded me that The Streets was something genuinely original, and I am not sure how many more of those we will get.
Originally Appeared on GQ
