THE STREETS

I know one thing about Mike Skinner: music industry types and dumb critics are selling him as "the British Eminem." But that's a bunch of fucking bollocks. Mike's got a totally different bag than ol' Mr. Mathers. Mike's bag is less bitter. And WAY more British. To a point where you can't really understand what the hell he's saying, unless you:
a) Are from England, or
b) Have lived there.


Original Pirate Material (Atlantic Records) is the record that's got everyone going bananas. And it's pretty fucking entertaining. As The Streets, Mike rhymes like a bloke or a chap or whatever the U.K. kids call dudes these days. He rhymes about British stuff. His beats are a reflection of the British music scene. Not that lame Beatles rip-off crap that made Oasis famous. Stuff like garage, two-step, dub, and, sure, some traditional hip-hop. And it's 100% British. Not some wanker biting American rhyming styles. (Though that little piano line in "Has it Come to This?" sounds eerily similar to J-Live's "Travelling Music".)
But you can still enjoy it, even as a non-British-speaking American. And if he can put out a second album equally as interesting, I'll give this one even bigger props for paving his way.