The Streets

A natural storyteller of significant wit and pathos with a distinctive delivery and production approach, the Streets' producer, songwriter, and rapper Mike Skinner is a a truly original voice in British hip-hop. The Streets arrived in the early days of the millennium with a captivating sound that helped influence the direction of Britain's garage and grime scenes. 2002's Original Pirate Material was Mercury Music Prize-nominated; it was followed by the chart-topping 2004 tour de force A Grand Don't Come for Free. Skinner kept the Streets both creatively vital and popular for the remainder of the decade, then retired the project after 2011's Computers and Blues. Skinner revived the name with singles starting in 2017 and the 2020 mixtape None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive before issuing the elaborate 2023 album and film The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light. More new Streets material arrived on 2024's Fabric Presents the Streets, a 31-track DJ mix. A native of Birmingham, Skinner was an outsider in the garage scene upon his move to London. He'd been recording homemade tracks since the age of 15, influenced by a range of music from hip-hop, house, and jungle to reggae and country. He developed an idiosyncratic production and vocal style that would later become his hallmark when he launched the Streets. After sending an early demo of "Has It Come to This?" to Nick Worthington of the influential garage label Locked On, he landed a deal and the song was released as a single in 2001. It was a Top 20 hit, reaching number 18 on the U.K. singles chart and effectively launched Skinner's career. The Streets' debut album, Original Pirate Material, appeared in March 2002 to widespread critical praise, earning a Mercury Prize nomination and peaking at number 12 on the albums chart. Skinner's savvy homemade production and original lyrics about everyday working-class life broke with contemporary U.K. trends, and the album remains an influential release of the era. With his 2004 follow-up, A Grand Don't Come for Free, Skinner hit a critical and commercial peak, delivering an intricate but engaging concept album that pushed his production and songwriting eccentricities to a new level. It topped the U.K. charts, yielding a clutch of hit singles including the punchy "Fit But You Know It" and the ballad "Dry Your Eyes" which also reached number one. With the Streets now a mainstream U.K. concern, Skinner leaned into his role as tabloid character on 2006's The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living. Although it wasn't billed as a concept album, its songs centered around the vagaries of fame as Skinner had experienced it. It again topped the U.K. charts, though its critical reception was more muted. Everything Is Borrowed followed in 2008, but charted a far different thematic course with its overtly optimistic and philosophical material. Reviews were positive, and it peaked at number seven in the U.K. Skinner soon began discussing the next Streets record, which he described as dark and futuristic. Preceded by a digital-only mixtape called Cyberspace and Reds, his fifth album, Computers and Blues, appeared in early 2011. It matched his fiery delivery and songwriting with a garage production approach that harked back to Skinner's Original Pirate Material days. It would also prove to be his last major project for nearly a decade as he promptly retired the Streets not long after the album's release. Aside from a 2012 collaboration with former Streets foil Rob Harvey as the D.O.T., Skinner remained relatively quiet during the coming years, DJing around London and popping up now and then in the press or with a bit of production work. In December 2017, seemingly out of the blue, a pair of new Streets tracks, "Burn Bridges" and "Sometimes I Hate My Friends More Than My Enemies," appeared on streaming networks, fueling speculation about a revival. A number of additional tracks and collaborations with FLOHIO, Dimzy, Chris Lorenzo, and others further marked Skinner's return as he ramped the project back up with renewed vigor over the next two-and-a-half years. Led by the Tame Impala-assisted single "Call My Phone Thinking I'm Doing Nothing Better," the Streets' comeback came in the form of a 2020 mixtape, None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive. During this period, it was later revealed that Skinner had been laboring over a more long-term project that eventually materialized in 2023. Comprising a self-directed, self-funded feature film and accompanying full-length album, The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light cemented the Streets' second phase in grand fashion. Featuring longtime collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Rob Harvey, the seamlessly arranged set was the first proper Streets album in nearly 13 years. A year later Skinner was asked to curate a DJ mix celebrating the 25th anniversary of legendary nightclub fabric London. Along with five new Streets tracks, Fabric Presents highlighted U.K. garage, dubstep, and house artists like Leotrix, Flowdan, and Dusky. ~ John Bush & Timothy Monger