Rating:   28 Ratings     12345  

The Streets Original Pirate Material Vice

      Accused by North American critics and music listeners alike of being a poor British export, akin to a white Eminem, dissing the hip-hop genre with nothing but lame poetical lyrics mashed on top of a ten-dollar battery operated keyboard, The Streets was and still is, sorely misunderstood.

      Sat firmly within the style of the UK-Garage music scene, a genre that never crossed over to the North American listener, Original Pirate Material blends elements of Reggae, Ska, Funk, Drum & Bass and Hip-Hop, to form a storyboard of the life of a young geezer in inner city England.

      From years of British Government neglect, the damp and gray housing estates that sprawl across London, Birmingham, Liverpool and every other corner of the small and apparently quaint island, hold a powerful abundance of bitterness and resentment of both the old and the young generation. The unemployment, poverty, drugs, crime and the everyday fight to survive on the hard streets, are brilliantly and emotionally told in the lyrics throughout this, ‘A Day In The Life Of A Geezer’, being 23 year old Skinner.

      To most Americans, the street speak, slang and Skinner’s harsh Brit-Brummie accent will throw a lot of confusion on the faces of listeners. My advice, either look for someone who’s from England to guide you or failing that, watch one month of non-stop Coronation Street on BBC America. Don’t let this put you off though, Original Pirate Material is a masterpiece that speaks to every young person around the world who has grown up in a city, dealt with love and sex, peers, drugs and alcohol, poverty and downright surviving.

      The opening track “Turn The Page” with its pulsating strings, slams the listener straight into a fitting introduction to the British class system, promising to unleash a homegrown music revolution through lyrics that spit “brace yourself because this goes deep” and “be brave, clenched fists.” The upbeat “Has It Come To This” with soulful vocal samples, opens up to show white 20-something life with Playstations, Bensons (cigarettes), weed and “Sex, drugs and on’ the dole” as Skinner describes the British welfare state.

      “Let’s Push Things Forward,” breaths Skinners frustration with today’s music industry, while “Same Old Thing” and “Geezers Need Excitement” takes you right into the urban monotonous nightly activities of British pub life; same old people, chatting up the girls and grabbing a take-away on the way home. Lyrics reporting, “Geezers, need excitement, if their lives don’t provide them this they incite violence, football fan style” depicts the built up anger and rage bubbling under the surface of many young British white males.

      With surprisingly moving and emotional lyrics, “It’s Too Late” is another picture of the troubles of an everyday blokes life, namely girls. It’s a breath of fresh air from the previous two tracks on the CD, and brings Skinner back down to earth, showing that even a hard boy on the streets carries enough heart to love and be loved. “Too Much Brandy’ is a noteworthy and comically lyrical rendition of a night out on the town that involves too much drink, more junk food and a rather confusing and hazy vomit filled journey back home to the sack. The greasiness of a traditional British fry up breakfast after a night on the beer couldn’t get more stomach churning than in “Don’t Mug Yourself,” and “Weak Become Heroes” paints a tribute to the legendary British rave days of the 90s, where thousands of clubbers all over the country would meet on the sides of the highways to find out where the next illegal rave was being held (usually in abandoned warehouses).

      “Stay Positive,” the final track on the CD with its looping mid-tempo beat and piano sample, seals a chapter on this collection of very hard to swallow diary entries. Pitching the story of a descent into the turmoil’s of hard drugs, the lyrics still manage to pitch a hint of hope for anyone fighting to keep their head above the water in this tough world. Skinner tries hard to encourage us to “Just trying to stay positive,” when you can tell that even he knows that in this day and age, with all the shit that goes on among every one of us, its still damm hard to maintain a positive attitude.

      In conclusion, The Streets debut Original Pirate Material is a sweet and stunning homemade debut, portraying a vivid life of a young person living in the UK. Mike Skinner takes us through his own life with a fair share of drink and drugs, muggers and taxers, cigarettes, fighting geezers, girls, urban decay, unemployment, peer pressure and loyalty. With a capsule of life on the streets brilliantly and sometimes tearfully captured on a chapter collection of 14 tracks, this record could easily be flipped into the garbage on the American side of the Atlantic without the recognition and respect that it deserves. To a potential listener and buyer of this album, I say these few final words.

      Original Pirate Material wasn’t meant to be absorbed, appreciated and understood instantly. Don’t let your first impressions fool you into thinking this isn’t for real. This is for real. The Streets is on every street corner, dingy stairwell, smoke filled pub and crapped out apartment around the world. Just open your eyes.

-Conrad Buck 02/10/04