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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Original Pirate Material [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Artist: The Streets Label: Pure Groove Length: 14 tracks, 47:31 minutes Sure, there is nothing new under the sun. It’s well known that true creative innovation draws from all that’s gone before and reshapes it into something new. Enter 22 year-old “geezer” Mike Skinner, the one-man UK outfit otherwise known as The Streets, and his debut record of home-spun garage beats, Original Pirate Material. Never has something so ‘done’ sounded so fresh. In his thick, cockney accent, Skinner deftly articulates the experiences of middle class youth living in East London as the millennium turns over. This is a “day in the life of a geezer”, a simple world of clubs, pubs, fast food, alcohol, Playstation, cel-phones, public transport, violence, sex, drugs and being on the dole. But the streets he walks on and claims as his moniker could be anywhere. The experiences of love, disillusionment, depression, partying and mind-altering substances could be New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo, or anywhere young people struggle for meaning in life amidst “deep seated urban decay.” If you know the pop / hard-house beats of Moby and Fatboy Slim, you are somewhere towards catching the musical vibe of The Streets. But where Richard Melville Hall and Norman Cook rely heavily on samples and straight dance beats to drive their tunes, Skinner’s own verbose prose dominates every track, holding the often intricate and unpredictable beats together with amazing precision. While strongly influenced by US rap, the vocals resonate in the eardrums like a distant, beat-poet cousin of Eminem but low on the clichés and pompous self aggrandizing, while the tunes pulse with true UK garage sensibilities, distinctively different from US hip-hop. The peculiar, experimental beats are unlike much else on the airwaves today, and Skinner’s mission statement is clear on track three, “Let’s Push Things Forward”: You say that everything sounds the same, then you go buy them!However, the words are where the heart of this geezer shines. One listen and it is clear; Skinner is intensely self aware and politically aware, with a message for others on the streets. He might wax lyrical about drugs and keeping sweet with his dealer, but he doesn’t boast about the lifestyle, simply relating it as a part of every day life. Amidst the frequent expletives Skinner emphasises taking responsibility for your life, encouraging non-violence and realizing there a deeper level to existence. It is gritty and often funny, but still rises to moments of transcendence, as in the opening track, “Turn the Page”: In the afterlife gladiators meet their makerSkinner’s demonstrated awareness of the eternal aspects of life are caught in fleeting moments, but their presence within the wider lyrical context are telling. There is a moral heart beating beneath the grubby exterior of Skinner’s universe. The music’s a gift from the Man on high, the Lord and his children…This moral core of is also evident in the anti-violence song “Geezers Need Excitement”, the longing for a committed relationship in “It’s too late”, the cautionary tale of “Too Much Brandy”, and the awareness of the problem with the illegal drugs / legal alcohol dichotomy in “The Irony of it All” (which is also hilarious as Skinner impersonates a conversation between a drunk football hooligan and a priggish upper-class university graduate who smokes weed, on the issue of marijuana legalization.) Finally, “Weak Become Heroes” pays homage to the UK rave scene of the 90’s and the community of acceptance and equality that it became. The album closer “Stay Positive” most clearly expresses Skinner’s world view. It’s slower than the rest of the CD - a pumping melancholy, monotone funk beat, like coming down from a trip - and picks up again on his awareness of the spiritual dimension to life, especially when things aren’t going well: This world swallows souls, and when the blues unfold it gets cold.This album may be remembered in future as the most vivid snapshot of city life for a young adult at the beginning of the 21st century, and maybe the album that took dance and hip-hop music to the next stage in their evolution. For me though, it is simply 6200 words of brilliant poetry, set to 47 minutes of addictive music, which is real, dynamic and will get repeated listening for a very long time. From what life experience does the Christian subtext come for The Streets? No clues are offered within the body of lyrics. Still, Mike Skinner is no poser. He tells it like it is. He knows he’s a geezer, but he speaks the truth. The music he creates is a gift from the Man on high. That God is inevitably found on The Streets inspires me to realise that even the every day life of a geezer touches the divine. Brendan Boughen 5/26/2003
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