THE STREETS - mikeeeee skinner, all hail.

More Fire Crew also supported Skinner in December - they were okay but it did really feel like everyone was just waiting to see what Skinner would do really...as good as 'Oi', 'Back Then' and 'Lock Down' are (tho didnt really work as well live)

One main element of Skinner's appeal I'd say is the exhilarating novelty of seeing someone on stage who looks just like the scores of townie geezers you see in the pub/shops/street every week, and using precisely that as his selling point. it shouldnt work but it does, because that honesty is reflected in the music, vocals and lyrics(stripped down, naive production even, yet also ambitious and exhuberant if not quite cutting edge - he WANTS to be POP to a reasonable extent), only its not honest enough to make the whole thing unanimously boring somehow, thus the mild exaggeration of the 'geezer' - call it 'geezer fantasy' even, as you would the gangster fantasies of so many U.S. MCs...I'm just amused and excited by the concept of geezer fantasy as pop music, not quite been done in this way before, this 'seriously' even (plus its seriously funny) and 'Lets Push Things Forward' et al are good pop records to me (catchy hooks, element of novelty - innovation even, designed to strike a chord with a number of people and not just self indulgent fantasy).

That is all.

"Much-touted British hip hop outfit The Streets will release a new mini-album of unreleased tracks and remixes October 14, but it will only be available through paid downloads from online music retailers. Titled All Got Our Runnins, the album features three new tracks from Streets mastermind Mike Skinner plus remixes of four cuts from Skinner's debut, Original Pirate Material, which has moved over 100,000 copies in the US."

anybody got any more info on this?

there it is. errrrrrrrrrr not sure about this. sounds well weird. that beat sounds like coldplay over a hip hop drum track so to hear those MCs on it is strange. it doesnt help that they dont exactly put in the best performances. i swear, apart from the roll deep remix, most of the streets' grime-all star remixes have been a bit dissapointing. lady sov was the only one that really killed it on fit but you know it.