The Streets live at Parklife, Sydney 2011
Tuuuneage is a series of blog posts by Dave In Charge (hey, that’s me!) to help you discover, or rediscover, awesome music across different genres.
The Streets have always been a huge inspiration to me. In fact, it was not until their first single “Has It Come To This?” climbed the UK Charts in 2001 that rap in a British accent started to become accepted by the mainstream. He even inspired Drake. Although front man Mike Skinner has now moved on to other projects, the songs and social commentary remain as relevant as ever.
1. The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward
There’s so many quotable distinctive lyrics in this track and I love how naturally Mike delivers them. You would not expect to find these in a rap song, but it really works.
“Huge non-recoupable advance, majors be vigilant”
“As we progress to the check point, I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoint”
“My frequencies are transient and resonate your eardrums”
“Put on your mittens for these sub zero conditions”
2. The Streets – The Irony Of It All
The concept behind this track is brilliant. Mike spells out why it makes little sense that users of marijuana are considered criminals, contrasted with users of the legal drug, alcohol.
This role play/conversational approach seems to work great to get the points across. Obviously, you shouldn’t make your mind up based purely on this song, but it is very thought-provoking.
3. The Streets – Dry Your Eyes
Having been at #1 in the UK Singles Charts, this is The Streets’ most commercially successful track. I remember listening to this after a break up, and the sentiment really helped me reflect.
I make reference to this track in my song, Screw Valentine’s Day.
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@DaveInCharge
@jameshtomlinson @SkinnerMike In case you’re interested, I wrote a blog post about them: http://t.co/yi4vTqqfJT