In Profile: A Potted History Of Mike Skinner

The best music relates to its audience. It engages people. And ideally, it evokes nostalgia in them. All of the most celebrated British musicians in history got popular because they were singing about things we all understood. Maybe that’s why so many consider Mike Skinner, the face of The Streets, a modern day genius for his tales of urban struggles*. Whether it was talking of hitting pubs and clubs for the first time, relationship struggles or family breakdowns, they were all themes that touched people because they understood his experiences. Skinner’s music as The Streets spanned garage, house and hip-hop – much like the stuff he’s been known to play in his DJ sets in recent years. Nowadays, Mike Skinner is working alongside Manchester-based crew Murkage on the project Tonga, where they’ve taken east London by storm with their own brand of ‘party bass’ music. Although Skinner’s broad palette defies pigeonholing, the common thread tying his music together ultimately stems from a deep appreciation of rave culture – much like us, in a way. Before he hits up EC1 with Tonga this Friday as part of our partnership with Red Bull Studios London, we thought it appropriate to look back at some of his career-defining moments that brought him to where he is today.

The Streets - Turn The Page (2002)

The opening track to iconic debut Original Pirate Material, this was where it all began for The Streets. Skinner drew people in with gripping hooks and genius lyricism, telling us he was ‘45th generation Roman’ as he prepared to narrate the story of his life as a struggling Londoner. The song is littered with metaphors and similes as he paints an idealistic picture of the world, but it has a sense of realness too – lines like “Memories fading, soldiers slaying” clash on the same stanza with the more modern day imagery of “geezers raving”. Original Pirate Material saw Skinner playing out his life in theatrical form, Turn the Page was just the beginning.

The Streets - Weak Become Heroes (2002)

It was difficult cherry-picking from such a flawless debut, but ‘Weak Become Heroes’ was another of the standout moments on Original Pirate Material. Skinner relays a typically grim account of life in London (“Maccy D’s or KFC / Only one choice in the city”), while the more obvious message is his nostalgic view of his formative raving days. From the club to the after-party, he sees romance in the nightclub as he remembers all the ‘floating emotions’ of his youth. While the beats are also sophisticated enough to make this a club track, Skinner’s message is more profound. Sure, he was celebrating clubbing, but he was also giving us a candid picture of his whole life – when he tells us that “five years went by and I’m older”, it’s his way of saying that if you spend too long caught in the moment, life can quickly pass you by. Weak Become Heroes spoke to clubbers young and old on so many levels, but it’s Skinner’s honesty that put this up there with the best of his work.

The Streets - Blinded by the Lights (2004)

At face value Blinded by the Lights was the story of another emotion-filled night clubbing (“Lights are blinding my eyes / People walking by / And walking off into the night”), but it was also a commentary on the breakdown of a long-term relationship. “Every song needs a drama at the centre of it”, Skinner said around the release of the record, with Blinded by the Lights being the agonising moment his relationship started to fall apart. Much like the debut, Skinner laid out his problems bare in story form on A Grand Don’t Come For Free as he outlined his struggles with finances, addiction and heartbreak. Blinded by the Lights was just one piece in the puzzle.

The Streets - Empty Cans (2004)

A Grand Don’t Come For Free had its bitter moments, though none moreso than Empty Cans. After assuming a friend had stolen his £1000 when it goes missing at the start of the record, Skinner is filled with anger (“everyone wanted this to go wrong for me from the start”) from the offset. The theme changes when a piano is introduced, and all the pain of the past is all but forgotten in a euphoric climax. “Something that was not meant to be is done / this is the start of what was” sings Skinner as his friend finds his misplaced money. Suddenly a whole album filled with despair and mistrust becomes a story of friends coming together. In all of the pain Skinner outlined on A Grand Don’t Come For Free, Empty Cans was the moment things first looked like they might turn out alright for him.

The Streets - Never Went to Church (2006)

Written shortly after his father had passed away, Never Went to Church was the most memorable moment of Skinner’s third album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living. Skinner is filled with feelings of fear and loneliness as he talks to his dad, while a piano chord progression sampled from The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ adds a further touch of melancholy. Where usually we’d seen Skinner dealing with loneliness in relationships, here was the first time he’d given the world an insight into his family life and the pressures of becoming a superstar too.

The Streets - Everything is Borrowed (2008)

While The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living was a story of Skinner’s struggles with fame, he’d finally come to terms with being a star when Everything is Borrowed came out in 2008. The title track saw him content with how his life had turned out for the first time (“Smiling at this blessing, this life is the best”) in his heartfelt ode to the world. He may have spent the whole record thinking about the past, but it was also a story of anticipation as he looked forward to life beyond The Streets. Edit: This article first denoted his music was informed by his struggles in London, however his time in Birmingham where he grew up before moving to London in 2000 is more accurate.