The Streets

Mike Skinner (born November 27, 1978), more commonly known by his stage name The Streets, is a rapper from Birmingham, England. He was born in Barnet in North London and that's where his accent, sometimes called 'Mockney' by the press, comes from. You can hear his actual accent on the start of 'Fake Streets Hats' from his album The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living recorded in 2006. He moved to Birmingham shortly after he was born and is a Birmingham City fan. He has suffered from epilepsy since he was five. He signed a five album record deal and has released four albums: Original Pirate Material (2002), A Grand Don't Come for Free (2004), The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living (2006) and Everything Is Borrowed (2008). The fourth album is said to be an uplifting album reflecting on life and the world, unlike his other three. The album's title track, 'Everything Is Borrowed' is a euphoric meditation on how to make the best of life’s infinite possibilities, containing the lyric, "I entered this world with nothing, and I left with nothing but love, everything else is just borrowed". From this track we get to the album's almost mystical finale, "The Escapist", in which Mike Skinner is 'Happily ponders the insignificance of little, fleeting, momentary me, under the dappled light of his favourite tree'. The Streets' fifth and final album is going to be called 'Computers And Blues' and Mike said "The final Streets album ... will be dark and futuristic. I feel inspired by the synthesizer exhibition we visited in Graz." Also for his fifth album Mike said he would abandon sampling and use live musicians. When playing live, Skinner is joined by Kevin Mark Trail on backing vocals, Johnny Drum Machine on drums, Wayne Fibes on guitar and bass, Chris Brown on keyboards and Magic Mike on samplers. --------------- The Streets was a band originated from Turku, Finland in the early 1980's. Their most known song is Kestääkö siivet from the album Kestääkö siivet (1980), which is also featured on the soundtrack of Mika Kaurismäki's film Arvottomat (The Worhless) 1982. The Streets were: Asmo Kärkkäinen, guitar Jouni Hemberg, lead vocals Kari Laihonen, keyboard Tapio Vesa, bass guitar Eero Valkonen, drums