The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make a Living

Maybe it’s me, but a rapper rapping with hard driving beats behind him, using oodles swear words, and doing it with a well-worn British accent is kind of silly. That’s not to say The Streets (Mike Skinner) is silly. He’s not any more silly than Eminem. Perhaps Eminem is silly, too. Scratch that. Mike Skinner (The Streets) knows how to craft a song and he does so well, with his freewheeling lyrics, aggressive British garage rock and dance beat songs, and yet, with all that, his latest album, “The Hardest Way to Make a Living,” is a definite step down from his previous albums, particularly the critically acclaimed “A Grand Don’t Come Free,” the Skinner album one should be paying attention to, that was fully drawn, delivering a narrative with characters, conflicts, themes, plots, resolutions. He’ll be hard pressed to create a better album for himself. “The Hardest Way to Make An Easy Living” is not it. His new songs shine a light on his new found fame and Skinner’s life within that framework. It’s derivative. Rappers complaining about how it’s more difficult to do drugs due to the fame they’ve acquired and rappers rapping about trashing hotel rooms simply is not that interesting. Artists always seem to fall into this trap. Novelists writing a novel about a novel writer writing a novel, for instance. The artist M.C. Escher drawing a picture of a hand drawing a hand drawing a hand, for example. It’s OKAY, sure, but there’s no substance there. It’s surface. It’s not the meat and bones of who the people are. It’s not life blood. Yes, the top of the iceberg is interesting but the iceberg, groaning right there below the surface, is much more affecting. This is something Skinner hasn’t yet learned. He does, however, puts together some good songs on the album - “When You Wasn’t Famous” and “Can’t Con an Honest John” gets your blood pumping and makes you want to get on the dance floor. But at the same times he’s written some real stinkers - “Two Nations” about Skinner’s views on America, “War of the Sexes,” Skinner’s commentary on love, and “Never Went to Church,” Skinner’s meditations about life and death that I simply can’t take at all seriously when he talks about “prangin’ out” a few songs before. A truly good lyricist, Skinner can do better than this. Let’s hope he gets back to what got him to where he is in the first place, a young Briton with something true and honest to say. [www.the-streets.co.uk]