CD Reviews

The Streets | Everything is Borrowed

Vice (2008)

By CHRIS FARAONE | October 22, 2008

3.5 Stars

I’m suspicious of cool kids. When I mention The Streets around aggressively opinionated hipsters, most dismiss Mike Skinner as expired cockney trash. But when I bump his joints for open-minded two-step virgins, they sop it up like pancakes. Those who deserted after Skinner stopped building bangers for marathon barbiturate benders might find his fresh posi-grime rhymes on cuts like “The Escapist” too distant from Original Pirate Material. Lucky for me, I’ve matured with Skinner. Aside from looming debt, I, like Mike, am doing fine for once — and it’s fabulous to see him off the ledge as well. Even though his heavy drug phase seems to be largely over, Borrowed is his Sgt. Pepper — not because he’s spelunking far-flung experimental trenches, but because he finally understands that life is larger than his ego (self-depreciating as it was). Sure, he’s softened since the money hit, but he still pens such gloriously cheesy nuggets as “I want to go to Heaven for the weather, but Hell seems like fun to me.” Our entire Britpop vernacular was culled from such gems; it’s just that some folks are too sweet on history and themselves to admit that Skinner is almost as enlightened as John, Paul, Sting, and Bernie. That’s fine with him, though, because, in his words: “I came to this world with nothing, and I’ll leave with nothing but love.”

Brit-hop
For all the ink that’s been spilled over him around the world, you’d think Mike Skinner would be a little better known in the US, a country where TomKat’s new bundle of joy trumps suicide bombings on the news and new American idols are minted each and every season, only to be cut down the next.
The ProJo opposes plastic bag use — but it uses plastic bags
In April, the Providence Journal strongly endorsed reducing use of plastic bags, but the newspaper continues to use more than 100,000 plastic bags a day.
Hits and missus
Give you a hint: one of them sizzled, one of them fizzled. Live grime’s a bitch, innit? The Streets and Lady Sovereign at Avalon, June 21, 2006
Wu-Tang Clan's essential flavor
Fortune magazine once estimated that Michael Jordan has fueled our economy to the tune of $10 billion. Wu-Tang Clan are responsible for the careers of about that many MCs.
How the West was won
Here’s how to familiarize yourself with the evolution of subterranean Los Angeles hip-hop.
Last biscuit in the oven
On that next trip to Whole Foods or the farmers' market, your favorite small-batch cookies, jams, and jellies might be hard to find.
Casco Bay to Copley Square . . . via Hopkinton
When Boston Marathon runners cross the Copley Square finish line next Monday and sponge the diarrhea off their thighs, Will Thomas and Seth Bradbury will have even more to celebrate than their fellow soiled athletes.
Head of heads
Edu Leedz wraps up Boston hip-hop with Mass Movementz
Fightin’ words
Rudy Giuliani ran his city the way a bachelor does his pad — shoving clutter and disaster out of sight while showcasing redeeming qualities.
Jews and Latinos get cozy
While US Senate Republicans dropped politically prudent bombshells on Sonia Sotomayor during her Supreme Court–nomination hearings this week, watchdogs from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Latino Professional Network (LPN) kept extra close ears on rage speech bubbling through conservative media channels.
Community: served
Without Solillaquists of Sound and the holistic hip-hop hamlet that its members cultivate within Orlando, their city would be home to little more than methadone retreats and plastic rodent ears.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Mike Skinner, The Streets, The Streets

Comments

Add a Comment

view all

[ 12/02 ] Sugar @ Wolf Den @ Mohegan Sun

[ 12/02 ] Lady Gaga + Kid Cudi + Semi Precious Weapons @ Wang Theatre

[ 12/02 ] Legends In Concert @ Fox Theatre @ Foxwoods

[ 12/02 ] Two Way Street @ Green Dragon

ARTICLES BY CHRIS FARAONE

MAIN MAN OF MATTAPAN | December 01, 2009
Ask any group of teens on Blue Hill Ave how many of them rap and you'll get more affirmatives than you would surveying kids at Mass and Boylston for slap-bass skills. Allston might be a crab bucket of indie-rockers, and one in three JP residents is an abstract painter, but MCs in Boston's black communities have more competition than nail salons in Dudley Square.

IBEW PRESSURES STOP & SHOP | November 24, 2009
Folks driving past suburban Stop & Shop locations this week might wonder why laborers are suddenly concerned about food safety.

TALE OF THE TAPES | November 25, 2009
Soon after music-minded UMass-Boston management professor Pacey Foster signed on to write a Boston chapter for the most comprehensive hip-hop tome ever compiled, his mission brought him to rural Maine, where it has long been speculated that the Hub rhyme scene's Holy Grail is safely stored.

WALE | ATTENTION DEFICIT | November 24, 2009
It turns out there is merit behind the billion-dollar hype machine that’s been propelling Wale since he surfaced on the face of URB two years ago.

REVIEW: THE BLIND SIDE | November 17, 2009
It’s tough for any self-respecting critic to refrain from joyously tackling a Sandra Bullock movie — so it’s a good thing The Blind Side isn’t one.

See all articles by: CHRIS FARAONE

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

CAPUANO FOR SENATE
After a telescoped campaign, Massachusetts Democrats go to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to a legend, Ted Kennedy.

PHOTOS: GROSS THANKSGIVING FOOD TO AVOID
Thanksgiving is a time for gorging on food and hanging out with family, but really it's mostly about the food. There are some dishes that take it too far, however, and we are here to help you steer clear of those.

GREG EPSTEIN, ATHEIST SUPERSTAR
Once an intellectual taboo, atheism has become one of the great growth industries of the third millennium.

THE BIG HURT: FACES REFACED
Faces refaced, Spears speared, Hook hacked

PHOTOS: PIXIES AT THE WANG THEATRE
Photos from the Pixies' Boston stop on their tour to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of Doolittle .

THE X FACTOR
Martha Coakley should be plenty thankful for the holiday weekend. The polls suggest that, if nothing significant changes between now and the December 8 primary, she should handily claim the Democratic nomination for US Senate.

CLASSIC ROCK?
If you're looking for meaning in the overly sanitized myth that is our national Thanksgiving celebration, a good place to start is southeastern Massachusetts, where nearly 400 years ago that band of hungry, ill-prepared religious zealots tried to colonize the middle of nowhere at the start of winter.

WHALIN' ON PALIN
Give Sarah Palin this: she isn’t driven by polls. If she wanted to improve her chances at political success, she would have used her book and promotional tour to convince America that she has substance and gravitas .

INTERVIEW: GABOUREY SIDIBE
"While reading the book, I realized that I knew this girl in so many different people. Not just girls but boys, and not just black people but white and Asian and Indian."