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.
Rapper Sam Adams now on tap
Something equally remarkable and unprecedented happened this past week: a virtually unknown white Cambridge MC named Sam Adams landed in the top hip-hop spot on iTunes with his debut EP, Boston's Boy .
US Marine graffiti crew tags Hyde Park
This past week, the United States Marine Corps invaded Boston. Or, more accurately, they were invited into the community by Mayor Tom Menino to “showcase military equipment displays, perform community outreach projects, and honor local Marines during Marine Week Boston.”
Tale of the tapes
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.
New edition
There’s no underground scene for pop-minded R&B. Not in Boston, and not really anyplace else.
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.
Less