Ah yes - the first half of the noughties. I went to a fancy dress party in 2002 where someone went as the cover of the Streets first LP. I went as either E or P from EPMD. Someone broke a door. Heady days indeed. It's easy to forget now how big Mike Skinner became at that time. I never realised he was big enough to have his own 'imprint' which this record came out on. His legacy is a strange one - his records are missing from the list, but he was never really hip hop and I could never decide if he had found a way to make a spoken version of a rap song or was just a load of rubbish.
His hands are certainly all over this, but it's not the trial I thought it would be. There's something about the brothers which is honest and it comes across on this. Basically the tales of two fairly amusing guys and their trials with ladies and football. None more noughties.
The first track does it no favours - lots of swearing. It's the third track before it gets going - stuttering beats, and (the best thing in rap) handclaps too. They aren't quite Skinnered up on this, there's a bit more melody to their flow that makes the whole thing work, but they are essentially speaking. Skinner shows up and his contribution polarises me - he's certainly different but it sounds like someone reading, but there's something about the way he places words which I quite like. But then it veers back to rubbish.
Then there's a track which is like dry your eyes one that the streets did. It then trundles on in the same vain - quite varied lyrically, if the production's a bit one speed. The 11th track starts with them boasting about cunnilingus which is a little refreshing to hear. Then it goes off with a rap ballad. The best line of this whole album? : "She's been here since Popworld started, and I haven't got to pop her bra yet". This is one of the defining sounds of the first decade of the new millenium.
Here's a stupid video for Routine Check, featuring Sir Skinner on the Fuseball:
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