Mike Skinner- The streets

Listening to 'The streets'' Mike Skinner rhyme about everyday working class life provides an insight into where working class poetry is today. The lyricist describes such settings as the local fish'n'chip shop and eating a 'morning after' breakfast in a greasy cafeteria. His lyrics are distinctly, and playfully full of slang, and reflect the creative British speech of the everyday man. His lyrics both celebrate and critique the society he lives in, from the taxes he pays to the way the police treat certain characters out late at night. Though he is working class, his social commentary is not critiqued as 'propaganda' by those in the music industry. Instead he is revered for his honesty and lyrical spin on his dreary grey surroundings. What has changed then in society for working-class poetry to capture the mainstream? 

Perhaps it is the music that accompanies the poetry, placing it with the thousands of other musicians who have subverted social norms to public outcry and praise. Perhaps it is the postmodern period we live in, that requires us to comment on our context instead of conform to ideals and myths. In any case, Mike Skinners lyrics are a fresh change from other types of working class poetry that don't necessary exhibit the norms of working life. In America, hip-hop and rap culture often comes from artists with working class backgrounds who talk about the 'hood', but their take reflects less the realities of those who work hard day and night to earn a living, and more those outlaws such as B.I.G who glorify their position in street and gang war culture, e.g. 'Totin' guns just as long as me, the bitch belongs with me' -Me and my Bitch, B.I.G, 1994. Skinner instead neither glorifies nor condemns working class life, just describes it. Later when his fame rose, he wrote about the daily realities of the music making business in 'The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living.' 2006  

"Mayhem text's me about the press and TV
See if I've taken any ES so I can get some sleep
Nap on the settee, the laptop next to me
Wince for my family at the Skinner Scandal of the week"

Skinners change in material might seem to some as a sell-out from his traditional working class roots, but the streets still rap about their life in a real and honest way, no matter how abrasive or confronting that might be. 

'When You Wasn't Famous'

2006-The Streets

Ah see, right see the thing
That’s got it all fucked up now is camera-phones
How the hell am I supposed to be able to do a line
In front of complete strangers
When I know they've all got cameras

When you're a famous boy
It gets really easy to get girls
It's all so easy you get a bit spoilt
So when you try to pull a girl
Who is also famous too
It feels just like when you wasn’t famous

The celebrity pages in papers don’t tell tales that are always to the line of the truth
It’s till a line at which most likely you’ll have the time, or enough finance to sue
Which is why it’s so frightening buying papers in the morning fearing the next Mike Skinner scoop
‘Cause I used to believe what I read, so now I know that others will believe that it’s true

But I realised, with you the truth can be, a whole lot worse than the flack
My whole life I never thought I'd see, a pop star smoke crack
And I must admit I was quite shocked, with that thing you did with me on my back
But outside in the lobby, I shouldn't have laughed when you slapped that man

When you're a famous boy
It gets really easy to get girls
It's all so easy you get a bit spoilt
So when you try to pull a girl
Who is also famous too
It feels just like when you wasn’t famous

You were so much fun
I really got to like you more than you liked me
I really hoped that you'd stay
Considering the amount of prang you'd done, you looked amazing on cd uk
You learn dances, do promo, cameras flashing, get in the van and zoom away
I wake up high, dizzy feel, hung over and sorry for my doomed day

But I know I got a bit close to you, and that you found it fucking boring
You taught me so much about how to deal with the fire I’d fallen in
And what version of a rumour would be next day everyone's story of me
You taught me all the realities and turn the page and ignore ‘emWhen you're a famous boy
It gets really easy to get girls
It's all so easy you get a bit spoilt
So when you try to pull a girl
Who is also famous too
It feels just like when you wasn’t famous

Anyway, I had to rest my beer hat, delete my dealer’s number and unroll my bank notes
And we were on borrowed time anyway, what with the daily toilet papers not knowin’
And I knew that when the people who thought they knew you, when they found out, I would’ve been mocked
Which is ironic, ‘cause in reality, standing next to you I look fucking soft

Whenever I see you on MTV, I can’t stop my big wide smile
And past the children’s appeal, I see the darkness behind
We both know the scratches on my back, much better than the alludes and lies
I miss the bitchin’ and shoutin’, but I'm glad I got out in time

When you're a famous boy
It gets really easy to get girls
It's all so easy you get a bit spoilt
So when you try to pull a girl
Who is also famous too
It feels just like when you wasn’t famous

You can't keep fucking popstars
We’ve got a fucking business to run
There are industry repercussions, Michael
I know