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Album Review: Original Pirate Material

U.K.'s The Streets brings garage/hiphop stateside.

by Douglas Passion | 2002.10.20

With the notable exception of Slick Rick, rappers from the U.K. have never had much success in hiphop. While their inability to reconcile domestic tastes with those of the American audience is certainly partially to blame, perhaps the failure of British hiphop is more so an indicator of the xenophobia of most stateside listeners. The Streets’ Original Pirate Material is another record that will likely fail to make a dent in the collective conscious of American hiphop. Despite its quality, the album is probably destined to make its impressions in the oft-linked domains of in-the-know hipsters and alternative hiphop aficionados.

It’s quite a tragedy that the American hiphop community will likely ignore Original Pirate Material. The Streets’ sole member, Mike Skinner, is just too white, too British and too reliant on Birmingham slang to properly fit inside any of the neat little boxes we’ve assigned to hiphop artists. Despite his superficial peculiarities and the labeling of the project as a product of the U.K. garage scene, Original Pirate Materialis an album that is thoroughly infused with a genuine hiphop ethos.

In its most vital form, hiphop has been the voice of the young, urban and disaffected. Skinner is all three. Original Pirate Material is a thick slice of blue-collar life topped with generous helpings of Playstation, brandy, weed and boredom. Straight Outta Compton was an introduction to gang-ridden South Central, The Infamous was a tour through the projects of Queensbridge and Original Pirate Material is a guidebook to working-class Birmingham.

For listeners accustomed to the intricate cadences of most modern hiphop artists, Skinner’s delivery will sound rambling and his rhyme scheme haphazard. And understandably so, as the material on Original Pirate Material frequently seems like spoken-word poetry strung into song format with sing along hooks and a backbone of U.K. garage production. Although Skinner will inevitably be described as “just talking over beats,” his genuine lyrics, skillful songwriting abilities and likable British vernacular make him a noteworthy entrant into the fraternity of emcees.

On “Geezers Need Excitement”, Skinner recounts the event of an average night on the town for his crew of Birmingham youth. Each verse tells a different story of how a regular evening can take a turn for the worse. “Move up to the next place,” he raps over a pulsating 808ish drum, “a smooth club, flex bass/ beats and your best mates all down/ nice sounds – smelling off ice rounds/ emcees clowning, rudeboys frowning/ everything’s sweet, everything’s top-ten/ and round here, we’re all down and/ all of the sudden though, just through the smoke/ is your bird laughing and joking with a bloke.”

While his storytelling occasionally takes on a little too much Eminem-esque goofiness (“Too Much Brandy” sounds like a Cockney outtake from The Slim Shady LP), Skinner also has a knack for conveying authentic emotion without becoming melodramatic. The ability to maintain composure is supposedly a hallmark of the Brit, and The Streets does not betray the nation’s prided austerity. On “It’s Too Late”, Skinner effectively wavers back and forth between broad metaphor and detailed reality while telling a tale of squandered love. With a background of soaring synths, he ponders his errors in a relationship. “Wind, rain and hail/ my fears unveiled for my fair female,” he laments. “She’d walked away, too little too late/ I step up the pace, walk past the gates/ rain runs over my face/ spirit falls from grace.”

Original Pirate Material is an entirely self-produced effort, and while such unchecked control often renders a record bloated and self-indulgent, Skinner opts for the simplicity of up-tempo drums, leisurely keyboards and heavy bass stabs. Although his delivery rarely varies from a clipped conversational tone, the variety in the production insures that the album does not become monotonous.

Although it’s more a traditional hiphop record in spirit than sound, Original Pirate Material is certainly a worthwhile investment for listeners looking for an alternative to the cookie-cutter albums being churned out by American record labels. But even more valuable than simply offering a breath of fresh air, The Streets provides entertaining proof that the lives of young people in Birmingham are not much different from our own.

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