Every English major, and anyone who finds pleasure in literary modes of well-executed story-telling, should give the new album by the Streets, A Grand Don't Come For Free, a very close listening.
The Streets is essentially the work of one Birmingham man, Mike Skinner, whose fusion of garage-oriented drum and bass and minimalist Hip Hop with his Cockney British accent and blue-collar poetry defies comparison or easy description.
His first album released in 2002 called Original Pirate Material featured the song "Let's Push Things Forward," alluding to the artist's premeditated attempt to break with old forms and expectations. He has created a new experimental style blending electronica backdrops and rap beats into what seems a free-flowing conversational lyric that captures the hopes and frustrations of modern youth in the big city.
Though the first album was really a showcasing of the diversity of the artist, with each song a stand-alone tune, A Grand Don't Come For Free is a concept album representing a whole action, plotted sequentially from the first song through to the last.
With shocking subtlety, precision and depth, the artist places himself into the story as the cuckolded comic fool named Mike.
Mike, along with the characters of his girlfriend Simone, his best friend Dan (who is sleeping with Simone) and his silent friend Scott, the person caught in the middle, is driven by seemingly inevitable circumstances that cost him his love, the loyalty of his friends, and take him to the edge of losing all perspective of hope in life.
Lyrically, Skinner uses several literary symbols that reoccur throughout the album to highlight his themes, such as miscommunication between the characters, represented by Mike's amusing inability to reach anyone or hear properly on his cell phone.
Shifting through several locations and scenes, one track has the listener overhearing a one-sided phone conversation; another is the internal dialogue of one of the characters; still another shifts back and forth from reflection to active experiences occurring in the moment.
The album's first song, "It Was Supposed To Be So Easy," is the comical opening complaint of the protagonist, who has failed to return a DVD to the video store on time, can't withdraw any money from the ATM, and who earlier lost a 'thousand quid' that he'd left on top of his TV, setting the stage for his growing sense of self-pity and distrust of his friends.
With humor and realism, the story follows a series of mishaps and drug-induced confusions that lead ultimately to the pathetic and, in some ways, heart-wrenching loss of his world's center, Simone, in the song "Dry Your Eyes."
Grand also features adept musical subtlety, in which the instrumentations set moods that precisely reflect the lyrical movements and tone of the action within each song.
In one scene, Mike is waiting at a bar for Simone and Dan, who are mysteriously running late. Mike takes an Ecstasy tab, then another when the first seems like a "dud." But he realizes his mistake as the drugs begin to take strong effect, and the beat drones down to a heartbeat and the high hat chimes in as Mike descends into his own experience, only semi-conscious of the sudden view of Simone across the bar, "kissing Dan."
In the ingenious and even beautiful final track "Empty Cans," the satirically embittered Mike is brought finally to the end of himself, and experiences a transition, in the traditional comic mode, that lifts him from degraded self-pity to a suggested final and lasting hope and peace.
A Grand Don't Come For Free is the clearest example of a growing general trend in hip hop lyric. Rappers like Jay-Z and Talib Kweli are attempting to bring more depth to Rap's typical self-laudatory values of money, sex and violent rebellion, by focusing more on religious, social and political themes, as well as employing songs that stand as autobiographical confessions.
But so far, no recent effort has touched the literary chords that The Streets capture with this new album. Perhaps none will for some time yet, but it may be hoped that this is the increasing trend within this needful musical genre.