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The Streets

The Streets

Overview
Michael Geoffery Skinner (born 27 November 1978), more commonly known by his stage name The Streets, is a rapper from Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Skinner began experimenting with a keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 when he was five years old. As a teenager, he built a miniature recording studio in his bedroom. He began writing hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...

 and garage music in his home in West Heath
West Heath, West Midlands
West Heath is an area of Birmingham, England. It is located in the ward of Northfield.It is situatied between Kings Norton, Northfield, Hopwood and Longbridge....

 in Birmingham, with a crew of other rappers including best friend Chris Panton.
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Encyclopedia
Michael Geoffery Skinner (born 27 November 1978), more commonly known by his stage name The Streets, is a rapper from Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Early life and beginnings


Skinner began experimenting with a keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 when he was five years old. As a teenager, he built a miniature recording studio in his bedroom. He began writing hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...

 and garage music in his home in West Heath
West Heath, West Midlands
West Heath is an area of Birmingham, England. It is located in the ward of Northfield.It is situatied between Kings Norton, Northfield, Hopwood and Longbridge....

 in Birmingham, with a crew of other rappers including best friend Chris Panton. He describes his background as "Barratt
Barratt Developments
Barratt Developments PLC is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1958 by Sir Lawrie Barratt and was originally based in Newcastle upon Tyne but is now located at David Wilson's former offices in Coalville...

 class: suburban estates, not poor but not much money about, really boring." Skinner started making songs at the age of fifteen.

He has suffered from epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures...

 since the age of seven.

In the mid-1990s, following secondary education at Bournville School
Bournville School
Bournville School and sixth form centre is a coeducational, state comprehensive school, with Specialist Business and Enterprise College and Music College status, for students aged 11-19 years, located on Griffins Brook Lane, Bournville, Birmingham in the United Kingdom.Since 2002 Bournville has...

, Skinner became a student at Sutton Coldfield College
Birmingham Metropolitan College
Birmingham Metropolitan College is a further and higher education college with eight campuses distributed within Birmingham, England. The college was created in August 2009 as a result of the amalgamation of Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College...

, in Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a town in the City of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham, in the northeast of the city, with a population of 105,452 recorded in the 2001 census...

, and was working in fast food jobs while trying to start his own independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels.-Overview:...

 and sending off demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for musicians to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

s.

Despite having been raised in Birmingham, an area with a distinctive regional
Brummie
Brummie is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, England, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum...

 accent, he speaks with a London-influenced accent. Some critics have accused Skinner of using a "Mockney
Mockney
In British English, Mockney is an attempt to present oneself as Cockney with the intention of gaining popular credibility...

" accent. He can be heard speaking in his normal accent at the beginning of the song "Fake Streets Hats
Fake Streets Hats
"Fake Streets Hats" is the 11th and final track of The Streets' third studio album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living. The song is about an incident that happened during the 2004 edition of the Dutch Lowlands Music Festival, where a drunk Mike Skinner openly protested against the handing out...

". Because of his accent, Skinner is identified with Birmingham; a keen supporter of Birmingham City
Birmingham City F.C.
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they became Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham F.C. in 1905, finally becoming Birmingham City F.C...

, he even wore the club's replica shirt on stage.

Original Pirate Material: 2000-2003


The Streets started out as a group project but quickly became a one-man act as band members fell away. At the end of 2000, the Locked On label, who had success with The Artful Dodger featuring Craig David
Craig David
Craig Ashley David is an British R&B singer-songwriter. He has released four studio albums: Born To Do It, Slicker Than Your Average, The Story Goes..., Trust Me and a Greatest Hits album. The singer has sold over 13 million albums worldwide.-Early life:David was born in Southampton, the son of a...

, agreed to release "Has It Come To This" under the name the Streets. Skinner moved from Birmingham to Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is predominantly residential with a prominent street market and substantial retail sector...

 to pursue his recording career, he then moved to Camden Town for three years before returning to Brixton.

"Has It Come to This?
Has It Come to This?
"Has It Come to This?" is a song released in 2001 by UK rapper The Streets. It was the first single from his 2002 debut album Original Pirate Material...

" proved to be a breakthrough hit for the Streets, going top-twenty in March 2001. For his debut album, Original Pirate Material
Original Pirate Material
Original Pirate Material is the debut album English rapper Mike Skinner, better known as The Streets.The album is a unique take on UK garage and lyrics dealing with everyday circumstances and occurrences. The album received massive acclaim from the music press and was embraced by fans of indie and...

, Skinner wanted to take UK garage
UK garage
UK garage is an umbrella term that refers to several different varieties of modern electronic dance music generally connected to the evolution of house in the United Kingdom from early/mid-1990s....

 in a new direction with material reflecting the lifestyle of clubbers in Britain. The track "Let's Push Things Forward
Let's Push Things Forward
"Let's Push Things Forward" is a song released in April 2002 by UK rapper The Streets. It was the second single taken from his debut album Original Pirate Material, it peaked at #30 on the UK chart...

" reflects the philosophy of the album. The album was released and proved to be successful both with critics and the general public alike. In the UK, the album was nominated for the Mercury Prize
Mercury Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland...

 and was favourite with the bookies to win it (it was later won by Ms. Dynamite
Ms. Dynamite
Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley and popularly known as Ms. Dynamite is a double Brit Award and three time MOBO Awards winning R&B, UK garage, and hip hop singer and rapper.-Biography:...

). The Streets was nominated for best album, best urban act, best breakthrough artist and best British male artist in the 2002 BRIT Awards
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards, often simply called The Brits and stylized as The BRIT Awards, are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British" or "Britannia", but has subsequently become a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...

. The NME named it as one of their top five albums of 2002. The cover image is Towering Inferno by the acclaimed photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer who studied photography at London College of Communication and gained her last formal education at the University of Westminster. Luxemburg's technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape...

.

Subsequent singles included "Don't Mug Yourself
Don't Mug Yourself
"Don't Mug Yourself" is a song first released in October 2002 by UK rapper The Streets. It was the fourth single taken from his debut album Original Pirate Material. The song is performed by Mike Skinner and a friend of his, Calvin Bailey...

", "Weak Become Heroes
Weak Become Heroes
"Weak Become Heroes" is a song by The Streets, which became his third single, from his album Original Pirate Material. It was released on July 2 2002....

" and "Let's Push Things Forward" which all reached the top forty in the UK. Many of his songs have a UK garage
UK garage
UK garage is an umbrella term that refers to several different varieties of modern electronic dance music generally connected to the evolution of house in the United Kingdom from early/mid-1990s....

 feel but have in the main found popularity in the 'indie
Indie (music)
In popular music, independent music, often generally abbreviated as "indie", is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....

' scene. Original Pirate Material had debuted and peaked at number twelve in the UK album charts, and wouldn't reach any higher until his next album was released.

The success of Original Pirate Material in the UK led to a US release of the album through Vice/Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 in late 2002. Though the album was not a commercial success in the States, it was received positively by Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...

, Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine. Founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr., it competes with industry stalwart Rolling Stone. Madonna was the artist on the cover of the first issue.-History:...

, the New York Times, Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....

, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth...

and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...

all nominating it as one of the albums of the year. The album was named Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications US Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EWs primary concentration is on entertainment...

s "album of the year". The album reached number two on the
Billboard electronic charts and the top 20 on the independent and Heatseeker charts in the US in 2003.

A Grand Don't Come for Free: 2004-2005


In May 2004, he released a new single, "Fit But You Know It
Fit But You Know It
"Fit But You Know It" is a song by The Streets and written/produced by Mike Skinner. It was the lead single of The Streets second album A Grand Don't Come for Free and was released on 26 April 2004; it reached number four in the UK Single Charts....

" which became his highest debuting and highest selling single to that point, reaching number four in the UK.

"Fit But You Know It" is from his second album,
A Grand Don't Come for Free
A Grand Don't Come for Free
A Grand Don't Come for Free is the second album from The Streets. It was released on 18 May 2004 and is listed in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.-Track listing:# "It Was Supposed to Be So Easy" - 3:56...

 which is a concept album
Concept album
In popular music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical". Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs...

 about a short period in the protagonist's life. The events depicted include losing a thousand pounds
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...

, the start of a new relationship, going on holiday, breaking up, and eventually finding the grand again. The MC's remix of "Fit But You Know It" features formerly underground MCs such as Kano
Kano (rapper)
Kane Brett Robinson , better known as Kano, is a British rapper. His grandparents came to the United Kingdom as immigrants from Jamaica. He was formerly a key member of East London’s N.A.S.T.Y...

, Tinchy Stryder
Tinchy Stryder
Kwasi Danquah , better known by his stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a British grime vocalist of Ghanaian origin. Stryder is from Bow, East London and attended St Bonaventure's Catholic Comprehensive School in Forest Gate, Newham; he later enrolled as a student at the local university, University of...

, Donae'o and Lady Sovereign
Lady Sovereign
Louise Amanda Harman , better known by the stage name Lady Sovereign, is a British rapper and grime artist.She is noted for her small stature, her chav culture as evidenced by her East Coast hip-hop style of dress , and professionally for her success in performing styles of music generally...

.

The album debuted at number two in the UK album charts, but later reached the number one position. Soon after the album was released, his success grew even larger in July 2004, with the second single "Dry Your Eyes
Dry Your Eyes
"Dry Your Eyes" is a UK garage song written by English rapper The Streets for his second album A Grand Don't Come for Free . The song describes the persona trying to cope with his girlfriend breaking up with him. It was released as the album's second single on July 19, 2004...

" debuting at the top of the chart in the UK. The success of this album and its singles led to a re-kindling of interest in the first album Original Pirate Material, which re-entered the UK album charts and beat its original chart peak of two years earlier. "Blinded By the Lights", the third single from A Grand Don't Come for Free, hit the Top 10 in September 2004, and a fourth and final single, "Could Well Be In", was released in late 2004.

The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living: 2006-2007


Skinner's third studio album under The Streets moniker,
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living is the third album by The Streets, released April 10, 2006 in the United Kingdom and April 25, 2006 in North America. It is also the shortest The Streets album released so far, with a running time of just 37 minutes and 12 seconds...

, was released on 10 April 2006 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 and on 25 April 2006 in North America. In the UK it debuted at number one on the album chart. It was a change in direction from his first two albums, the lyrical theme moving away from the stories about working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....

 Britain and instead focusing on the ups and downs of the fame that Skinner encountered after the huge success of his previous album.

The lead single, titled "When You Wasn't Famous
When You Wasn't Famous
"When You Wasn't Famous" was the first single from The Streets' third studio album The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living. Released on March 30 2006, it went straight to number 8 in the UK and number 26 in Ireland...

", was released two weeks prior to the album. The song is about Skinner's troubles with trying to date a famous person, following his new found fame. It was also named 'Track of the Week' by NME in early March 2006, but when it came into the UK singles charts, it only reached the latter course of the top 10, peaking at number eight. There has been much speculation over which celebrity "When You Wasn't Famous" is about - Rachel Stevens
Rachel Stevens
Rachel Lauren Stevens is an English singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, television personality and occasional model. She is a former member, and one of the lead singers, of the successful pop group S Club, and launched a solo recording career in 2003, releasing seven singles and two albums in...

 and Cheryl Cole
Cheryl Cole
Cheryl Ann Cole is an English singer, songwriter, dancer, fashion designer, author, and television personality. Cole rose to fame in the 2000s after becoming a member of pop group Girls Aloud through ITV's reality television programme Popstars: The Rivals...

 are two names that have been ruled out, despite Skinner dedicating the song to Cole on Top Of The Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC1, before being moved to Fridays in 1996, and then moved to Sundays on BBC...

. This reluctance to reveal the subject may be more than simple politeness, as some of the descriptions of the unnamed starlet in the track are potentially damaging. At one point, Skinner discloses "my whole life I never thought I'd see a pop star smoke crack
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine, crack or rock is a solid, smokable form of cocaine. It is a freebase form of cocaine that can be made using baking soda or sodium hydroxide, in a process to convert cocaine hydrochloride into methylbenzoylecgonine .-Appearance and characteristics:Crack cocaine as sold on the...

."

The second single, "Never Went to Church
Never Went to Church
Never Went to Church is the second single to be taken from The Streets number one album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living. "Never Went to Church" is a tribute to his recently-deceased father. The piano line is a sample of a chord progression from the song "Let It Be" by The Beatles.The b-side...

", is a tribute to Skinner's late father, and appears to use the chord progression of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...

' "Let It Be
Let It Be (song)
"Let It Be" is a song by The Beatles, released in March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. Although credited to Lennon/McCartney it is generally accepted to be a Paul McCartney composition....

" as a backing beat.

The Streets appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on 26 June 2006 to promote the new album.

Everything Is Borrowed: 2008-2009


In September 2008, Skinner released his fourth studio album,
Everything Is Borrowed
Everything Is Borrowed
Everything Is Borrowed is the fourth album from The Streets. Released in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2008, and in the United States on 7 October 2008, Skinner describes the album as a "peaceful coming to terms album" and as containing "peaceful positive vibes" which stand in stark contrast...

. One song from the album, entitled "Everything Is Borrowed", was on Skinner's MySpace
MySpace
MySpace is a social networking website. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media, which is owned by News Corporation. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United...

 page for a while before being replaced by a cover of "Your Song
Your Song
"Your Song" is a ballad composed and performed by musician Elton John. The song's lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin. It appeared on John's self-titled second album in 1970....

". In a posting on his MySpace blog, Skinner noted that the group's upcoming LP would contain "peaceful, positive vibes" in comparison with 2006's
The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.

In a blurb about the album on Skinner's MySpace, he says "This album started off life as parables but then I realised that it might get a bit cheesy so I got rid of the alien song and the devil song and replaced them with more straight up songs. I've pretty much kept my promise that I made to myself not to reference modern life on any of them though which is hard to do and keep things personal at the same time."

Computers and Blues: 2010


It was originally reported that Skinner said that the fifth record would be similar to Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician best known as the guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground as well as a successful solo artist whose career has spanned several decades. The Velvet Underground gained little mainstream attention during their career,...

's
Berlin
Berlin (album)
Berlin is a 1973 album by Lou Reed, his third solo album and the follow-up to Transformer. In 2003, the album was ranked number 344 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.-Background and production:...

. He later stated in a blog that he was misquoted, and that the album would sound like the city of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...

, not the album by Reed. He went on, saying that the album will be "ravey".

"The final Streets album (the fifth one) will be dark and futuristic. This could not be further from [
Everything is Borrowed], but it's what is on my mind at the moment. I feel inspired by the synthesizer exhibition we just visited in Graz [Austria] after the gig we just did."

On 6 August 2008, Skinner stated on his MySpace blog that the title of the final Streets record will be
Computers and Blues, and that it will likely not be released for at least two years. He has repeatedly stated that it will be the last Streets album, remarking that he is "fucking sick" of the name and connotations that come along with it. In a Beat Stevie episode where he describes the making of Everything Is Borrowed, Skinner says that the final Streets album will be "one more banger" and will be "dancing music to drink tea to".

On 14 April 2009, Skinner announced via Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...

 that he would post three new songs over three days. The tracks were "I Love My Phone", "Trust Me" and "David Hassles". Since then he has posted ten more songs, "Long Working Day", "See if they Salute", "A Blip on a Screen", "Outside Inside", "Skills on Toast", "Lovelight of My Life", "Infamy", "Where My Heart Has Been", "The Robots Are Taking Over" and "In The Middle". Most of these songs were released on bln.kr or zshare.net with an announcement of Skinner on Twitter. He also posted the video for a song called "He's Behind You, He's Got Swine Flu
Swine flu
Swine influenza is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus. Swine influenza virus is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs...

" to YouTube. On 11 June 2009, Skinner announced that "Computers and Blues" will be released in February 2010 and that he was releasing a song with up and coming UK rapper Giggs.

Live Line-up


The Streets regularly plays live, and has also performed at several festivals.

Up until recently his playing line up was Mike Skinner, Leo the Lion
Leo the Lion (British singer)
Leo Ihenacho , born 28 May 1978, is a British singer and songwriter. The 29 year old first came to fame when he began singing with The Streets and has recently been on a tour throughout Europe and the USA with the group. Mike Skinner gave him the nickname 'Leo The Lion'...

 singing backing vocals, Eddie "The Kid" playing keyboard, Johnny Drum Machine playing drums, and long-time friend Morgan Nicholls
Morgan Nicholls
Morgan Nicholls is an English musician, best known for performing with Senseless Things, Gorillaz, The Streets, Muse and most recently, Lily Allen. He also spent a short time as a solo musician under the name Morgan....

 playing bass and guitar. Morgan has since left the band to focus on playing with progressive rock band Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are a multi award-winning British alternative rock band that formed in Teignmouth, Devon in 1994. Since its inception, the band has comprised vocalist, guitarist and pianist Matthew Bellamy; bassist and backing vocalist Christopher Wolstenholme; and drummer Dominic Howard...

, playing a variety of instruments as part of their live show.

His current live-line up consists of Kevin Mark Trail
Kevin Mark Trail
Kevin Mark Trail is a British R&B / soul / reggae / hip hop singer-songwriter. He has released one album so far, Just Living, which spawned three singles, "Perspective", "D Thames" and "Last Night"...

 on backing vocals, Wayne Vibes on guitar and bass, Chris Brown on keyboards, Magic Mike on samplers and Johnny Drum Machine as drummer and musical director. Skinner has credited Johnny Drum Machine as the only other member of The Streets to have appeared on all the albums.

Performance trademarks include crowd controlling "Go Low" (the whole audience drops to the floor) and "Go Moses" (audience parts down the middle, Skinner runs to the back and crowd surfs back to the stage) with variable success.

Beat Stevie


An online channel currently presented by Mike and business partner Ted Mayhem
Ted Mayhem
Ted Mayhem is a hip hop vocalist and record label boss from London, England. He is the main voice of Beat Stevie.Mayhem was Mike Skinner's partner in his record label The Beats and also his television show Beat Stevie which he co-presents with Skinner on Channel 4...

, Beat Stevie is an anything goes blog/music show also shown on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began working on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station owned now and operated by the Channel Four Television...

 in their 4Music
4Music
4Music is a music channel in the United Kingdom and available on some digital television providers in the Republic of Ireland. It is the only channel within the Box Television Network to be branded under Channel 4 and the only channel in the network to be broadcast in widescreen. The channel...

 late night strand. The episodes often include backstage footage and onstage hijinks.

In one of the episodes Mike and Ted get trained by pickup artist and dating coach 5.0 of Love Systems
Love Systems
Love Systems is a corporation that markets dating seminars teaching men how to have successful relationships with women. The company is based in Los Angeles, CA, USA. It was established in 2004 as the Mystery Method Corporation and renamed Love Systems in 2007...

 on how to approach and talk to women.

Promotional and campaign work

  • Skinner is an ardent fan of Reebok
    Reebok
    Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas, is a producer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...

     Classics
    Reebok Classics
    Classics are a brand of training shoe made by Reebok.The Reebok Classic trainer was launched originally in 1987. They were usually made with a leather upper and have a clean, simple and straight forward design and are closely related to the Reebok Freestyle...

     shoes; he is often seen wearing a pair of white Workout Plus trainers, and has even mentioned them in the lyrics for his song "Let's Push Things Forward", in which he raps, "Let's put on our Classics and have a little dance, shall we?". In 2005, he signed up to appear in a twelve-month ad campaign for Reebok, joining other prominent celebrities in Reebok's "I Am What I Am" campaign.
  • Skinner collaborated with PETA2
    Peta
    Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Hall, a well known Rhodesian-Canadian potter...

     in a campaign urging KFC
    KFC
    KFC Corporation, or KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky...

     to demand that chickens raised for them be treated more humanely.

Discography


  • Original Pirate Material
    Original Pirate Material
    Original Pirate Material is the debut album English rapper Mike Skinner, better known as The Streets.The album is a unique take on UK garage and lyrics dealing with everyday circumstances and occurrences. The album received massive acclaim from the music press and was embraced by fans of indie and...

    - 25 May 2002 (Locked On Records)
  • A Grand Don't Come for Free
    A Grand Don't Come for Free
    A Grand Don't Come for Free is the second album from The Streets. It was released on 18 May 2004 and is listed in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.-Track listing:# "It Was Supposed to Be So Easy" - 3:56...

    - 18 May 2004 (Vice Records, Atlantic Records
    Atlantic Records
    Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

    )
  • The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
    The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
    The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living is the third album by The Streets, released April 10, 2006 in the United Kingdom and April 25, 2006 in North America. It is also the shortest The Streets album released so far, with a running time of just 37 minutes and 12 seconds...

    - 10 April 2006 (Locked On Records)
  • Everything Is Borrowed
    Everything Is Borrowed
    Everything Is Borrowed is the fourth album from The Streets. Released in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2008, and in the United States on 7 October 2008, Skinner describes the album as a "peaceful coming to terms album" and as containing "peaceful positive vibes" which stand in stark contrast...

    - 15 September 2008
  • Computers and Blues - February 2010

External links

  • Mike Skinner on Twitter
    Twitter
    Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...