do you have to be from the streets to appreciate The Streets?

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suggested to me by a hip hop kid last night after i announced to their horror that i didn't think much of Original Pirate Material. his argument was this if you're from a small country village in the middle of nowhere (as i am) you're just not going to get where's he's coming from and therefore are unable to understand or enjoy it.

by this argument all i should be listening to is the theme music from Last of The Summer Wine.

is this a credible argument? should this stop me from listening to Wu Tang Clan, So Solid and, well, most of the albums in my collection?

― Wyndham Earl, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's a PARTICULARLY bad argument when applied to The Streets, who plays more games as to whether he's keeping it 'real' or not than anyone else I can think of right now.

― Tom, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Also Robin to thread!

― Tom, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You should also steer clear of Beyoncé if you are not a robot.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I’m glad I don’t have to feel whether I need to sort out whom or what Skinner could "represent" or reflect in my culture and risk having that interfere with my listening, actually. (oh, I’m from the U.S.)

― scott p., Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think you have to be Oxbridge educated from a small country village but wish you were as cool as the people from the streets to appreciate The Streets.

Someone (on here?) said the detractors of The Streets are probably the same people who laugh at the boys that call Westwood and give out to the St Albans Massive (aside, has anyone ever heard a female Westwood caller?). Anyway, thats a great description.

Though I don't actually laugh at the callers, I do feel aware that there is something absurd going on - and its the same problem I have with the Streets trying way too hard it its studied lo-fi clumsy manner. Thats not to say there is anything wrong with teenage boys from nice homes calling radio shows on Saturday Nights and pretending to be Gangstas - but its not real, and neither is The Streets.

That someone (almost certainly not from the streets either) thinks you have to be down with the kids on the streets to get the album is an interesting comment though. It doesn't seem to me to be an album where authenticity is important - in fact I would imagine the obvious inauthenticity of the album would make it difficult to be appreciated by the people that populate the songs. I mean - since when would any self respecting geezer from the streets admit to liking a Nintendo 64?

― Alexander Blair, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think skinner is playing games, particularly. The songs on 'OPM' attempt to chronicle the 'average' life of many young, lower- middle class/upper working class suburban/urban people and, judging by it's popularity, at least, he's succeded in doing so with some accuracy. Skinner doesn't exactly make himself out to be street-tuff on the album - a bit of wide-boy braggadacio here and there sure, but it's mainly the ennui of the teenage/twentysomething suburbanite he addresses, not the dispossesed of the ghettos.
There is a chance that the closer you identify with the life detailed on 'OPM' then you have more reason to 'get it', and as there is little glamour and also not much chance of getting a vicarious thrill from the songs, then the more removed your life is from Skinners then the less likely it is that you're going to connect with it, maybe.
Or you think it just sounds shit.

― DavidM, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Short answer to the question is no. Cos I love OPM and yet cannot really relate much to what Skinner's rapping about (I would say more but it would ruin the "article" (ha!) I'm trying to write on some aspects of the record). And we have had testimonials from jess and Tim F on ILM recently to the effect that you don't even have to be British to love The Streets.

Alexander's charge is wrong also. While identification with the protagonist is surely a big part of why anyone likes any art, it's certainly nothing to do with trying to feel cool by association. Moreover, Skinner ain't cool in my book anyway (nor do I think he thinks he is).

Then, of course, there is the music, which is fantastic.

― Jeff W, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what a bizarre idea. of course you don't have to be. for a start, the whole schtick ISN'T moss side/peckham whatever, its everyman suburbia isn't it? anytown stuff. the sound of 'wherever your from'. kind of reminds of rave, that whole, suburbanproletarianism. the sound of stoke on trent etc...

― gareth, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they have streets in wem you know!!

anyway surely skinner is absolutely one of the ppl who finds westwood's phoner-inners — as per description — daft?

― mark s, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

peace out to all ma dogs in lockdown

tha brotherz on tha streetz aint listenin to him - FACT

― Tim, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is true. I live in a close.

― Tom, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Indeed. I live on a road.

― RickyT, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think the urbanity is a big part of the appeal.

The Cul De Sacs just doesn't work really does it.

― Wyndham Earl, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cul De Sac are like post-rock aren't they?

― j>e>l, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"mean - since when would any self respecting geezer from the streets admit to liking a Nintendo 64?"

and thus yr whole argument evaporates as i stick my tongue into my lower lip. what cos nintendo is cutesy? explain yrself.

although there is an inadvertant ring of truth in yr statement cos only a self-deciever would be scared of admitting to N64

― Bob Zemko, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Streets streets aren't really like NWA's streets (for example) - the stuff he talks about is pretty universal. Who hasn't been out for a night, had a too much to drink, ended up eating a takeaway etc., whereas the streets in lots of hip hop are prehaps not universally experienced - how many people here have experienced a drive by or whatever?

However, this is kind of irrelevant - you DONT need to be able to relate to music to enjoy it. Lots of music, such as hip hop, is enjoyed in a voyeristic sense by many people.

― Robin, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

voyeuristic in a good sense, in other words (since the alternative is identity separatism on a scale so vast as to atomise the human race not just into single person-units, but WAY BEYOND THIS)

(of course the thing in brackets might be good too, esp. once cloning kicks in)

― mark s, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nobody at the Barras (local geezer mecca) liked it much as you couldn't chip it and then pirate the software and apart from Mariocart and maybe Zelda. And even then this was years ago, he couldn't be further off the mark if he claimed his Y reg Allegro was a mean set of wheels.

Having said this. I have no idea what consoles are cred with the kids down on the streets, I withdraw the question and we should all agree to conclude by science that the Streets are authentic and mean it man and really know where the homies in the hood are getting their retro gaming action.

Obviously the rest of the album is totally 4real and this minor slip up was my only objection to its total authenticity.

― Alexander Blair, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i didn;t know anyone was suggesting they were authentic. i rather thought it was music (ie artifice), but the schtick as 'anytown, england'

― gareth, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I obviously have the necessary street cred, since I like The Streets. Small country village, public school, Cambridge University seems to work, then.

― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six years pass...

op otm

― deej, Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

u def have to be from the streets to appreciate the streets u need to go listen to some inferior LP like illmatic

― and what, Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:52 (eighteen years ago)

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