The Streets

The Mike Skinner-fronted project known for blending genres that include garage, hip hop, indie and ska.

Inspired by bands like Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Daft Punk and Rage Against The Machine, Birmingham native Mike Skinner, who later moved to South London, started laying down tracks in the ’90s. A vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, he created the music project The Streets with an everyman approach and the idea of defining a new landscape where homegrown rappers could thrive.

The Streets first broke out of the UK garage genre to mainstream consciousness in 2001 when the song Has It Come to This? reached No.18 on the UK singles list.

That became the lead track of the group’s hugely successful 2002 debut album Original Pirate Material. Recorded in Skinner’s bedroom in Brixton and featuring a photograph of a London tower block at night as its cover artwork, the record offered snapshots of ordinary life through hit songs like Weak Become Heroes and Let’s Push Things Forward.

Between 2004 and 2011, The Streets followed up with four more studio albums – A Grand Don’t Come For Free, The Hardest Way To Make an Easy Living, Everything Is Borrowed and Computers And Blues, before disbanding.

In December 2017, Skinner dropped two new surprise tracks, Burn Bridges and Sometimes I Hate My Friends More Than My Enemies, before reuniting The Streets for a special greatest hits UK tour the following year. 2018 also saw Skinner release more new songs including You Are Not The Voice In Your Head, Boys Will Be Boys featuring Jaykae and If You Ever Need To Talk I'm Here.

The Streets went out on the road again in 2019, selling out The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light Tour across the UK and Europe where they performed their greatest hits from their five iconic albums.

In the early part of 2020, Skinner released two new tracks: Call My Phone Thinking I'm Doing Nothing Better featuring Tame Impala and I Wish You Loved You As Much As You Love Him with Greentea Peng and Donae’o. The songs would go on to form part of The Streets’ 2020 mixtape, None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive, which also included vocal collaborations from the likes of IDLES, Ms Banks, Jesse James Solomon, Eliza, and Rob Harvey.

Alongside the album's release, The Streets performed an exclusive livestream full-band show from EartH Hackney called None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This LIVE Alive in August 2020. In addition, they were headliners for Birmingham’s MADE Festival and Manchester’s Sounds of The City in 2021, plus announced a UK tour for January and February 2022.