Mike Skinner is a rare breed of rapper, though I hesitate to call him a rapper at all. He doesn't have much of a flow and, in a conventional sense, is rhythmically inept. The all too common critique of rappers as simply talking has never been more accurate than with Mike. However, that is not what makes him unique, nor can his singularity be attributed to his accent, though a cursory listen to his work may lead one to believe that these are his only unique traits. What really separates Mike from other rappers is his complete and absolute genuineness. In a genre filled to the brim with bravado and boastful nonsense, he raps about his life and his experiences, no matter how mundane and common they may be.
While writing A Grand Don't Come For Free, Skinner was an average, middle-class twenty-something dealing with common problems such as infatuation, heartbreak and financial issues, and so he wrote a concept album about all of these things. While most concept albums deal with fantastical stories, A Grand Don't Come For Free is essentially the opposite, a concept album about daily life. Therein lies the greatest strength of the album; its relatability. Skinner's love interest Simone and his mates Dan and Scott are placeholders. They may as well be named Jane, John and Jerry Doe respectively. Erase the names and a few of the more specific details and this album could be about anyone. Its songs could be applied to a million different situations. Its story is a microcosm of human experiences.
The main themes of the album are, as I stated before, infatuation, heartbreak, and financial issues. These are things most people deal with many times in their lives, and many artists have discussed them before, but too often they are overdramaticized until they no longer feel human. On this album, Mike Skinner states his problems and thoughts in a nonchalant way, almost like, you know, real life. This attitude makes the few times he does use dramatics (Dry Your Eyes, Empty Cans) that much more affecting and emotional.
The Streets' use fairly standard garage beats with heavy bass. All of the beats are repetitve, but they manage to stay fresh through their full durations. Though the beats aren't fantastic, they are consistently interesting to listen to and provide more than enough of a musical basis for Mike to build his story on. The drugged up, droning beat of "Blinded By the Lights" perfectly fits the lyrics of the song, which focus on a cocaine and ecstasy-addled Skinner frantically pondering the whereabouts of Simone and Dan, with whom he went to a club. The rollicking and energetic beat of "Fit But You Know It" perfectly reflects the mood conveyed by the lyrics, which center on a girl a drunken Mike meets whose haughtiness mars her appeal. In short, though the beats aren't exceptional, they generally fit the mood of the lyrics.
Mike's delivery is rather unusual. He talks in a false Cockney accent throughout the entirety of the album. He has a very endearing presence and is obviously easy to relate to. His delivery is absolutely perfect for the subject matter of the album; a smoother, rougher, faster or slower approach would have landed Skinner in a decidedly non-average place and increased the gap between artist and audience, and this album would not be what it is as a result. Mike's lyrics are written in a stream-of-consciousness style and come off as completely genuine. The lyrics, combined with the delivery, make Skinner sound like he could be any twenty-something Brit telling you what happened during his weekend over a few beers. Mike sings most of the choruses in an incredibly charming voice, and if you can ignore the fact that it may not be one of the prettiest or most tuneful voices around, it's difficult not to sing along.
A Grand Don't Come For Free is an incredibly cohesive album. When listened to as a whole, it takes the listener through a series of events in one man's life during which he experiences infatuation, fear, comfortability, uncomfortability, resentment, frustration, loneliness, etc, etc. These are all feelings we've felt before, and feelings we'll undoubtedly feel again. Life is full of negativity, and how we react to it largely defines who we are and how we perceive the world.
The final track, "Empty Cans," shows two different ways that we can react to the negative aspects of life. After the events of the album, Mike is left to think about his life. The first ending has him getting into a fight with his TV repairman, exclaiming finally, "Everyone's a cunt in this life, no one's there for me." Accompanied with a dark and sinister beat, this segment of the song shows Mike allowing his troubles to devour him and leave him in a pool of his own cynicism and hatred to drink alone. After this, the beat continues with beautiful piano chords added, creating an entirely different atmosphere of hope. This ending has him deciding that, despite all that transpired over the course of the album, everything is going to be alright, with the refrain, "It's the end of something I did not want to end, beginning of hard times to come. But something that was not meant to be is done, and this is the start of what was." This ends the album on a beautiful note with a statement about life that no one should ignore: we may all experience moments of incredible negativity, instability and unhappiness, but in the end, it's going to be alright.
