The night we started bombing Iraq I was at Warsaw seeing the Streets. They’re a British hip hop group that centers around Mike Skinner, a 23- year-old who has pushed the musical form into new and uncharted territories. Part of the challenge he faces in America is that his music is not what we consider hip hop. It’s a parallel universe, with unfamiliar beats and a different rhyming style (more like spoken word), referred to as "British garage." It was born in the clubs over there around 1996, and combines elements of house music with more traditional bass lines. It’s very off-kilter, but with a distinctly British veneer, something you’d expect out of an industrial English town: British charm with rough edges. Skinner’s lyrics are extremely detailed and quick-flowing, but it’s more than his accent that takes getting used to.
That wasn’t apparent on March 19, though. The crowd (the place was packed) knew every song, mainly white hipster kids in their twenties (except for the two poor prepubescent boys who came with their mother and were obviously not psyched about that). The music was a perfect fit: You really can’t dance to it, but it’s fun to listen to.
I had heard rumors that the Streets were awful live. The previous week they had appeared on Jay Leno, and, well, the performance was not very good at all. But at Warsaw they seemed to have found their groove. Despite the mistake of the DJs spinning Tribe and Dre songs before they came on (because Skinner’s music is nothing like that), the show was fabulous. It took a while for the crowd to really get into it, but as the evening progressed the music got looser and the vibe began to sink into everyone until some people actually were shuffling around and bobbing their heads. The band was great, and Skinner’s vocal partner on stage (who handled a lot of the actual singing on the choruses) was a perfect counterpoint to him.
The music evolved into various forms: at times reggae, at times R&B. At other times a De La Soul rhythm surfaced and then was gone again. Skinner knew how to work the crowd— to get them fired up he promised that if they stayed nutty through the show (only about an hour or so), he’d stage-dive and surf the crowd. Sure enough, he kept his promise and took a header off the amps and rode the crowd for a while before coming back to finish up the set. Then he mooned us all and said good night. Walking away from the show, I was (and still am) convinced that the Streets are a new breed that is going to push the hip hop boundaries a little further— and that’s a good thing.