The Streets: Original Pirate Material

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * *)

London-based Brummie Mike Skinner, 22, is The Streets and this debut album has seen him hailed as a poet laureate of the suburbs and a John Cooper Clarke for his generation.

He brings together garage, reggae and a hip-hop approach behind his spoken word evocations of street life and some social commentary.

It's "sex, drugs and on the dole" about football and smut, geezers who need excitement and if they don't get it they become violent, kebab shops and owing cash to the dealer.

Sort of Guy Ritchie in the headphones. As an observer he's acute (it's in the details) but what elevates this is his canny arrangements, his ear for a musical or lyrical hook, and the way he weaves orchestral colours (It's Too Late) as much as hard-edge beats.

Has It Come to This? and Let's Push Things Forward sound like alt.radio hits.

Not depressing (the final track, like Let's Push, advocates optimism) and no doubt about it, a Brit-hop star is born. Check him out.

Label: Locked On