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Mike Skinner aka The Streets (born 27 November 1978) is a rapper and musician from Birmingham, England.

Early Years

Skinner acquired his first keyboard by the age of five. As a teenager, he built a miniature recording studio in his bedroom. He began writing hip hop and garage music in his home in West Heath in Birmingham, with a crew of other rappers. He describes his background as "Barratt class: suburban estates, not poor but not much money about, really boring."

In the late 1990s, Skinner was working in fast food jobs while trying to start his own independent record label and sending off demos. At the end of 2000, the Locked On label, who had had success with The Artful Dodger featuring Craig David, agreed to release "Has It Come To This" under the Streets name. Skinner moved from Birmingham to Brixton to pursue his recording career.

Career Breakthrough

"Has It Come To This" proved to be a breakthrough hit for the Streets, going top-twenty in 2001. For his debut album, Original Pirate Material , Skinner wanted to take garage in a new direction with material reflecting the lifestyle of British youth. The album track Let's Push Things Forward reflects the philosophy of the album. The album was released in 2002 and proved to be successful both with critics and the general public. In the UK, the album was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize and was favourite with the bookies to win it (which was later won by Ms. Dynamite). The Streets were nominated for best album, best urban act, best breakthrough artist and best British male artist in the 2002 Brit awards. The NME named it as one of their top five albums of 2002.

Subsequent singles included "Don't Mug Yourself", "Weak Becomes Heroes" and "Let's Push Things Forward" which all reached the top 40 in the UK. Many of his songs have a UK garage feel but have in the main found popularity in the 'indie' scene. Original Pirate Material had debuted and peaked at number 12 in the UK album charts, and wouldn't reach any higher until his next album was released.

The success of Original Pirate Material in the UK led to a US release of the album through Vice/Atlantic in late 2002. It quickly became a critical favourite with Rolling Stone, Spin Magazine, The New York Times Blender, USA Today and the LA Times all nominating it as one of the albums of the year. The album reached number 2 on the Billboard electronic charts and the top 20 on the independent and Heatseeker charts in the US in 2003.

In May 2004, he released a new single, "Fit But You Know It" which became his highest debuting and highest selling single ever, reaching #4 in the UK. The single is from his second album, A Grand Don't Come For Free which is a concept album about losing a thousand pounds and his efforts to recover it. The album debuted #2 in the UK album charts, but later reached the #1 position. Soon after the album was released, his success grew even larger in July 2004, with the second single "Dry Your Eyes" debuting at #1 in the UK. The success of this album and its singles even lead to the first album Original Pirate Material re-entering the charts and peaking at #10, which was 2 spots higher than its original peak 2 years before. "Blinded By the Lights", the third single from "A Grand", did hit the Top 10 in September 2004, meaning that it wasn't as successful as the last 2 singles from the album, but still selling more than his singles which were released before his mainstream success. The next single "Could Well Be In" is due for release late 2004.