10 Greatest Hip Hop Concept Albums
4. The Streets - A Grand Don’t Come For Free
No one is likely to claim that Mike Skinner is one of the all-time great rappers, technically speaking, at least. He doesn’t boast the greatest or most varied flow, and often seems to disregard the rhythm track altogether.
It’s that relatively ordinary delivery, though, that makes his sophomore album so successful. A Grand Don’t Come For Free isn’t about science, it’s about a story packed with memorable characters and told perfectly.
Only Skinner, UK garage’s everyman, could pull this off. The story is incredibly simple, set up on the hilarious "It Was Supposed to Be So Easy" . Our hero has the day from hell, culminating in the loss of his £1,000 savings. He placates himself with drugs (“Blinded By The Lights”), and a lads’ holiday (“Fit But You Know It”), but before too long his relationship has fallen apart (UK #1 “Dry Your Eyes”).
Skinner’s story is hardly eventful or dramatic but his slice of life observations are fantastic and the record features some of the best beats of his career and the bravura ending of “Empty Cans”, a sliding doors song on which Skinner can sink deeper into depression or find salvation in moving forward.