https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHOf3s70w-c The Streets, aka Mike Skinner, was the Brummie Eminem who brought something new to the UK music scene. Whilst Dry your eyes' might seem slightly clichéd in parts, the wordsmithery isnt a million miles from what Alex Turner was doing with Artic Monkeys. It told the seemingly mundane stories of the everyman, but gave them a wonderful universality. Its easy to forget the impact The Streets had on the music of the 00s. Dry your eyes spoke to pretty much everyone who heard it. This wasnt about musical tribes or cultures; it was about the matters of the heart - the timeless theme that linked pop music across the decades. Starting off like an epic sounding Walker Brothers ballad, the song is tale of emasculation. We can have an open relationship if we must? Theres no machismo here and at times its incredibly painful listening. Please, please, Im begging, please. Tellingly, Skinner chose strings as his main accompaniment here. In doing so he showed that hip-hop was not afraid to use the musical language pioneered by The Beatles in the 60s. As a result he sounded like a broken-hearted beat poet playing within the new rules of hip hop. Yes you can tell a tale, yes you can sound bruised and battered, and yes, you can sound vulnerable. But you have to memorable and here The Streets were unforgettable. So, a tender ballad about heartbreak from someone who was ostensibly a hip-hop artist. Who saw that coming?
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash