It's called Garage because the "sound" was pioneered at a UK club, Paradise Garage, in the mid-90's. It's also known as 2-Step, because of the beats. In the early days, BBC wouldn't play the underground and banned records, so DJ's living in Tower Blocks (The Projects in the US) would illegally rig a transmitter on the roofs of the buildings and broadcast DJ sets etc. Thats why the album cover is of a tower block building. It's where The Streets got started. If you haven't already, check out the BBC comedy, People Just Do Nothing. It's about a pirate radio crew in that very building on The Streets album cover 😮
@@TahoeNevada lucky you if you have first hand memories! I was still in the vegetable garden them times, listening through an older bro. It had moved to Grime by the time I was out out 😅
The streets is what got me into the UK scene when i was young. This album and the next one called "A grand dont come for free". "A grand dont come for free" is a master piece imo, Rap opera in its finest. Full story from top to bottom, Need to have a listen to that one for sure.
This takes me back to such a great time in my life when I had this and "Roots Manuva - Run come save me" on repeat. Please check that album its also a master piece.
There are a handful of albums that really, REALLY take me back 20+ years and this is one of them. My dear friend played me this in his car and I was blown away. I borrowed the CD, recorded it onto a minidisc and listened to it non stop. This still sounds so fucking fresh and good. I've never made a list of the top albums of my life, but this would be high on it.
i never compared the streets to MF DOOM until now, yet they're both in my top 5. i think the sounds are different, but theyre so similar in every other aspect.
amazing reaction guys! funnily enough, kano made a song (featuring mike skinner from the streets) talking about the exact situation u mentioned during don't mug yourself. when a guy finally finds the girl that turns his head after he kept telling all his friends not to lose their mind over girls. it's on his first album home sweet home, also an absolute uk classic and wort checking out! also excited for u guys to check out a grand dont come for free at some point, i see others have mentioned it in the comments already 👀 its one of my favourite concept albums of all time
379 views (when I watched) is a robbery for you Such a shame it’s blocked in the UK Superb reaction, The Streets style is not for everyone, it would be easy to put this on and say WTF is this and turn it straight off You boys appreciated the production and the off-the-wall poetry/spoken word/rap (whatever it is) Love the reaction, hope it gets more views for you
So happy you guys reacted to the Streets and this album. Dead set classic. Every track is an absolute banger. Your reaction deserves so many more views. Good work gents.
I recommend the debut album from Massive Attack - Blue Lines. It's early 90s but doesn't get old for me. They're from Bristol UK and were dubbed 'Trip-Hop' for their mix of electronic, breakbeats, sampling and rapping. Blue Lines is also really soulful though.
I listened to this record when it came out...Man, that had to have been like '02 or something? I was this dude listening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin... this guy with all this British slang. I felt like I was on some Clockwork Orange shit 😆...I had to like learn the language
It's so difficult to understate the important of this album. Not only did it push garage into a new genre, but it triumphed and accent that was uncommon in mainstream UK music. This hit for so many Brits in part because they could hear themselves in Mike Skinner
I was on a rave online community back in the day, and someone posted "Weak become heroes". That got me seeking out more of Mike's stuff and that led to getting OPM on CD. From the first moments of Turn the page I was in. For my money that's still the finest opening track to a debut album - It tells you everything about Mike and what's to come.
You guys invented the term 'Garage' - it comes from the legendary New York club 'Paradise Garage' where they played the more soulful kind of vocal House Music and Disco. In the 90's UK producers started creating faster, harder tracks that used that '2-step' vibe and 'UK Garage' was born. On the flip-side 'House' was named for the 'Warehouse' club in Chicago where they played harder, trippy disco.
Hey dig the UK garage reactions - subscribing. Browsed through reactions for a few months back - question is have you done any OneFour or Huskii.. if not, go down that rabbit hole, trust me
Guys, I'm so glad that you reviewed this album. It's a seminal cult classic. It's criminal that this vid doesn't have more views. I was 24 when this came out. I was living away from home and the internet was very new. I was one of the first people on The Streets website forum. I made loads of friends on the site and used to meet people at gigs all over the UK. I even met a girl who I was with for eight years. I have all his music. His stuff is always pushing the envelope and trying new things. He also had a side project called THE D.O.T. where he produced and did second vocals to a singer called Rob Harvey (there were two albums). His production is very clever. He takes elements from many cult UK genres and threads them into his work, so it calls back all the time to seminal stuff. Really clever stuff. Back at the time, there was another artist called Just Jack, and he was also popular amongst the Streets online community. His first album was called The Outer Marker. It's much softer than this, but really captures the moment and happened to come out at the same time as this. I have all Jack's stuff too. He's matured with his music too, and now writes songs about his adult life. I love the honesty of it. I write and perform poetry myself, and I site these guys as major influences.
My guess on low view count is that it's not showing up in the UK - I only happened across it because I'm connected to my work VPN so appear from Spain - it's blocked in the UK.
I'll never forget tuning into Radio 1Xtra in 2002 and hearing Let's Push Things Forward wobbling onto my hifi. Absolutely changed my life musically. Got me simultaneously into Garage, Jungle, Reggae, and Ska. That era was such a melting pot.
Mid 30’s when this came out, absolutely killer album of the decade for all us that went through the full rave & drug the lines hit so hard in some places. Some I know still eating shit in tray, some got it together, some never came out the other side 😢
