Streets, The Vinyl Records
Mike Skinner's recordings as the Streets marked the first attempt to add a degree of social commentary to Britain's party-hearty garage/2-step (and later grime) movement. First with 2002's Mercury Music Prize-nominated Original Pirate Material and his chart-topping 2004 tour de force, A Grand Don't Come for Free, Skinner established himself as a truly original and influential voice in British hip-hop. A natural storyteller of significant wit and pathos with a distinctive delivery and production approach, he managed to keep the Streets both creatively vital and popular for the remainder of the decade before retiring the project after 2011's Computers and Blues.