Nasty monotone chav singers

[Chris71]

WHAT IS GOING ON?

First we had the streets,

"I talk in this winey mockney voice all day long
it makes me seem well down to earth and human
makes people think I hang round at MacDonalds drive ins
holiday in spanish time shares and aspire to own a nova"

(you get the idea - the bloke speaks, not sings, not even raps - just waffles on over a boring bassline and rambles about crap much like I do on here, but the difference is people pay him vast ammounts to do so)

Next came Lilly Allen. Now, I was quite dissapointed to notice on Never Mind The Buzzcocks recently she's actually intelligent and funny in real life, but her music seems to be the same as Mr Skinner out of the streets. A little bit more melodic and she does atleast sing (a bit) - but still!

And now we have Kate Nash, with (erm) delightful lines like "I'd rather be wid your friends mate, cos they are much fitter" She's another stage school kid going for mockney chav overload. This isn't a personal thing - I'm sure she's great in real life, but her songs are obviously intended to appeal to the chav market and it has that crucial monotone, droning sound of someone who just can't be arsed to sing talking over a record.

And I say that as someone who likes hip hop too - I'm not against rapping and I certainly don't object to people singing, I just don't get these monologues that fall somewhere in between. They sound like the chav kids of north London failing miserably to rap over tunes blaring out from their mobiles. In fact I think I may have just realised what inspired chavtronica....

[900T-R]

Know what you mean - but this would fit sort of your description too and I haven't heard many argue its brilliance:

Maxi Jazz said:

only smoke weed when I need to,
And I need to get some rest,
I confess, I burnt a hole in the mattress,
Yes, yes, it was me, I plead guilty,
And on the count of three I pull back the duvet,
Make my way to the refrigerator,
One dry potato inside, no lie
Not even bread, jam,
When the light above my head went bam!
I can't sleep, something's all over me,
Greasy, insomnia please release me,
And let me dream about making mad love on the heath,
Tearing off tights with my teeth.
But there's no relief,
I'm wide awake in my kitchen,
It's dark and I'm lonely,
Oh, if I could only get some sleep,
Creaky noises make my skin creep,
I need to get some sleep,
I can't get no sleep....

[KB_S1]

Maxi was telling us the pain and boredom of insomnia, the others are a cure for it.

At least Mike Skinner has some originality and cleverness thrown in. Not my thing but compared to the other two mentioned...

[900T-R]

KB_S1 said:

Maxi was telling us the pain and boredom of insomnia, the others are a cure for it.

Fair point, well made.

[Andrew D]

I'm not entirely sure that the success of Insomnia is underpinned by the quality of the rapping; indeed I suspect that it's in spite of it.

<Edited to add> I also agree whole-heartedly with the sentiments of the original poster. I've tried to find "The Streets" anything more than really really annoying, but I just can't seem to do it. It's just some guy, with whom I have no commonality, rambling on about a lifestyle that's the antithesis of mine.

Edited by Andrew D on Friday 17th August 14:32

[Chris71]

Yep, got it in one.

Have to be honest, I'm not sure who I find more annoying.

Mike Skinner is incredibly droning and whiny - just put on his accent and talk about random crap in a slight down trodden way and you'll sound just like the streets without any big record company backing required. But I suppose there is always something to be said for being (one of?) the first to something. Lilly Allen and Kate Nash sound like thye should be fed head first into a mincing machine for the good of mankind.

I see what the other guys are getting at, but I love Faithless and I like some full on rap too, I'm not against spoken lyrics. I just don't think people these girls bring anything to music (new or otherwise) and they strike me as a marketing excercise. Get a couple of clever, media savvy people and make them talk like adolescent chavs, and hoards or adolescent chavs will buy their CDs. It's genius.

[Fittster]

KB_S1 said:

Maxi was telling us the pain and boredom of insomnia, the others are a cure for it.

At least Mike Skinner has some originality and cleverness thrown in. Not my thing but compared to the other two mentioned...

And lets face it Faithless just nicked all their best ideas from the KLF. But then the KLF had ideas to spare.

[Frik]

I would find the Streets listenable if there was some decent music to back up the rather nifty wordplay.

I have some time for Lily Allen, but the lazy diction is difficult to swallow coming from someone who has had such a privileged life up to now. That and the fact that it's just plain irritating, innit?

[FunkyNige]

Uhhh, aren't the Streets a joke band?

[Timberwolf]

I don't get it - it's like there's some craze running up and down head offices of record companies for "authentic" acts.

What they don't seem to get is that if I really wanted to go and see a mediocre band spoilt by a crap singer, and to be really honest I don't, I can wander off down to any number of music pubs and find one. (Actually that's not quite true as any decent music pub tends to have slightly higher standards than that.)

For all I know, maybe people like it. Maybe if The Whatevers, NME's hot tip for "biggest band since the Beatles", had spent slightly less time on penning derivative "cutting tales of modern inner-city life" and found themselves someone who could carry a tune, they'd be half as popular as they are.

I'll stop there, because I'm beginning to sound like a middle-aged man who hasn't bought an LP since Blood on the Tracks came out. This tends to happen a lot when I discuss modern, mainstream bands.

[Chris71]

Frik said:

I have some time for Lily Allen, but the lazy diction is difficult to swallow coming from someone who has had such a privileged life up to now. That and the fact that it's just plain irritating, innit?

Very true. I don't think a privelidged background stops you making good music (some media types seem to hold this view.....) but I do think when you've been to several high profile public schools like Lilly Allen did adopting a mockney tone and pretending you're down with the streets (no pun intended) isn't really convincing. It's like NWA reforming to do Straight Outta Islington. Like wise, I think I'm right in saying Kate Nash is a firmly middle class fame seeker who had a go at being an actress before unleashing her mind numbing brand of sub-pop.

I think the key to the sucess of these people is they are exactly the same as most of the people writing and more to the point, reviewing in the media - well off, well educated, upper middle class trendies who like to believe they're working class bohemians able to sneer at those more openly priviledged. I mentioned in another thread recently how "the top 100 most embarassing rock and roll moments" featured a load of gossip columnists with double baralled names slagging off various bands and musicians for being 'soooo middle class'. This inverted snobbery seems to be absolutely rife in the media and thinking about it, I genuinely believe this might be the reason for the sucess of the bands who market this, because I don't actually know any real people who like them.

[Timberwolf]

Chris71 said:

It's like NWA reforming to do Straight Outta Islington.

Including such classic tracks as,

• Disrespect the police on an online message forum
• Express yourself, providing your method of expression does not infringe the rights of minority groups
• Something 2 protest 2