Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living

As much as Mike Skinner's first two albums chronicled the life of a young working-class British lad struggling to make it in contemporary England, the Streets' third album THE HARDEST WAY TO MAKE AN EASY LIVING is a quasi-concept album about the vagaries of fame and fortune. Rather than rapping about pints, geezers, and Playstations, Skinner's conversational, slang-laden lyrics here are about girls who wouldn't look twice at him before he was a star (the single "When You Wasn't Famous"), the difficulties of coming up with new material ("The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living"), and record company battles ("Fake Streets Hats"). A mere three strong albums into his career, Skinner's Everyman delivery and stripped-down, basement beats have come to exemplify British hip-hop.