Album Review, A Grand Don't Come For Free - The Streets ***** Mike Skinner, purveyor of chavscum anthems to the urban masses, returns with that most unusual of things, a rap concept album. 'A Grand Don't Come For Free' has been much touted in the media as the tale of a drugs run gone wrong nut it is much more than that. 'A Grand' is a growing up story, it's a rite of passage tale, a graphic description of emerging adulthood. Skinner is also being hailed as the British Eminem, he's not, he's much, much better than that. Where Eminem wallows in spite and self pity and struts with domineering scorn and hatred, Skinner's narratives are witty irony and self deprecating humour. As he said on his first album "Round here we call them birds, not bitches." The concept then. Well, it does start off with an attempted drugs score, I say attempted as it doesn't actually take place for the various reasons listed on the bleakly humorous opening track 'It Was Supposed To Be So Easy.' The real story though is that of a teenage boy, typically thinking that life should be handed to him on a plate, gradually coming to accept that his life is his own responsibility. Humour and irony are an essential part of Skinner's work, there's more than a hint of Ian Dury shining through his lyrics. Bouncy current single 'Fit But You Know It' (riff stolen wholesale from Blur's Parklife), 'Could Be Well In' and 'Such A Twat' all show the sort of chuckle inducing lyrical humour that Dury exhibited on 'What A Waste', 'This Is What We Find' and especially 'Blockheads', Skinner could cover that latter track and a whole generation wouldn't realise it wasn't his. 'A Grand' is filled with good stuff as Skinner's character stumbles through life, losing his girlfriend, failing to return a dvd, getting drunk, pulling a new girl, getting stoned and having a fist fight with the tv repair man. Skinner portrays himself as being a touchingly naive, lost young man, searching for something more fulfilling than the endless cycle of pubs, clubs, booze, drugs, birds, kebabs. Whereas 'Original Pirate Material' was very much a solo effort, Skinner has roped in a host of extras on this opus, C-Mone, Wayney G and Leo Ihenacho (amongst many others) adding vocals, plus violin and piano parts make for a much more rounded album with some tracks moving into mainstream r&b territory. It's a good effort, I've always had a soft spot for the concept album (where's my copy of Misplaced Childhood gone ?), it's funny, touching and ironic in all the right places, chavs, salute your leader.