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The Streets: founded in Birmingham, England, UK, 1994; disbanded in 2011. The name is the project name for Mike Skinner (aka Michael Skinner, birth name) born Nov. 27, 1978, Birmingham, UK (aka Grafiti, The Beats). In its initial state, The Streets was an actual group project formed by Skinner (vocals, keyboards, synthesizers; arranging, composing, mixing) and with Johnny Drum Machine (drums, percussion, orchestration, production), and from the recording states he is the only one to have assisted Skinner on his solo-project throughout all the years, and Kevin Mark Trail (vocals, production, composing, from 1994-2003; 2007-2011). Leo the Lion (vocals, from 2003-2007) was an associate member during the recording of the second and third studio albums. The musical style in the beginning was UK hip hop, grime, and UK garage in a combo with club and dance, and slowly progressed to include more electronic styles (most noticeable on the final albums) always making use of mixing and sampling. Skinner wrote and composed almost all music and the lyrics are often about his own life, its ups and downs, his relationships, and always with a reference to working class England. Before the final album, Skinner proclaimed the end of The Streets after the forthcoming album. He announced that he would continue to make music in some way, and still as of 2011, The D.O.T. was founded as a collaboration project by Skinner and Rob(ert) Harvey (vocalist of The Music), and their studio debut album was released Oct. 2012.
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