Birmingham’s best. Seriously, how good is Mike Skinner? A Grand Don’t Come for Free is one of the albums I’ve listened to the most times in my life, ever. Which brings me to the gospel truth that The Streets is also one of the most woebegone live acts I’ve seen in my life, ever – this might have been a driving force for me to kind of lose track of what Skinner has been up to since the release of Everything Is Borrowed. I exactly remember the last time I was on a Streets hype; this was November 2009, the week after Skream and Benga played Amsterdam and dropped the Nero remix of “Blinded By The Lights”, a moment that made me teary-eyed and realize how immemorial his material actually is, and I listened to his four albums on repeat for about a week. After this I must’ve been distracted from Skinner for about a year after this event, apart from skimming through articles about him writing songs for the Guardian, news reports on how obsessed Mike Skinner is with Twitter and the casual namedrop on Wiley’s Ustream (“Eminem is the best signed battle rapper in the world ever, but Mike Skinner is better.” – wise words, Wiley). Earlier this week, with the announcements of his upcoming album Computers And Blues, I woke up and realized that Mike Skinner is still around, and that his music is still good.

It’s a given that Mike Skinner’s vocals and heavy bass lines are an au fait alliance – this time the honor goes to The Original Crackpot From Philly, Diplo, who remixes the second track of The Streets’ upcoming album “Going Through Hell”. The original is quite a raw track and has its fair share of guitars in it – a track that definitely needs to grow on me, as I don’t feel the chorus too much. Diplo’s take on the track is better, the vocals are brushed up and although one may not cheer  upon guitar being replaced with heavy bass, in this case it’s definitely a substitution I cheer upon. For more information on his upcoming album check the source.

Download: The Streets – Going Through Hell (Diplo Remix) (320 kbps)