I would regularly go HMV to pick up CDs. Whenever I had some money in my pocket I would make the walk over to Brent Cross, have a look so what was on offer, read the booklet on the way home, then pop it in the CD player and vibe out. There are plenty of great memories, getting up early to get the Kanye albums, buying Illmatic and The Chronic in a 2 for 10 offer, one guy telling me to buy the first Little Brother album which would let you do whatever you want (“you could tell your teacher to suck their mum after listening to this.”)

Not every album was great, but I was young and I wanted to consume everything hip hop. I bought the Westwood compilations, sometimes on the strength of one song. I bought Westwood 2 to have Dead Prez’s Hip Hop. Why I didn’t just buy the Dead Prez album is beyond me. Every Westwood CD would have some UK stuff, remember this is the days before Big Narstie being a national icon, UK music was hard to find. One song on Westwood 2 was called Straight Outta Jail, by an artist called Skinnyman. I had never heard of Skinnyman before, my biggest source of UK music, and even that was sparingly due to not having Sky, but this song immediately stood out. The unapologetic London accent, fused with patois, glottal stops and relatable lyrics provided a new listening experience. But in a pre-internet age, seeking out more this guy’s music was impossible.

Fast forward a few months, I pick up Hip Hop Connection in WH Smiths and lo and behold, I see Skinnyman’s name, right there to the left of Eminem’s head, and above a Beastie Boys mention. So I check the contents and turn to the page and to my surprise, Skinnyman is a white man. I double checked, read the article and sat there shocked. Looking back on it now though, it makes sense, Skinnyman while obviously a white rapper, isn’t a “white rapper,” his race has never been at the forefront of his music, it’s not his selling point.

In August 2004 I went out and bought Council Estate of Mind. The usual routine: walking over to Brent Cross; heading to HMV; looking at the booklet on the walk home. But I wasn’t met with the usual production credits, publicity shots and shout outs. Instead Skinnyman had penned a mini essay

Getting home I put the CD on and I am greeted with snippets from Made in Britain, a film to this day I still haven’t seen and I don’t think I need to. While for those who have seen the film, it weaves a whole backstory for an album. But for those of us whose only exposure are the snippets sprinkled throughout the album, it crafts a story which bookend the songs and fit the context perfectly.

Fuck the Hook, the first proper track, provides us with a perfect introduction to the myth of Skinnyman. For many people, this album is their first introduction to Skinnyman. The album’s classic status means that is has been accessed by people who would have no idea about Skinnyman’s history and his time in the UK hip hop scene, myself at the time included. This track is his manifesto, inviting listeners to check his resume and laying out what you are about to hear.

Throughout the rest of the album, Skinny touches on a broken system, how those growing up on estates become weary about a racist police presence, making them untrusting and paranoid. He weaves tales of the vicious cycle of the prison system, which locks people up and releases them back into the same situation they were in prior, often leaving them with no choice but to turn back to crime to get by. He talks about the drugs that have infested estates, creating users and sellers, each one’s life being changed, but in vastly different ways. The bulk of the album projects a feeling of hopelessness, of there being only one way out of the council estate, with that way possibly leading you to prison or worse.

And in those 15 years since this album’s release, the situation has worsened. EMA abolished, university fees increased, austerity cuts means youth services are virtually non-existent. Even Skinnyman’s bar about “cause I’m blinging it, With my NHS gold tooth,” might one day be an outdated reference with NHS cuts so prevalent.

The album’s penultimate track gives us our keep your head up anthem, with Skinny imploring us, the listener, to make the most of the situation we are put in, the glimmer of hope needed on an album that seemed bleak. The title track rounds out the album and brings us back down to earth, and might be the album’s most powerful track in this day and age. At a time when every newspaper wants to write a thinkpiece on youth crime, pointing fingers at the usual places, ignoring nuance, disregarding racist and classist systems, Skinny paints a picture of despair, a world that the people writing these articles have no idea about, yet they position themselves as experts. The album closes out with the chorus:

“We know that we have been living our lives through the hardest times, Still we know that we must keep up the faith in our hearts and minds.”

The situation might not change, but we mustn’t give up

————————-

The impact of Council Estate of Mind transcends genre. It is very much a hip hop record and very much reflecting what was popular at the time, with the sped up soul samples that were so popular stateside at the time. But it has earned plaudits as a genre on these isles. It isn’t a UK Hip Hop classic, it is a UK classic. At a time where the barriers were still up between UK Hip Hop and Grime, when UK Hip Hop as a whole deemed grime as a fad, artists like Skinnyman, Sway and Klashnekoff amongst others, bridged the gap and laid the building blocks for what we see now, where collaborations are commonplace and artists dip in and out of genres. Skinny was even meant to release a grime EP, releasing a single, Smoking Ban, and appearing on Logan Sama’s Kiss show to promote it.

Skinnyman himself is a UK legend, this album being his one and only release has helped to build up his status. Everyone has a Skinnyman story, whether it is seeing him in prison, enjoying himself at a show, or just out on road. This album has created a mythology around Skinnyman that is bigger than him. And as we continue this descent into an even more wildly unfair society, the album will continue to hold relevance, whether you are going back to it or listening to it for the first time.