Skinner's Crew Tours Scotland

Mike Skinner aka The Streets is one smooth operator. His label the Beats began a tour of Scotland last night to introduce audiences to The Mitchell Brothers, Example and Professor Green (who are all signed to The Beats).
How many homegrown rappers have done a five date tour of Scotland? Probably zilch. Yet this is exactly what homegrown rappers or grime artists need to do, make the effort to reach out to audiences, get to know them and give them something. The idea being that said audience will give rapper something back, by buying their record! Here's a preview of the tour for Metro Scotland.
Personally I'm a big fan of Example, and think he's got the right combo of being your cheeky mate, goofiness, self-deprecation, wit, depth, eye for everyday detail and seriousness, to make it big.

GIG

The Beats Tour

The Beats Scotland tour is a showcase of the ensemble cast of characters, the Mitchell Brothers, Example and Professor Green, signed to Mike Skinner’s imprint.

The Mitchell Brothers, Teddy and Tony, could be the hip-hop Del Boy and Rodney, with their cheeky, cockney lilt and raps on clothes, trainers, shopping, and football. Their sophomore LP, Dressed For The Occasion (due in October), features Mike Skinner on production duties, as well as Franz Ferdinand on single Slap My Face. New single, Solemate captures Teddy and Tony’s essence with a touching love story that’s revealed as an ode to trainers.

Example’s clever humour could steal the show. Debut single the operatic You Can’t Rap (chorus: You can’t rap, you’re white and you’re from Fulham) shatters every hip hop stereotype there is, while I Don’t Want To is the story of a lairy Friday night on the pull but when Example gets lucky he passes out from being too drunk.

UK battle rap champ Professor Green, completes the bill: the short, whiney rapper is the closest we’ve got to an Eminem, he’s prickly with a sharp tongue, but his wit is sharper – this is not a rapper to heckle.

The common element amongst them is we all know characters like this, they are as everyday as it gets, and self-deprecating and funny to boot. Emulating American rappers couldn’t be further from The Beats’ agenda. Who would you rather spend an evening down the pub with out of The Mitchells, Example and Pro Green or say 50 Cent, P.Diddy, Nelly, and their humungous egos and entourages?

Tonight (July 25) Aberdeen, tomorrow Dundee,Edinburgh (Fri), Glasgow (Sat), Wimbledon all ages (Sun), for more details visit www.exampleonline.com