We already knew that the staff of the Guardian's Music Blog have an excellent relationship with Hercules and Love Affair. Now we also know that they've also got a bigger conference room than us, and a lot of really nice, huge mac landscape desktops. Mike Skinner of The Streets filmed himself there to announce the week of web content he'll present this week, to include promoter Chantelle Fiddy writing on the future of Grime and photo's by Skinner's favorite photographer of UK dubstep "club tomfoolery." The beat that accompanies Skinners monologue in the video is the one Skinner made for "Close the Book" a song he planned to tuck in at the end of his Cyberspace and Blues mixtape since the first song on the first album he recorded as the Streets was called "Turn the Page." He says now, "I'm realizing that this would be shit, I decided to bin it." Download the scraps, right here and follow The Streets takeover at The Guardian until Friday. Today Ben Thompson, with whom Skinner is now working on a book, writes about the rise of Drake, Mike Skinner's favorite emcee besides Ghostpoet. Thompson says if Thank Me Later felt disappointing when it came out, he can't remember why. In spite of his "official retirement", Skinner may or may not release more of these outtakes as Cyberspace and Reds on the internet soon.
Download: The Streets, "Close The Book"
