Talking loud... and saying something.

The French call them flâneurs, those who walk the streets observing the world in all its messy glory. But recently a British equivalent has emerged from the musical underground, and these might be said to walk The Streets.

The personas can differ from wise elder brother to ranting madman but, like Mike Skinner, they weave observations about life and lo-fi beats into a new poetic and musical argot. Pitman has had us giggling away with his crudely comic disses, while former Galliano frontman Rob Gallagher reappeared as Earl Zinger with tunes like the scathingly accurate Got To Get To Ibiza. But whilst they represent the stand-up jokers in the pack there are other artists with more serious concerns who are doing much more than riding Skinner’s Burberry coat-tails.

“I see The Streets comparisons only in so much as we’re both British and rap in a way that isn’t strictly hip-hop,” says Just Jack. “I always loved hip-hop but couldn’t rap like an American without looking like an idiot. To me any kind of talking over beats is rap, whether other people see it like that or not.”

Just Jack’s album, The Outer Marker, may be his debut but the lyrics bear the hallmarks of experience. From the nostalgic Snapshot Memories to the suffocating relationship in Deep Thrills, the landscape of Jack’s world – both emotional and physical – is instantly recognisable. “Every lyric refers to my actual experiences. But it’s not just introspective, because anyone who’s observant can see what effect certain lifestyles have on people without needing to live it themselves. But any good songwriter is also a poet.”

A point taken up by DJ Rubbish - aka Shaun Pubis - for his brutally funny Bush-baiting album, Proper Propaganda. “In so far as I do things with words, then yeah, it’s a kind of street poetry,” he says. “Poetry allows you to question things because playing with words also plays with meaning - making people aware of how language directs their thoughts.” Aiming his anger at American imperialism on tracks like Tony Blair Is A Bad Man and Who Are The Real Terrorists?

Rubbish resurrects the righteous radical ire of punk poets like Attila The Stockbroker over plundered beats. Such political dissent was notably absent from pop during the Iraq War when most musicians, for all their subversive posturing, toed the Blair line. “People thought their careers would be threatened because the stakes were raised so high by Bush with the ‘you’re with us or against us’ thing. But I felt there were things that should be said that weren’t being, although mostly it was me wanting to rant over some beats!”

Whether it’s stood on a soapbox or crying into its pint, this is the sound of Britain today. It may not always be pretty – but then the truth rarely is. Paul Clarke 20 June 03

DJ Rubbish - Proper Propaganda, released 23 June 03 on Barry's Bootlegs.

Earl Zinger - Put Your Phazers on Stun... is out now on !K7.

Just Jack - The Outer Marker is out now on RG Records.