Taking a detour into the heart of things

MIKE SKINNER, aka the Streets, has his sights set on accomplishing one thing in America, and it’s not chart domination.

“People can say what they want, but I’m going to run the New York Marathon -- it’s not going to be that hard for me -- I’m pretty fit, actually, and I’m training hard,” he declares in a slight Brummie accent immediately familiar to fans of the rapper.

The lanky 27-year-old, better known for meshing smooth British garage beats with insightful slang-ridden rhymes than for doing anything remotely athletic, maintains that running 26 miles “can’t be that hard” -- even if his competitive streak usually runs only so far as drinking copious amounts of lager with his local pub quiz team.

Nothing seems to be difficult these days for the Birmingham, England, native. His latest release, “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living,” debuted at No. 1 in Britain last month, ending speculation the rapper might be running out of steam.

Skinner, speaking via cellphone backstage before a festival tour stop in Nuremberg, Germany, says he is thrilled with the reaction to his third album.

“It’s a big relief,” he says, “because however you frame it, if you don’t succeed as much as you did the time before, it’s seen by the industry as, you know, on your way out.”

Indeed, the pressure for the charismatic beatmaker to produce hits -- especially at home -- is almost tangible.

His last disc, “A Grand Don’t Come for Free,” also topped the British pop charts when it came out in 2004. His debut offering, “Original Pirate Material,” has sold more than 700,000 copies worldwide since its release in 2002, and was lauded by critics.

But for all Skinner’s success in Britain, he has yet to crack the mainstream U.S. market -- especially hip-hop radio -- because of his accent and nontraditional production style, which has more in common with dance music than hip-hop.

“It’s a cultural thing,” Skinner says of his failure to reach mainstream American hip-hop fans. “It’s natural that the Streets is going to be more of an exotic thing in America, and therefore more liked by a different kind of person than it is in England.”

As it stands, Streets fans in the U.S. are more likely adventurous college radio listeners than 16-year-old hard-core hip-hop heads.

Not that Skinner is complaining -- he still has legions of boosters in the U.S., and is beginning a 12-city North American tour. His Saturday show at the Fonda Theatre is sold out.

The 11-song album, perhaps his most confessional to date, showcases a grown-up Skinner -- replete with grown-up problems.

On his debut, Skinner won over fans by rapping about the innocent minutiae of everyday life: observing characters at his local pub, being broke while chasing girls or zoning out while playing video games.

But things have changed now that Skinner has become a star.

“The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living” begins with “Pranging Out,” a dark, paranoid song about a multiple-day cocaine bender rapped over a stark, menacing and impossibly catchy beat (“I do a line and then panic/The iron has been on in my house for four ... weeks,” he relates).

Other themes addressed on the album include smoking crack (“I don’t recommend it,” he says), the perils of recoupable advances in the music industry, small-time cons, fame, his gambling addiction (“I did have a problem,” Skinner confesses) and the loss of his father.

SKINNER’S candor on his new single, “Never Went to Church,” about his father’s death is remarkably personal.

“I worked really hard to make it one of the best songs on the album,” he says. “My father would be proud of how hard I worked on it.”

Skinner’s late father might not be so proud of some of the more risque revelations on the record, especially tales from “Pranging Out,” like when he reveals how his manager actually smacked him.

“I deserved it, to be honest,” Skinner says of the incident. “I threw his wallet out the window. He beat me [at Foosball], basically, and I don’t like being beaten. I was drunk at the time. To be honest, when I’m drunk, I’m always out of order.”

Indeed, “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living” begins and ends with cautionary tales of drug- and alcohol-fueled excess. Not that Skinner is a lazy lager lout -- he’s too busy making tracks on his own and producing other artists for his record label, the Beats, to let his admitted casual drug use and drinking get in the way of his work ethic.

“It took me 10 years to get to the point where I can make a living doing this,” he says.

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Charlie Amter may be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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The Streets

What: The Streets, with Lady Sovereign

Where: Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: 9 p.m. Saturday

Price: $19 (sold out)

Info: (323) 464-0808