The Mitchell Brothers

:"For the EastEnders characters, see Phil Mitchell and Grant Mitchell."

The Mitchell Brothers are a rap group from London, England. They consist of cousins Owura Nyanin (a.k.a. Tony Mitchell) from Manor Park and Kofi Hanson (Teddy Mitchell) from Stockwell. They were the first signing to Mike Skinner’s The Beats label and are sometimes known as the "Geezers with skills".

History

Better known to their family as Tony Nianin and Teddy Hanson, they named themselves The Mitchell Brothers after siblings Phil & Grant Mitchell in the British soap EastEnders.

The duo are arguably the best new additions to the British rap scene but these London boys look nothing like the usual, clichéd image of rap artists. As the title of their debut album, A Breath Of Fresh Attire, makes clear, the cousins are just as determined to break away from the usual clothing styles of rap artists of oversized sportswear and tacky jewellery, as they are the typical rap and hip-hop subjects in their music. The boys have always been into clothes ("Black people always like to dress up," says Teddy), but it's British style in particular they enjoy, prefering tweeds and flat caps. They own up to Guy Ritchie as a style icon and approve of how he's introduced his wife (Madonna) to British tweeds. Just as they have no interest in adopting the ever-popular uniform of American rappers they deliberately use British references in their songs, such as girls who "need to go on Trisha with all [their] fucking shenanigans" (She's Got It All Wrong). In an interview with Hadley Freeman, Teddy said "You hear British rappers trying to sound American, talking about 'greenbacks' and 'Cristal' and 'bullets', but they've never seen a gun in their lives, and they take the tube to work.... Britain's such a small place, you need to do something new to stand out, and if you pretend to be American to the Americans, they'll just laugh." A lot of the most interesting American hip-hop stars, such as Andre 3000 and Big Boi from Outkast, are now dressing in more traditional British styles, at least partly because the dandyish element of British styles chimes nicely with hip-hop's peacock tendencies. "When we were on tour with Nelly, everyone kept complimenting us on our tweeds," says Teddy proudly, and at the most recent Brits Madonna's stylist admired the boys' look. "Yeah, we stood out proper that night."

However, there have been downsides to their love of fashion. In their song Harvey Nicks, the boys describe what it's like going to snooty designer shops as young black men: "The pretty bird behind the till was flipping through Marie Claire/Flicking the end of her hair fidgeting all nervous and us thinking/Where the fuck is customer service?... /It was her on the phone to the security guard to follow us for no good reason."

The cousins have been making music together since they were teenagers and with the support of a group of mates called 'Ylimaf' and Kofi's elder brother Kobina, they pressed up 1,000 mix CDs called ‘Sorted’. Their big break came a few years ago when Teddy spotted Mike Skinner from The Streets in their local Barclay's bank in Brixton, south London, soon after Skinner had released his debut album, Original Pirate Material. Teddy performed a reverse pickpocket manoeuvre and slipped a copy of his and Tony's demo CD into Skinner's bag, with his phone number on it. Skinner loved their album, signed the cousins to The Beats label and produced their first album. Tony returned the favour by performing with Skinner on his hit, Fit But You Know It. They released their debut album, "A Breath of Fresh Attire", on 22 August, 2005.

The cousins released their second album, "Dressed For The Occasion", on November 19, 2007. It was preceded by the singles "Solemate" and "Michael Jackson". Sales for this album disappointed, with the Mitchell Brothers album being described as "still born" by Mike Skinner.

Discography

Albums

* "Sorted (mixtape)" (2004)
* "A Breath of Fresh Attire" #56 UK (2005)
* "Dressed For The Occasion" (2007)
* "I Know You Love My Accent(mixtape)" (TBC)

ingles

A Breath of Fresh Attire" :
* "Routine Check" (2005) UK - #42
* "Harvey Nicks" (2005) UK - #62
* "Excuse My Brother" (2005) UK - #58
* "Alone With The TV" (2006) UK - #92
* "She's Got It All Wrong" (2006) Dressed For The Occasion":
* "SoleMate" (2007)
* "Michael Jackson" (2007) UK - #65.

External links

* [http://www.themitchellbrothers.co.uk Official site]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt7VRD6zlSs Michael Jackson music video YouTube]