UK rapper-producer Mike Skinner, better known as the founder and voice of the music project The Streets, recently released his comeback single, “Call My Phone Thinking I’m Doing Nothing Better.” The track features guest vocals from Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker. It is aptly timed and themed around today’s quarantine climate, as the two rap and sing about social and romantic distance as well as missed opportunities.
“Call My Phone” is taken from The Streets' forthcoming mixtape, None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive, Skinner’s first full-length release since 2011’s Computers and Blues. The project features a stacked lineup of UK guest features like Ms Banks, IDLES, Oscar #WorldPeace, Donae’O, and Greentea Peng.
The accompanying video features cameos from most of the aforementioned guest roster, as Skinner attempts to call them from idyllic mountaintops and beachside locations. The music video opens with Skinner’s phone screen displaying “Social distancing” as he sings:
Call and call my phone, thinking I’m doing nothing better
I’m just waiting for it to stop so I can use it again
The verses are layered in irony as he raps about feeling more attached to his literal phone than any romantic partner. He also references the futility of worrying about other opinions in a world where people don’t appear to think at all:
So dance like no one is awkward to music listened to lit
You’d worry less about what they thought
If you knew how little they did
You call and call my phone thinking I’m doing nothing better
I’m just waiting for it to stop so I can use it again
He continues this thread of nonchalance with several images of him preferring his phone more than his ex’s attention:
Love isn’t a riddle, love isn’t made to be hard
You know I’d give you my kidney, just don’t ever take my charger
Although Parker became known as a psychedelic rock revival act, he has made some high profile hip-hop collaborations in recent years. This includes Kanye West’s “Violet Crimes,” Travis Scott’s “Skeletons,” and most recently, The Weeknd’s “Repeat After Me (Interlude).”
On “Call My Phone,” Parker sings about the missed opportunities of an unreturned phone call. He takes a more earnest angle than Skinner’s perspective:
I was gonna call you back, I swear
Just as soon as I felt up to it
It just hasn’t happened yet
And I’m still gonna call you back one day
“Call My Phone Thinking I’m Doing Nothing Better” is the first time that Tame Impala has collaborated with a British rapper. Parker posted on his Instagram about his diehard love for The Streets:
If you know me well you know that I f*cking love The Streets. So this is a pretty big honour and a dream come true. And I know many others join me in being fairly happy he has returned.
None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive is due out on July 10, 2020.
Watch the video above, and read all the lyrics to “Call My Phone Thinking I’m Doing Nothing Better” on Genius now.
