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< The Cool Kids
The Bake Sale
words by Reef Younis
Announcing themselves with all the bravado of the Beasties in their full blown pomp: ‘What it is, what it is come check the noise/it’s the new black version of the Beastie Boys’, Cool Kids waste no time dressing it up, stripping it down and strictly telling it like it is. Chicago duo Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks’ rap-about-what-you-know lines name check everything from Sega to Starwars in an effortlessly cool pastiche of thrift store analogue beats and some of the crispest percussion this side of Clipse and N.E.R.D. Rejecting the tired gangstas, bling and bitches’ mentality, Cool Kids focus on keepin’ it real. Like really real. They rap about riding their bikes, follow the same geeky path N.E.R.D. tread – except it’s Star Wars as opposed to Star Trek - referring to their footwear as ‘Size 10 Obi Wan Kenobi’s’ and generally eschew every hip hop ideal Death Row records bestowed on the game.‘The Bake Sale’ is playful and tongue in cheek, the duo’s languid rhyming style allowing their tales of the everyday to resonate: ‘I'm just chilling like a villain/grindin’ daily/’cause I can't get a 9 to 5/so I rhyme, I rock’ (‘What it is’). It’s an album deep set in the old skool mentality of the likes of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, revitalised with the forward thinking production of The Neptunes. Mocking the fickle culture sways and materialism of hip hop in the aptly titled ‘Gold & a pager’: ‘Gotta hold up my jeans cause they fallin’ off my ass/then you gotta check these Nikes at the bottom of my pants/then you gotta check my hip cause my beepers on blast’, ironically - as opposed to hypocritically - they’re not averse to detailing their own boutique shopping and a personal fondness for rockin’ the odd gold chain.
A collection of songs from self released EPs, ‘The Bake Sale’ might only stand as the precursor to their forthcoming proper debut – ‘When Fish Ride Bicycles’, slated for release later this year - but its reanimation of retrospective hip hop proudly stands it atop the materialistic mire. The infectious ‘What it is’ has the immediate Pharrell school of production all over it with snappy offbeat percussion and mega phone vocal, while ‘88’ rocks the crossover vibe with punching drums and cutting guitar.
With Nas set to drop his latest – no doubt to a slurry of immediate comparisons to his debut - Jay Z wowing middle England, and 50 Cent seemingly more interested in re-creating himself as a computer game character, you’d think Cool Kids would be looking to blaze an immediate trail. But they’re in no rush, hell, they don’t even seem to be trying and for that, they’re ice cold.
8/10 in stores now
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