The Cool Kids: Bikes, Girls, Weed, and Kicks

Arts & Culture, Life by Lewis Corson — October 7, 2009 at 8:00 am | 6 comments | | Print

“When we started this project in early July, we knew that we wanted to bring a hip hop artist or group that had  name recognition and was still committed to real hip hop. The Cool Kids are a great fit for an event like this because of  their dedication to good music, in addition to the fact that they have identifiable songs that students can sing along to. ” -Isayas Theodros, ASCMC President

A trend has emerged in the independent music world that works in contrast with the business model relied upon by record labels for decades. The old business model depended upon the generation of artist hype through limited and costly content offerings. In contrast, the new model, utilized since the new millennium (i.e. when Napster was invented), revolves around the release of numerous content offerings meant to build profile through exposure and talent. With the decentralization of the music industry, we have witnessed the proliferation of content allowing independent artists to become accessible and discoverable. Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse and Dispatch are just a few of the older acts that owe much of their success to file-sharing clients. In more recent memory we have seen hip-hop artists, Lil Wayne (who sold one million copies of Tha Carter III in its first week of sales) and KiD CuDi have reached previously unimaginable levels of success simply by providing their audiences with hours upon hours of free mixtape material.

The Cool Kids, a Chicago-based hip-hop duo that you may or may not have heard of yet, have marketed themselves in a similar fashion by releasing two mixtapes to the blogosphere with a studio album still in the works. Antoine “Mikey Rocks” Reed and the duo’s producer, Evan “Chuck Inglish” Ingersoll first met up in Chicago in 2005 after Reed heard one of Ingersoll’s beats on MySpace and called him up to discuss its sale… the rest is history. The group has since released two mixtapes entitled That’s Stupid! (2007) and Gone Fishing (2009) and an EP, The Bake Sale (2008), each of which received positive reviews from the critical mass. Early in 2007, Rolling Stone featured The Cool Kids in their 10 Artists to Watch piece and wrote, “since ‘Black Mags’ debuted, the Cool Kids have gone from an underground sensation in their native Chicago to the hottest ticket at New York’s CMJ festival.” It must be mentioned again that the group had not and has not released a full-length LP yet.

As for an artist profile, The Cool Kids are just about as atypical as they come (Kanye might have them beat). The duo’s fashion sense is recognized as B-Boy (eighties Break-dancer); they usually sport clothes with colors and fabrics that conjure up images of some retro Technicolor acid trip. Again, the eighties theme continues: the two are often referred to as “the black Beastie Boys” and have drawn comparisons to legendary artists like EPMD and Rakim, rappers who are renowned for crafty wordplay and harsh lyricism. Inglish’s beats – minimalistic, bass-heavy and occasionally discordant in nature – complement the duo’s aforementioned lyrical prowess as well.

“Black Mags” and “Gold and a Pager” are the most recognizable tracks from The Cool Kids’ repertoire of content. Both tracks highlight the curtailed range of interests in the lives of our “throwback heroes”: bikes, girls, weed, and kicks. Just try to name a college student that isn’t interested in hearing about any of the aforementioned topics.

You’ll like The Cool Kids if you also like: The Beastie Boys, Nas, Rakim, Lupe Fiasco, Wale, KiD CuDi, Kanye West, Drake, A-Trak, N.E.R.D.

Check out the Cool Kids when they hit the 5C Music Festival on Saturday, October 24 on Parents Field.  Sun and beats for all.