Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the newest hip hop superduo - The Cool Kids, two kids from Chicago, Antoine "Mikey Rocks" Reed and Evan "Chuck Inglish" Ingersoll. Once upon a time, Mikey called Chuck about purchasing a beat he'd made, and they ended up recording for a few hours. Thus, the Cool Kids came to be. And thank God they did, cause these guys have a refreshing new take on hip hop.
Chuck's beats have a very signature style to them. The majority of them are slow, minimalist beats, often with clips of people talking looped to match the beat. The Cool Kids use vocals for instruments a lot, actually; the beat for the first song, "What Up Man" is made from onomatopoeia, a clip of a guy saying 'bass' for the bass drum and so on. It sounds pretty good and it's a cool concept, but it can get a little distracting, listening to two tracks of vocals at once. When rapping, they have a relaxed style with a noticeably natural flow and an unbelievable way with words. Indeed, the lyrics are the focal point of the album, as the Bake Sale EP has universally great lyrics. My favorite moment on the album comes right in the first song (What Up Man):
"That ice cream truck just left, if you run you can catch but it's out cause I got the last one. But I got a box of cones that I'm willing to sell, I'll sell the ice cream too, two scoops for a bill, I could bulid a sandcastle without bringing a pail and go catfish fishin' and come up with a whale."
The Bake Sale EP is full of clever and witty lines like those that will leave you smiling, and likely thinking about them while the rest of the song plays out, forcing you to rewind to get the rest of it. Another great thing about the Cool Kids is that they don't take what they're doing too seriously. They don't rap about serious things, really, they rap about everyday life, keeping it fun and enjoyable. Not that this is music for kids, or anything. For example, take this line from A Little Bit Cooler, a song in which they muse about how people will do anything if somebody "cool" does it: "I'm in the crib saturday night with my sega - that's right - playing a game of that street fighter."
One thing I noticed about the Bake Sale EP is that a bunch of the songs sound the same, the beats are very alike. In fact, I was trying to find a song with some lyrics I remembered and I couldn't, even after having heard the album about five times. Another place they're sometimes lacking is in the choruses. Sometimes they seem out of place and detract a little bit from the song, and the verses are what stays with you. But overall, The Bake Sale EP is an unbelievable first somewhat serious effort by this Chicago duo. They have a full length album slated for sometime this year, too, so watch out for that. I think I'll let the guys sum up their album with a line from "Mikey Rocks" - "I don't use bad grammar so please excuse this, I'm just tryin' to let rappers know who I is."
6/7
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