Skip to content
Spotlight

The Cool Kids

6622_080125_coolkids.jpg

What’s the Deal? The Cool Kids’ slow, deliberate vocal flow coupled with simple rhythms harkens back to the glory days of acts like Boogie Down Productions and EPMD. And the duo’s much-anticipated sophomore EP, The Bake Sale, which is their first commercially available disc, flaunts the Windy City natives’ vintage influences with ten tracks both new and old. “88” smolders like a N.E.R.D reinterpretation of Run DMC’s “Peter Piper,” chock full of throwback hip-hop style and a smooth recital of a hook from “The Safety Dance.” And “Black Mags” just may go down as the smoothest ode to BMX bikes ever recorded over a beat easily duplicated on an Amiga.

Who? The Cool Kids are a different kind of internet coupling. Chuck Inglish met Mikey Rocks three years ago through MySpace –an online community where the duo eventually culled many of their fans. The two did production work together, envisioning a set of beats for other artists to lay tracks over. Rocks himself rapped during a session and wound up as the temporary ‘voice’ of the Cool Kids, though the two now share both vocal and production duties. The Cool Kids’ debut full-length, When Fish Rides Bicycles, will drop this fall.

Fun Fact: “If I wasn’t rapping, I would be a zoologist specializing in reptile and mammal studies. I know everything about animals,” Mikey Rocks tells SPIN.com. “The cool kids aren’t all that cool, haha.”

On the Web: The Cool Kids at MySpace

Now Watch This: The Cool Kids’ music video for “Black Mags” https://www.youtube.com/embed/b34U3-CutuUÂ