The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale
The bastard love child of the Beastie’s Paul’s Boutique if sodomized by The Neptunes’ fleet-footed swagger.
Having whetted the palates of everybody's inner b-boy with 2007’s funk-spewing debut EP Totally Flossed Out, The Cool Kids are already well acquainted with praise. Which is just as well really because new offering, The Bake Sale, can only be set to see the accolades escalate. Fusing together fresh-water raps and blithe, minimal beats, this 10 track effort from Illinois based duo of Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish is the bastard love child of the Beastie’s Paul’s Boutique if sodomized by The Neptunes’ fleet-footed swagger.
Tracks like the shout-out invoking 88 and the breathless percussive minefield of What It Is tip their hat to the old skool’s well graffed rhyme slinging courtyards but retain a cleanness of heel with shots of synth sprawling freely in the background. But the free-wheeling Bassment Party is the record’s undeniable zenith, frazzling Jungle Brother-like flows to a Bambaataa-heavy groove that will no doubt become this year’s summertime hip-hop anthem of choice. Unquestionably a buzz band, but The Cool Kids prove that, contrary to Flav's word, sometimes the hype is to be believed. [Billy Hamilton]