The Cool Kids

Alright, so I’m gonna change it up a little. The Cool Kids have to be my favorite rap group out there right now. Maybe ever. Okay, so obviously Wu Tang, and N.W.A are up there too. The Cool Kids are often labeled as Hipster Rap which carries some what of a negative connotation. The Cool Kids consist of the dope lyricist Mikey Rocks and the banging producer Chuck Inglish. The Chicago and Detroit natives often reference local sports teams in their raps like the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons.

The first song I heard from them was Black Mags. “I got this 89-90, Pistons champ flat/Bill black starter cap with the hologram tags” enters with that bass that bangs in any car speakers. These lines alone reference the throwback styles both of them rock daily. From that point forward I was hooked. I even follow them on twitter, ha. What I think is really cool about these guys is their free mixtapes. They’ve released three mixtapes with some guest producing by Dj Don Cannon (Ex: Asher Roth: Cannon).

Mixtapes

• That’s Stupid! (2007)
• Gone Fishing (2009)
• Merry Christmas (2009)

They’ve also released two official EP’s.

EPs

• The Bake Sale (2008)
• Totally Flossed Out (2008)

They’re also working on a Full Length to be titled When Fish Ride Bicycles. I love the originally styles and lingo of these guys. “Man I went ham when I rapped this out” (Catch of the Day-The Cool Kids). I never heard that phrase went ham until Mikey Rocks posted it on his twitter, now I kind of dig it. The smooth flow over the bass heavy, old school drum beats could not be done any better. Chuck Inglish has produced tracks for artists like Chip Tha Ripper (Cleavland is going hard with Kid Cudi and Chip) Tenille and Dom Kennedy. So even if you aren’t a hip hop fan, check them out and be on the look out for When Fish Ride Bicycles. I leave you with the Pennies video.

Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate to everyone and whoever you choose to or not choose  to celebrate your holidays with!(Trying to be all kinds of politically correct.) Heres the latest from the 90’s influenced Chicago Duo. Mr Inglish and and Sir Michael of The Rocks have left us a very special gift in the form of an Ep. The only guest appearance on the 4 tracks is Detroit new comer Boldy James.

DOWNLOAD-Click here to download the Christmas Ep. Be patient with this one, I was having trouble with it.

according to this…Mikey, Chuck, and DJ Don Cannon are dropping a 6 track mixtape tomorrow, Christmas Day to hold you over until The Cool Kids drop When Fish Ride Bicycles.  Keep it locked right here, we’ll have it tomorrow.

Photos from the Cool Kids show at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago on Dec. 10th, 2009.

All photos by Erick De La Rosa.

©Erick De La Rosa

Cool Kids? Just a couple years ago there was too much buzz around you. And now it’s been taken away by people like Drake. BTDub I hate Drake. He raps like a drone and tries to sing when he’s not a singer or a rapper. All his beats sound the same and so does he on every song. It’s all very monotone and boring. But anyway, where are The Cool Kids? Anyone know?

apparently the cool kids decided to drop a nice little party flick on us last week without raising much of a fuss. not bad mr. rocks, mr. inglish…not bad.

download:

the cool kids – knocked down.

- panda

get into it: “full & paid by the cool kids“

…de la  Cool Kids vault from the That’s Stupid mixtape. 

…The Cool Kids edition.

The Cool Kids: Chuck Inglish & Mikey Rocks met on Myspace back in 2005 while Chuck was attending the Illinois Art Institute in Chicago, and Mikey was still in High school. Barely a year into their formation, the duo began performing at events/parties/venues all over the city. They caught the attention of DJs Flosstradamus, who had a monthly dance night at the Town Hall Pub in Chicago; they invited The Cool Kids to perform, and the rest as they say is history. You may know them from the track “Getting It”, a track with Lil Wayne, where the two do more than hold their own, despite being on a track with one of the most innovative and successful MCs in the world. Their songs have been featured in the HBO series Entourage, as well as NBA Live 08.

What can I say about Mr. Carrington!? He rocks a 90s inspired hair cut, has a unique fashion sense, and one of the most infectious personalities ever! Every time I’ve seen him he’s having a great time, whether he’s rapping or hosting parties, the crowd ALWAYS goes WILD! They say he came out of his momma’s womb rapping! Born in Toronto, but raised in Buffalo, NY; Blake started writing rhymes as a way to get through life’s tough times. After graduating from Seneca with a diploma in Independent Music Production, he decided to pursue his passion and started working on his first album Dolla NA Dream. His most recent mixtape Welcome To My World,was executive produced by Ron D, mixed by JESTER, and is available for download here!
For more info on the event, click here
We’ll be there tonight showing our love and support, and so should you!!
xoxo
Bella

With all the buzz surrounding new artists in Hip-Hop these days, Hip-Hop Wired got a chance to sit down with Chuck Inglish, one half of The Cool Kids, to talk about Hipsters, the Midwest and the changing of the guard in rap music.

HipHopWired: Talk to us about the Hipster movement in Hip-Hop, do you even feel like there still is a Hipster movement.

Chuck Inglish: That was like the swine flu yo, it didn’t really exist. It’s like sometimes people don’t understand young Black people doing shit in a different way, they can’t just let it be, they gotta give it a name. So instead of just being rap niggas, we gotta be Hipsters cause we don’t dress like everybody else.

HipHopWired: So where does your unique retro style come from?

Chuck Inglish: We didn’t come up like that, we came up like everybody else. There ain’t nothing new under the sun so you ain’t gonna start nothing. Every place you go there’s gonna be somebody that dresses like you or thinks like you and you just can’t escape that. Me and Mikey got real tired of feeling like you gotta look one way to do this shit. As far as the Hipster thing, that’s something they made up. You can flip your rapping and people would give it another name so you not gone dodge that. So I wouldn’t short come everybody’s achievements by saying that we were a part of some movement, cause those shits stop. Know what I mean, this ain’t something that’s about to stop, I’mma do this as long as I can.

HipHopWired: So you don’t think it’s fair to put all the new rappers in groups like that? Like how they used to put you all in the same group as The Pack when “Vans” was out?

Chuck Inglish: Yeah that’s some 2006 shit. Not saying the Pack is 2006 shit, but asking us about stuff like we all alike. That’s when they started to pop, Lupe started to pop and shit just started looking different, and then Kanye came and started doing his thing and it showed others if this works then my shit’ll work. Like it can happen. And with all that stuff we’ve been in here for a while. So its like that part has came and passed…about what do we describe ourselves as, we’re just in it for the love of rap.

HipHopWired: So what makes this time so much different from previous generations in rap?

Chuck Inglish: A lot of us new cats, we rap babies. This is all we’ve listened to since we were born so it’s kinda embedded in us, I know nothing else. That’s why when you said that Hipster shit, anybody who feels like we do, you like, “Awww man, not that again.”

HipHopWired: What do you think about the Hip-Hop scene in Chicago and the music that is coming out of the Midwest in general?

Chuck Inglish: It’s good but I feel like that old school shit was regional. I know everybody says where they’re from but the music resonates in a different way. It’s so many different sounds in Chicago you would think it was all country know what I mean so it’s really hard to say the Chicago sound. There are several sounds in Detroit, that’s where I’m from so you know you got whole different sounds of music in Detroit. Especially in Black music; even in St. Louis, all the Midwest cities, we have a bunch of different sounds, so people gotta figure out what to call it cause it’s no longer regional. Like Cali has a bunch of sounds, its just a new generation. We’ve listened to everything, so its hard to have this one style, because when people have new styles they didn’t have anything prior to that. Like they didn’t have Bone Thugs so they had to be the Bone Thugs themselves.

HipHopWired: So it’s like being Lebron James of your music.

Chuck Inglish: Yeah man it’s just different, just something completely new, the old shit is over with. It ain’t over with but it ain’t the same no more. 20 is the new 20 now. I know it’s hard for some of these older folks to accept; I’m turning 25 this year. I’m in my mid 20’s you know, we gotta grow up and own our shit.

HipHopWired: I’m right there with you being 24.

Chuck Inglish: So you know how it feels when you are trying to convince people to let you have your shit now. Let me have my space to do me, and I don’t want your advice, I want to do it my way.

HipHopWired: Speaking of doing it your way, when can we expect a new Cool Kids album?

Chuck Inglish: We just had our mixtape come out, we got a counter on our website, its over 160,000 downloads and spread around pretty fast. Our whole album is a whole series and shit, we got a mixtape for it, its gonna be some new shit, like we gone have previews, like movies have previews, but its music and not videos. We got the mixtape called Gone Fishing, which is on our website, and then our album comes out this fall called, When Fish Ride Bicycles, and then two weeks after that I’m going to drop a post album mixtape called the Tackle Box.

HipHopWired: So it’s a multiple part project?

Chuck Inglish: Yeah, just trying to give people something different and not just drop an album and the next week start talking about the next album. We want to give people an entire project so you can remember that whole series of music that came out at that time. We’re just having fun with it, I’ve never had more fun making music and the more we go along, the more me and Mikey kinda figure out what we’re good at and it just gets better. We don’t want to be the best, we just want to be the best at what we do.

HipHopWired: How did you guys hook up with Don Cannon for the mixtape?

Chuck Inglish: Cannon’s the homie. We met and realized that all of us were a lot alike and we was all into the same shit and we had a mixtape before but it was more like an EP but there’s something about giving away music for free right now that I’m really into. It gives people a chance to put faith back into music again instead of being burned like we’ve all been burned. Spend $19.00 on some shit and get 3 good ass songs, get outta here bum. Now I feel like the same way, you gotta have music that ain’t the same shit. Like I’d be mad if like these playoffs were going on and I didn’t have any music out, people are gonna listen to music and remember how this summer was.

HipHopWired: And you guys are doing the album independent right?

Chuck Inglish: Yeah we in a situation we trying to fight through, but regardless to that it will be coming through our label.

HipHopWired: And what are the advantages to doing it independent?

Chuck Inglish: Cause man, we ain’t gonna make any money through the label. Like I said man, I live for my shit, I’m not about to give it to nobody and the machine just gets you there faster. If you are willing to do the work and willing to make sure every album is better than the last album, and every show is better than the last show. Within a couple years you gonna be making more money than they can pay you. So why would you screw yourself over by having somebody tell you what you have to do? The last thing I want is to have somebody telling me what kind of music to make when you don’t make music. What the fuck you gonna tell me to make? How do you know anything? That’s just the attitude I have and I don’t like being that type of person but if I ain’t around those people then nobody can say I have that attitude.

The worst thing you can do is criticize something you don’t do or be in the business of something you don’t care about; there are a lot of people in this industry that don’t even like music, they just like the money. I only need money to eat. That’s how much I’m into this shit. I don’t buy nothing. I make enough to do whatever the hell I want, but I don’t. I just buy keyboards, some shoes and groceries. I might rent a car when I gotta go somewhere. I never bought jewelry, I feel like I’m not here for that, I’m here for what we started. And what’s the label going to do that we can’t do for ourselves? We toured the world twice and paid for our own videos.

HipHopWired: Are you doing any outside production that we should keep an ear out for?

Chuck Inglish: Yeah I actually just hit Wale about some stuff. Me and production, that’s my thing, I got into rapping late. I’ve always liked words though. Like being able to be the one on your own beats makes a lot of sense so that’s how I kinda came about, I knew how I wanted to sound so I just got good at how to do it and ran with it, so now its my new favorite thing. I been such a fan of it my whole life so it was bound to happen. Like I was the biggest rap fan ever, and listened to everybody’s production and lyrics and then you just start to make up your own.

HipHopWired: Who is your favorite rapper of all time?

Chuck Inglish: Probably Rae and Ghost. Uh it’s like I had pairs, and then I was huge into the west coast like the Dogg Pound and Snoop, Mack 10, I grew up on all that. I liked all that. Then I remember riding to this summer camp in 93’ and I was like 9, that was when I heard Outkast for the first time. It was on from then on.

HipHopWired: How do you feel about other current rappers right now?

Chuck Inglish: It’s the new school, that’s what it is right now. We the grown ups now. So it’s only appropriate to see things happening like this. It’s gonna be interesting to see how things play out the next few years, it may be something you never seen before like LeBron James. I’m for everybody as long as they keep an honest love for this thing and don’t’ start abusing it, and we see what happens when you do that, and money becomes the reason for doing it. It’s lights out, when your focus shifts to other shit, your music will turn to shit. You can’t do both. You can’t be more creative when you worry about shit that makes you not creative. You can’t be creative and not have that be your focus in my opinion.

HipHopWired: What about a Kanye West or a Pharrell with their creative fashion outlets?

Chuck Inglish: Well that depends, for me, I like wearing clothes; I don’t care about making clothes. I just know that I’m really good at one thing and when I start doing other shit I just become kinda good at it. I just feel like I don’t need a new challenge in something else, it’s so much for me to do in music I don’t think I can get bored with it. Like I said I’m young, I don’t know how I’m gonna feel when I’m 34. I may tell you a different story. But right now all I want to do is make music. Cool Kids shit.

I don’t want to hear another persons come back joint. Kids I hang out with don’t want to hear that shit; if your goal was to make your money then make your money and be the fuck out. Quit taking money out the new niggas mouth. It’s still some albums that’s out from some artists that you know are gonna do this forever, but its some other artists that just play the game where they got this, and then a new this, and a new this and then they got a new girlfriend and now they got a new album now they got a new movie. Make up your mother-fucking mind. You don’t see old hoopers coming back and taking roster spots from new niggas. If your time is over let it be done. And I’m just talking in general, I know a lot of young cats that feel like that, it’s like you try to get your music out and its just too many people putting out shit and you know they don’t have a love for it.

And really I’m not complaining about shit. I’m happy with where we are and I understand how we are gonna do our shit. I just hope everybody else finds out the best way to do their shit to make it a new situation that they talk about 20 years from now. When things weren’t looking good these young guys came out of their own hands and made something new in this industry. That’s what I feel about all the new guys, everybody has their own sound. Wale got his shit; you know what a Wale song is. Cudi got his shit, we got our shit. Drake’s got his shit, Asher, Currency… You gotta have your own thing to last right now. You gotta be original, so now we gotta take original music and find an original way to deliver it to the people.

The Cool Kids is a rap duo headed by Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks.  Their real names are Evan Ingersoll and Antoine Reed respectively.  They basically rock deep bass and ill hooks on just about every track.  Top songs by far have to be “Gold and a Pager,” “Mikey Rocks,” and “Hammer Bros.”  If you’re looking to become a fan, start with “Toataly Flossed Out EP.”

So far this year, they’ve dropped “Gone Fishing,” a mixtape produced by Don Cannon and by the end of the year we can expect their first album, “When Fish Ride Bicycles,” to hit.  Considering they have only been recording together for about 4 years, I can only imagine the kids are on their way up.

Feel free to check their MySpace because their website is beat.

This right here is pretty ill, produced by Blended Babies comes a Chicago representative track featuring Skooda Chose, Mikey Rocks and Twista. Shouts to Andrew over @ Fake Shore for this x the download.

Download: Loungin’ (Ft. Skooda Chose, Mikey Rocks & Twista) – Blended Babies

Finally decided to go through my email and POW! I found a dope video

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!!

Ko*Starz bring a great summer banger, Jet Black Jetta! The song features Mikey Rocks , (1/2 of The Cool Kids) in which they each explain their own riske’ experiences involving a certain black jetta drivin shawty. Catchy uptempo beat layered under smooth, witty lyrics. Check out their myspace to hear the song!!!! Straight outta Chi Town baby

If you like it, VOTE on djbooth.net:  

check why the cool kids rock…  

and peep the sound they made together…

Fly.Union Talk About “We In The House” Album