A disc I haven’t been able to get out of my stereo is the Cool Kids recent EP, The Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries). I put it away and it pops back up, shaking my eardrums with all kinds of clever minimalism. It’s surprising, though, because the rudimentary materialism and blatant self-promotion these nonchalant juveniles abide by isn’t usually something I get down with. It was my biggest problem with Mims last year when he got hot. It’s why I can’t really deal with Kanye West off record. And even looking at Common’s Finding Forever has become a hassle.
But The Bake Sale is somehow finding a glitch in my matrix, and I think it’s because these two Chicagoans are for real. As people. Composed of MC Mikey Rocks and producer/MC Chuck Inglish, they’re as straightforward as their name suggests.
With that crisp 1980s bass/snare simplicity, “What Up Man” vocally “ticks” and “claps” its way through a trivial grocery store run and explains its own charm: “Don’t you know I made this beat with my voice and a bell?” Tectonic plates of bassy synths shift and groove under “A Little Bit Cooler,” Mikey and Chuck’s ode to their own guilty pleasures: Fruity Pebbles, Street Fighter, and sneakers (“You judgin’ me, dog? Please, you shop at the mall. I shop at boutiques, limited quantity sneaks. Where do these quantities be? Maybe they’s all on my feet”). Confessing all he needs is “a mic and Inglish,” “Mikey Rocks” chills over a sizzle reminiscent of a fly light catching an arthropod.
The only part of The Bake Sale I don’t like is the brevity. The EP checks in at barely 32 minutes. Have no fear, though. The duo just dropped their That’s Stupid mixtape, a fresh batch of – wait for it – six (!) new jams. That’s 20 minutes! They’re nothing life-altering, but it is undeniably fresh. Call it my guilty pleasure, and check them out Aug. 20 at Emo’s.
This article appears in July 11 • 2008.