When Kid Sister enters a room, she makes a presence without even trying. She isn’t one of those cool girls who grew up as the captain of the cheering squad and will float on that reputation for the next fifty years. Rather, Melisa Young was that girl in school who never realized how cool she was and is now a young woman who still has no idea that she’s cooler than most people on their best days. She should realize it though, as the Chicago-bred designer/dance femcee has made a mark so thorough in today’s music, it’s almost like a thumbprint—solely identified as hers. But if you ask her on a sunny Sunday afternoon what she’s been up to, her response is, “Nothing much.”
Rewind to the previous evening when “nothing much” happened. Kanye made his homecoming in Chicago by landing with the Glow In the Dark Tour. For Kid Sis & Co. it was a Hennessy-fueled reunion of sorts, as she previously toured with ’Ye and the family overseas. Not to mention that fancy little remix for Kid Sis’ breakout single, “Pro-Nails,” which Kanye voluntarily hopped on after his DJ, A-Trak (aka Kid Sister’s boyfriend), played it for him. She didn’t even meet Kanye until six months after the song was recorded. When the remix hit the airwaves, everyone met Kid Sister. She’s still in shock…but back to her “uninteresting” evening.
“Yesterday [at the Glow in the Dark Tour] I’m sitting in the catering area having dinner and f**kin’ Chris Brown comes up to me and is like, ‘Hi! I’m such a big fan,’” she recalls. “I was like, ‘What? Are you on crack, Chris Brown?’ Then later on I’m walking down the hall to the bathroom with one of my girlfriends and Rihanna comes up to me, and she’s like, ‘Oh my God I’m such a big fan! I love your songs.’ And I was like, ‘…I love your nails!’” No, these aren’t war stories from a superstar on the rise who giggles and buffs her nails as she drops names on the floor. This is rockstar humility in its simplest form—where a girl who’s shared stages with living legends is talking about “famous people” like they’re miles away from her high school cafeteria table. “It’s just a little bit mind-blowing and a little bit crazy,” she says about her sudden success. “Especially for someone who just came off working three jobs at one time and had public aide going on.”
Pages: 1 2
