The Cool Kids

The Bake Sale EP

Chocolate Industries

Rating: 3.5/4

The Cool Kids The Bake Sale EP Chocolate Industries 3.5 Headphones Old school throwbacks with a new school sensibility, Chicago hipsters the Cool Kids may claim on their debut album that they’re “bringing ’88 back,” but to my ears The Bake Sale EP plays like a time capsule straight outta 1989. You’d have to go back at least that far—to the year the Beastie Boys stunned fans with the game-changing Paul’s Boutique and De La Soul expanded our concept of what rap music could be with 3 Feet High and Rising—to find hip-hop records that were so clearly invested in the simple act of having fun. Which is not to say that the duo of Mickey Rocks and Chuck Inglish (who also recall the Neptunes, if Chad and Pharell dropped rhymes as hot as their beats) are lacking in lyrical substance: They cut wannabes to the quick with razor-sharp quips like, “I love the hypocrites/hate it until you make it/wack swagger jackers/but my steez ain’t for the takin’,” with a tossed-off cool that wears laissez-faire like a designer logo. From the opening “What Up Man” and the Rick Rubin-influenced “88” to the NWA-sampling “Gold & A Pager” and the LL-referencing “Jingling,” the Cool Kids’ debut establishes them as one of alt-rap’s most exiting new acts in years, with a perfectly-paced 10 tracks that leave listeners hungry for more.