Legends. Pioneers. Trendsetters. Disruptors. Call them what you want, there’s no denying the impact Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish, also known as The Cool Kids, have had on Hip-Hop. The duo joined forces after meeting on Myspace in the mid-2000s and created a movement unlike anything else we’d seen or heard at the time -- yet felt incredibly familiar. Retro yet futuristic. It was a breath of fresh air, but also restored a feeling that had been missing from Hip-Hop.
With roots in Detroit and Chicago, the duo took a wide range of musical influences spanning from Ghettotech, House, G-Funk, Boom Bap and the futuristic sounds of The Neptunes, and turned it into something brand new and totally their own. There was something in the Great Lake water that had kids from across the globe emulating their style of dress and music. The Cool Kids truly captured the zeitgeist of the 2000s and paved the way for a new generation of artists and fans: forward-thinking, genre-bending and unafraid to be themselves.
After influencing the masses as pioneers of the blog era, The Cool Kids return in 2022 with the release of Hip-Hop’s first triple album: Before Shit Got Weird. The project consists of a Chuck Inglish solo album, a Sir Michael Rocks solo album and a proper group project to make it complete.
Classics never go out of style, and neither will The Cool Kids.