The Cool Kids:When Fish Ride Bicycles

Tags: Bun B, Chicago, Ghostface Killah, Hip Hop, Hipster, Mayor Hawthorne, Pharrell, The Cool Kids

8/10 Dropps

It’s taken way too long, but finally Chicago and Detroit hipster hip-hop crew The Cool Kids have an actual studio album to their name with When Fish Ride Bicycles. Ever since the success of their smashing banger “Black Mags” Chuck English and Sir Michael Rocks have been watched very carefully over the last 3 years by fans awaiting more bass heavy old school hip hop bangers. With When Fish Ride Bicycles, they brought the bass, they brought some talented experienced production from Pharrell, they brought some big name features with Bun-B, Ghostface Killah, and Travis Barker, and most importantly they brought an album that’s been worth it’s wait.

Off the bat, When Fish Ride Bicycles opens with a track that announces this is an adventurous experiment of an album on “Rush Hour Traffic”. The song is bass and bell driven, with the rappers paying respect to low riders and cruisers. Next up “GMC” is an intricate bass meets synth project, not always sounding as if it is complete tune, but intriguing nonetheless. Further in Ghostface Killah makes a pleasant appearance on “Penny Hardaway” which has an orchestral old school instrumental backing it up, proving new directions and plenty of talent in Chuck’s production skills. With these new more developed and less simple beats, the lyrical content of The Cool Kids definitely takes a major back seat on the record, with the beats distracting you for the major lines you’d usually pay attention to. “Gas Station” is a very simple southern style track, as Bun B steals the show with his solid first verse, followed by an addicting hook. Another sure pleaser is the sunny upbeat “Swimsuits” featuring Stones Throw crooner Mayor Hawthorne throwing in his smooth touch onto the dreamy chorus. The album closes up with “Summertime” a Pharrell produced tropical Bossa Nova beat, sounding more fitting for Snoop Dogg than these guys, yet they prove that they can hold their own on a less typical hipster hop sounding track.

All together, When Fish Ride Bicycles is an album that’s fairly easy and enjoyable to listen to from start to finish. It isn’t very long, but the songs tend to flow nicely into one another, and by the end of the record things feel complete. It may not necessarily be what we expected but this is definitely a record built for headphones. Remember that this is snapback hip-hop; don’t expect fitted cap gangster music. These guys started their own style of hip-hop and as the fathers of it; they’ve taken their sound and matured it. The Cool Kids contemporized their music for a wider audience without jeopardizing their origins. Hopefully it won’t take another 3 years to hear more from this young and exciting duo.

-Jay Wolman

Fri Jul 22

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The Cool Kids:When Fish Ride Bicycles

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