Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Quick Hitters:: Kidz In The Hall

Despite their rather sizable buzz, I don't think I've ever even mentioned the Kidz In The Hall on the hill before. In fact, I hadn't even really listened to anything they'd done until recently. I think it had something to do with their "prep-rap" or hipster-heavy rep, but mainly it was the name. Essentially, that is a dumb reason, but you have to understand, if you're Canadian and my age, when someone says "kids in the hall", you think of the chicken lady, the head crusher, and the Daves Bruce McCulloch knew. Tight pants approved rap doesn't spring immediately to mind.

But whatever, now that I'm finally on board, I think these kidz are making some pretty impressive hip hop. The Kidz are the duo of DJ/Producer Double-O and Naledge who takes care of the MCing duties. These two have an unabashed love for golden age hip hop, as both the Know The Ledge inspired bassline from The Black Out and the awesome Born To Roll sample from Drivin' Down The Block can easily attest. And if you check the video below for Drivin' Down The Block, you'll see the kidz aren't afraid to have a sense of humour either. Something that's certainly missing from today's dour hip hop scene.

Anyway, the Kidz just dropped their second album, The In Crowd on Duckdown records yesterday, and if you're one of those who thinks hip hop has nothing for you anymore, you'd do well to check it out. Or at the very least, check out some jams below, including two remixes of Drivin', one a who's who of blogger MC faves and the other pairing the Kidz with a semi-spaced El-P beat and his take on cruisin' ("not until petroleum drops, ask for 4 dollars a gallon you can suck on my cock"). Word!