Song of the Day: The Cool Kids – Basement Party

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Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole, is Basement Party by The Cool Kids from the 2008 EP The Bake Sale on Chocolate Industries.

Producer/MCs Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish are barely out of their teens and with The Bake Sale EP evoke the fun party hip-hop that thrived around the time of their birth. The long-awaited EP, which had tracks floating around the web for months prior to its release, combines the lo-fi hip-hop of old with electronic finishes that perfectly balance out the occasionally spare beats/rhymes. To distance themselves further from modern hip-hop, Rocks and Inglish trade girls, guns, and 40s for pagers, Sega, and Dyno bicycles. Their professed love of second-hand stores and one-of-a-kind fashion dominates on and off record, but they don’t hesitate to pay tribute to mainstream heavyweights like early Dre and Nas. Truth be told, this is the most refreshing sound to come out of the genre in some time. The Cool Kids are on tour now and will remain so throughout the summer with the promise of a full length entitled When Fish Ride Bicycles to be released before year’s end. Here the guys treat you to a little beatboxing: