All gold everything, Retro J’s, and a Neiman Marcus wardrobe – these are all things hot in popular Hip-Hop fashion culture today, but nothing that is extremely new. In 2007, The Cool Kids strutted out all of the above fashion trends and rocked it all years before it was mentioned in recent songs.
Originality is something that is becoming harder and harder to come by in the Hip-Hop industry these days, but there is no doubt that Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish pioneered modern swag. Always ahead of the curve, the Chi-Town duo have been trying their hand at solo careers as of late, a trend that may become a more permanent arrangement.
AllHipHop.com recently spoke to Sir Michael Rocks, and he confirmed some shocking news about The Cool Kids:
AllHipHop.com: Lap of Lux 2.5 is out, kind of the in-between drop, only eight songs. You kind of did that with Premier Politics, too. How has the response been, and what’s your mindset behind putting out these heavy drops, and then the lighter ones soon after?
Sir Michael Rocks: Yeah, man, it’s definitely something I like to do. I like to drop a “semi-sequel” is what I like to call it, and I like to just put out the original project. And the way I record is, I record a bunch of songs, and then I pick the best ones for the project – maybe not even the best ones, but all the ones that fit together the best. I think I put them together the best; some might not fit, but they are still really good songs, so at the end of the project, the songs that I have left over, I’m not going to record something if it’s not good. If it’s not coming out good in the studio then, I’m gonna can it and I’m done and I’m moving onto something else so.
Every song has a certain amount of quality [so] that it may not fit on the main project. At the end of a main project, I’ll collect those songs that didn’t fit and I’ll put them together, man, and God-willing, they’ll fit together. So I gather them up, put them together after the main project, get some new visuals and videos, and new songs and just a different circulation – and everything that I record has to be a certain level of quality, so I would never give fans anything less than my best.
AllHipHop.com: It’s been about five years since you and Chuck really made a mark on the Hip-Hop industry with your unique style and sound, and really who’d I consider the first of the real “swag” era. It’s been an original style that’s been bit by just about everyone. How have things evolved over this last half-decade for you?
Sir Michael Rocks: Man, we started off what we were doing, and we got caught in a bad label situation, and then we weren’t able to move as fast as we wanted to. So, it gave people an opportunity to catch up and bite the style and sh*t, but during that whole time, we were already progressing, but it never really caught up to us. We were in a bad label situation and couldn’t get out to the media as much, so we were already moving on to new sh*t anyways. And everything people get from us, we’ve done pretty much, so it’s pretty much all good and as far as career-wise, I feel like the last couple years have been us developing as artists and producers.
Chuck is really finding his own, his own style on the production side. I’ve really grown a lot on the rap side of it and the style side, becoming more of a force on my own. I think that were benefiting ourselves separately to become better artists and give people a new outlook, because we still work together in a lot of different facets. We shoot music videos, work on beats, we’re still working together, but we’re just not making music and putting it out together as a group, because it’s not that time right now.
People be like, “Ah man, you ain’t gonna do Cool Kids, la da da.” But it’s not time for that, because that era has transitioned into something else, and we can’t go back there, we can’t go back to the same era that was there before. That’s stupid, we’re different people, we’ve evolved more than that, we’re way different people, so I think right now we need to be developing ourselves separately as artists and becoming a force on our own, because we’re both super dope. We’re not a group where one person is super dope, and the other person is subpar; like, we’re both nice as f*ck even before we knew each other, so it’s not a tough play to figure out.
You break us up, we’re still going to turn out nice as f*ck separately, and when we come together, we transition that energy into making a dope record. Right now, man, I think we just need to be focusing on blowing up. Chuck needs to focus on his production; I need to focus on my solo stuff because it’s a different atmosphere, it’s a different feel when we’re separate than when we’re together. I think that, now, we need to be working on the music separately, but we still working together like nothing ever happened. But just as far as how we putting it out, we’re gonna put it out like this, and f*ck everybody else.
AllHipHop.com: I think last time you talked to AllHipHop.com, you said you wanted to put Shark Week to the side and wanted people to focus on the solo work which, like you said, have been doing. But I think it’s fair to wonder about the future of The Cool Kids as a group because of the precedent you set as a duo. Chuck’s beats are heavy in demand, and you’ve been getting downloads on your solo work as well, but is there the chance of another Cool Kids project down the line, whether that be Shark Week or something different?
Sir Michael Rocks: No [laughter]. I don’t think it’d be “The Cool Kids”; I don’t think we’re gonna come out again as The Cool Kids. We might come together as something else different, but as The Cool Kids, no, because we’re not the same people, we’ve changed and evolved into two different artists. We can’t come back and do the same thing again, you know? We’ll probably do something else, but as The Cool Kids and as Shark Week, no, those ideas are done, and we’re on to something different now. I wouldn’t do that; I think that would be a step backwards to go back and do that right now, so as far as I know for now, no I wouldn’t see us doing another Cool Kids project as “The Cool Kids”.
Maybe we come up with a different name and add a different member to the group; maybe add a couple different members to the group for something like that. Maybe I’m making all the beats, and Chuck is doing something else. Maybe somebody else is making all the beats, and we rap on the beats, you know what I mean? As The Cool Kids and the same idea we already instituted? No, we would never do that. We’re way too creative and way too smart for that, because everything gonna happen and everybody’s like, “Awww, there it is, all over again. The Cool Kids they did this already.” We don’t want to be like doing the same thing over again. I think we’re a little bit smarter and a little more creative than all of that.
AllHipHop.com: It was a busy year for you touring as well. You were both on tour with Mac Miller for the first half and Pac D## during the second half, so the tour life was in full effect. How did that go for you?
Sir Michael Rocks: Ah, it’s dope, man, just being on the road and being able to try the new music out on the fans and be able to hit the road. And being on the road is important; it gives you the opportunity to showcase your work. I’m a heavy artist on the road. I know how to tour, I know how important it is, so I’m going to try to stay on the road as much as I need to.