Chuck Inglish and Sir Michael Rocks—collectively known as The Cool Kids—have announced their first new album in three years, Hi Top Fade, will arrive October 10 via Fool’s Gold Records.
According to a recent interview with SPIN, the 15-track project sprouted from a side collaboration with Mannie Fresh and Fool’s Gold founder A-Trak, who’d recruited the duo for another project.
“We kind of started working backward,” Mikey said. “While we were doing the Mannie project, Chuck was like, ‘Yo, what if we drop another album before this one to heat things up and make it a prequel?’ After the first two tracks, we figured we got something special on our hands, so we doubled down and focused more on another Cool Kids album.”
From there, the duo bounced around Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Chicago, laying down the tracks that would become Hi Top Fade. The album marks a return to the group’s early sonic DNA—stripped-down beats, heavy 808s and a nostalgic nod to their late-2000s rise.
The Cool Kids’ journey hasn’t been without turbulence. In 2008, the duo found themselves locked in a legal standoff with Chocolate Industries, delaying their debut album, When Fish Ride Bicycles, by three years. Despite the setback, their 2008 EP, The Bake Sale, and several mixtapes preserved their momentum.
“Back then, we were in between all that indie label drama and it just didn’t work out,” Mikey said. “This time, we saw that opportunity to reset the timeline and do this s### right.”
The rollout for Hi Top Fade began in July with the release of “Banana in the Tailpipe” featuring Seafood Sam. August brought the second single, “Foil Bass” and on Friday (September 19), they’ll drop “95 South” featuring A-Trak and Sango, with a video directed by GL-Joe, the same videographer behind their 2007 breakout visual “Black Mags.”
While Chuck has explored other creative lanes, including his Vanilla Is Black project, he’s now fully locked in on The Cool Kids’ next moves.
“I think a lot of artists dream of doing other things,” Chuck said. “Growing up, I watched Pharrell do it and, more recently, Tyler [The Creator]. They were able to cover all these bases. I want to do that, too. But our [the Cool Kids] sound was always what I did best.”
As Sir Michael Rocks explained, The Cool Kids’ bond has kept them grounded.
“We got ravaged by a lot of things,” Mikey said. “We were victims of predatory industry stuff. We are victims of not knowing how to navigate through this business with the type of people that you have to deal with in the music industry. We were just kids who made good music. We saw other artists stealing our ideas and record labels stealing our money. It was tough.”
“But the thing that would take us back to a place of alignment and balance was when we would get together. And that didn’t even have to be for a recording or musical reason—just together anywhere in the same space. That’s where we figured out just how strong our friendship actually was.”
The Cool Kids formed in the mid-2000s after connecting over MySpace and a shared love for golden era Hip-Hop With roots in Detroit and Chicago, they stood out for a retro-meets-futuristic style, blending influences like Boom Bap, G-Funk, house and the Neptunes, capturing the blog era’s zeitgeist and inspiring a generation of independent artists and fans through their minimalist beats, playful lyrics and distinct fashion.
Beyond their influential work as a group, The Cool Kids have collaborated with the likes of Freddie Gibbs, Mac Miller and Chance The Rapper. In 2022, they released a triple album—Before S### Got Weird (Chapter 1), Baby Oil Staircase (Chapter 2) and Chillout (Chapter 3), further cementing their status as masters of their craft.
Pre-order Hi Top Fade here. (Featured image by: Josh SPNR)