Chuck Inglish and Mikey have the potential to become one of hip hop’s classic duos similar to the likes of Outkast or UGK. I know that was a big statement in itself but more than the music the personality that these two individuals have is rarely seen in hip hop anymore. A solid foundation, level headed, dope beats and attractive verses that even though you think you may have heard before you haven’t heard it this way. Inglish a Detroit native is definitely the more gregarious of the crew and it almost seems as if Mikey from the suburbs of Chicago is cool fine with that which makes for a good balance. With a huge cult following the Cool Kids are just that, cool kids who have very quickly have learned the many industry do’s and don’ts. Mainly their purpose is to make that neck breaking scrounge your face when you hear it music. Not wanting to be categorized by appearance a name like the Cool Kids as Inglish states, “You don’t know what to expect.”

Scheme: How did you two meet?

Mikey: We were both producing a year and a half ago and we ran across each others material and at the time we were both just producing. We decided to get together and work on some beats and stuff and then we were going to have an instrumental tape and then have artists hop on. Then we discovered we rap (laughs) and then it basically just worked out from there and we scrapped that whole other idea.

Inglish: Basically we were making dope stuff and instead of waiting for other people to do it we started doing it ourselves. One thing lead to another and the songs started coming out.

Scheme: What kinds of music were you guys listening to growing up?

Inglish: I listened to a lot of classic rap, I went through my hip hop stage where I went through my Wu-Tang stage and Soundbombing rock stage. Being from Detroit and not to sound cliché but I was down with Eminem from day one when he was in his Soundbombing stage and when he put out his first album, not the Slim Shady joint but the Infinite. I had a real intense musical knowledge due to the fact that my parents listened to everything possible by listening to r&b and soul as well as other genres from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the Tower of Power, I realized you’re good at making music because you listen to so much good stuff.

Mikey: My parents were a lot younger than most people’s parents so I was listening to a lot of hip hop that was going on right then and there. My mom was heavy on Slick Rick and my dad listened to a lot of Nas and B.I.G. and then I developed my own favorites and stuff. Then I discovered different music like Hall & Oates, Beastie Boys and a gang of other stuff I just discovered on my own. Not all of it has a direct influence on what I do but any artist that you like I think you definitely learn something from them.

Scheme: From your outside appearance the media is automatically going to throw you in a certain Lupe, Pharrel category, from your own mouths how would you guys describe your style?

Mikey: Its kind of hard to explain, we think the same on a lot of things…

Inglish: It’s just us we’re not trying to come across as a certain musical genre it’s just what we know and we’re doing what we know. If it comes off as old school maybe that’s just wear we got stuck at.

Mikey: It’s a big swirl of everything we’ve experienced besides music but just in life in general.

Scheme: Describe growing up in what I would assume would be two very different places.

Inglish: In Detroit it’s definitely a lot different than Chicago which has a certain personality where you can break people off into characters and you know they’re from Chicago. Detroit is a little more hard nosed. I’m not dissing where I’m from but there wasn’t to much creative blood flowing from Detroit. Detroit was more of a sports town we have a lot of basketball and football players that come from Detroit.

Mikey: Growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago it wasn’t hood we weren’t really rich, we weren’t really poor, it was really regular. It wasn’t like super rich or super broke kids selling drugs and hustling to get lunch money it was just a real regular fun childhood. I played sports, got in some fights, hollered at girls and listened to music, just really normal stuff.

“We’re just rapping over beats I had made, the dopest ones we could find and trying to write cool sh*t to them and not being complacent and knowing we can rap. At the end of the day we don’t care who else likes it if we don’t like it.”

Scheme: It would seem like the name the Cool Kids is self explanatory but where did the name originate from?

Inglish: I kind of thought it out but I didn’t think it out it’s self explanatory but at the same time it was so that we wouldn’t get grouped and when you heard us before you heard our music it wouldn’t automatically characterize us as a hip hop group. Like if you heard the name the Cool Kids and you’ve never heard of us before you wouldn’t know what the hell we do and I like it like that. I don’t want to create a name or umbrella under a name and we didn’t want to start ourselves off branded that way.

Scheme: I read somewhere that someone had an opinion on hip hop of the eighties being dead and we just need to accept it and move forward. Your music sounds like music of the eighties, not that you’re trying to bring that sound back but it is what it is. What is your opinion on hip hop of the eighties being dead?

Inglish: I have an attitude with the people complaining and b*tching about hip hop that don’t make any music so my point is who are they to say it’s over? No one tells rock & roll it’s over, everyone wants to regionalize hip hop and break it off into chapters and I think all of that is wack. Everyone feels like hip hop has this sense of entitlement to themselves like they own it or if it ain’t the way it was when they knew it then it ain’t hip hop. The other way around is for the kids growing up now they had no clue what was going on back then so the old school stuff is dead completely…like everyone should just shut-up and quit always having opinions on everything. I just checked soundscan and there isn’t a hip hop record except T.I.’s that’s in the top 40 due to the fact that everyone is quick to jump on some sort of bandwagon. Like you have a single and your record is based around that one single and you’re talking about a certain subject but if everyone would just shut-up and stay making what they’re good at making we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. That’s why I don’t buy into that whole the Cool Kids have this old school flavor they do this or that. We’re just rapping over beats I had made, the dopest ones we could find and trying to write cool sh*t to them and not being complacent and knowing we can rap. At the end of the day we don’t care who else likes it if we don’t like it.

Mikey: I think that’s were a lot of stuff goes wrong is when people make songs for other people but they might not specifically care for it and that’s not us. It might work for a while but people are really picky and they may not like what you’re talking about you should definitely do stuff that is good and you feel that you like.

“I think we’re going to do something that people wish they had did first, we’re doing anything new, but we’re definitely doing something that people forgot to do or thought was wack or though that nobody would like it.”

Scheme: So what can people expect from the album content wise and sound wise?

Inglish: We’re making music that you can listen to and content wise we say some cool sh*t and there are some songs about certain things but if you wanted to write where every song has a message write a book but if you want to make music that people can listen to that what we’re all about doing. You can’t bob your head in the car to everything we say but we’re not short changing our lyrics, we’re always going to challenge ourselves I can’t tell you what is going to happen with the album because I don’t know what I’m going to do next. As far as what we’ve got to put out I don’t think it’s been done and if it has I didn’t hear about it. I think we’re going to do something that people wish they had did first, we’re doing anything new, but we’re definitely doing something that people forgot to do or thought was wack or though that nobody would like it. We’re making that bob your head music like you can’t stop it or that face you make when you hear something out of control.

Scheme: You mentioned soundscan, how important is breaking record numbers to you? I’m sure you will have a huge following but you may not go platinum but you can pay your bills make dope music and live out your life really.

Inglish: Yeah we’ve got a pretty dope fan base and people attached on to us by us being ourselves. I don’t really give a sh*t about those numbers because a lot of that is luck. For us if it’s dope and people talk about it and you know how to market yourself and as long as you don’t jeopardize your integrity or credibility as an artist by doing something wack we’ll always be able to put out records and as long as I can do that I’m straight. I don’t care about the numbers that’s the record companies job to make sure the people support you and come out to your shows.

Scheme: What’s the biggest expectation you had of the music industry before getting involved with it and it may be something you thought you knew about but learned a lesson once you were immersed in it.

Inglish: For me people are full of sh*t. The number one thing that I’ve learned is that everybody talks a good game.

Mikey: Everybody ain’t as rich as they make it seem. Everybody ain’t a millionaire and that’s definitely a staple in hip hop is to seem as rich as possible.

Inglish: Nah everybody ain’t a millionaire and people want to promise you stuff that they can’t deliver. Everybody’s hooked on a nice idea but if you want the glitz and the fame you need to play basketball. You also have to understand that you don’t make anymore friends, that just doesn’t happen. Hopefully the friends you have when you started hopefully they don’t change. Basically everything that you’ve ever been told is true. Everything that you thought might not be true that’s false. There’s snaky people, there’s not that much money to be made, you can be hot one day and cold the next. With the internet and all this technology you can’t fool anyone and people will tear you down as fast as they build you up.

“That whole retirement sh*t, if you’re a rapper and you retire you suck. Why the f*ck did you start rapping in the first place. Athletes retire because they can’t do it when they’re 60. I’m sure that if Jordan had the body he had when he was 23 he’d still be playing.”

Scheme: There’s been a lot of movies that have come out this summer that a are cartoon based, whether it’s Spiderman, the Fantastic Four or the Transformers. If you guys were a super-human duo who would you guys be.

Inglish: I’d say if you want to over exaggerate the characters I would say Jay and Silent Bob because Mikey doesn’t really talk and I do outrageous sh*t. Maybe Bart and Millhouse I don’t think there are that many super human duos. We’re definitely not Batman and Robin I always sucked and he really didn’t do anything anyways. Robin never really saved the day, he was just there and more a or less a coattail rider.

Mikey: He actually got in more trouble and Batman always had to save him.

Inglish: I would never be a superhero because superheroes get killed. Nobody from the Simpsons has died yet. We’re more like Fred Flinstone and Barney Rubble.

Scheme: Whats the ultimate scheme for you guys?

Inglish: That whole retirement sh*t, if you’re a rapper and you retire you suck. Why the f*ck did you start rapping in the first place. Athletes retire because they can’t do it when they’re 60. I’m sure that if Jordan had the body he had when he was 23 he’d still be playing. I may stop rapping to dj and produce other people’s stuff.

Mikey: Yeah, but to stop and live in Miami and be fat and old that sucks.

Inglish: This is the only thing I wanted to do since I was six years old. I actually went to college just to go to college. I knew I wasn’t going to get a job it was just a matter of when and where and luckily it happened before I finished so I didn’t have to have that nice little break of finding a job and knowing what the heck I was going to do.