Interview: The Cool Kids

My cousins and I decided we needed to get tattoos, to mark the first time we’ve all been together in the same city in seven years. We grew up blocks apart in Chicago, but over the years we’ve all scattered to different corners of the globe. I live in London now. On the way to our favourite parlour, I played The Cool Kids and told my cousins about how fr-fr-fr-fresh they are; how their slammin’ retro hip hop (a divine throwback to eighties rap) was bound to shake up the music world. I relayed how I was trying to link them for an interview in Chitown, but we were having trouble synchronising our schedules.

We signed Tatu Tattoo’s disclaimer forms and I excitedly chatted with the artist about the tat I’d designed. He sat me down in a chair right next to… Mikey Rocks from The Cool Kids. I swear the world gets smaller as I get older.

“You’re Mikey, you-you-you rock,” I said, blurting out his own lyrics. “I’m the girl that’s been speaking to y’all about an interview!”

His eyes bugged out. “What are the chances of this!?”

While I admired his outfit (some old-skool-b-boy-meets-indie shit), his artist looked up from the sleeve design he was inking on Mikey’s arm and started ripping into him: “You know our boy Mikey, the celebrity rapper? Damn, can I have your autograph Mikey!?”

Mikey blushed and the other artists joined in, telling me they’d switched on BET (Black Entertainment Television) the other day and seen the ‘Black Mags’ video. My artist pointed to a wall littered with framed photos of celebrities that’d been inked at the parlour. “Maybe we should take your picture now, Mikey boy, and put it right up there, in-between Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan.”

Shy and sweet, Mikey laughed the attention away. With us both grimacing as the needles vibrated, I asked him about The Cool Kids’ recent cross-country tour with M.I.A. But the three stylish girls surrounding his chair – his tattoo support group – carried the conversation more than the soft-spoken teenager himself. They seemed oblivious to the extent of their friend’s newfound stardom, repeatedly asking, “So you actually know Mikey’s music, all the way in England?”

Mikey Rocks, alongside his partner Chuck Inglish, are soon to bring The Cool Kids’ music to the UK for the first time. We’ve arranged to meet up…

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