Our buddy A-Trak has been telling us about Kid Sister and sending us her tracks for months and months and months. We kept putting off interviewing her and eventually decided to wait until she came to London on her Catch An Attitude tour so we could hang out and have a proper chat. Read the article in full after the jump.
Video: Kid Sister Live at SXSWRight now if you're an aspiring non-ghetto girl rapper from the U.S. all you need to do to get a feature in Urb magazine is add Diplo to your friend list on MySpace and have a few references to giving head in your songs. It's pretty sad because it means talented, grinding girls like Kid Sister - who sounds like Trina if she'd grown up listening to booty house and going to Chicago loft parties – aren't getting the shine they deserve. Songs like "Pro Nails" – an ode to making your fingernails look like those of a 14-year-old Puerto Rican girl with a gang-member boyfriend - with its screwed and chopped chorus, are about as fun as music gets. Currently working at a local baby clothes store in Chicago selling burp rags and nappies, she is making tracks with people like Spank Rock, TTC, and her boyfriend, DJ A-Trak. We met her at a show at Cargo, east London, where she was drunk as hell and bouncing around giggling non stop.Vice: Why are there loads of girls coming out now trying to rap? What's going on?
Kid Sister: I could not tell you. It's like when you see your friend jump into the deep end of a pool, you're like, "Oh, that nigga didn't die, I can go in there too." I think when one person does something and does it successfully, it makes it less intimidating for other people to go ahead and do it. Everyone knows that.What was your first ever performance like?
It was on Halloween and I dressed up and performed at this little club - it was like a rock 'n' roll / country music club. I wanted to be like Salt-N-Pepa or Roxanne Shante. I wore a purple check, really Polish-looking jumpsuit and all these chains and I never changed anything from that Halloween night, when everyone dresses up crazy. I just kept doing shows after that and then eventually I performed at a Spank Rock show with my brother. I got on the mic because I was drunk and I was like, "this will be fun, wooooo". Alex Spank Rock, who does their beats on YoYoYoYoYo, does my beats now, too. And he is like the sweetest guy and the best cook you will ever met in your life. He makes his own tortilla chips – the best I have ever tasted.Does your boss at the baby store where you work let you have time off to perform abroad?
Yeah, even though I tour kind of a lot now, the store are cool. They don't care. They are like rock 'n' roll bitches. There's two women who own the store, Randy and Amanda, and they are super cool. They're like: you wanna go, you go girl, you go. They have a beer fridge in the back, with like, wine and lots of Coronas and Heinekens. They're like: you had a bad customer, you drink that beer, bitch. I love this shit, my life is great. It's the best job in the world.One more thing: are there more people or more bricks in the world?
Hmmm. There's more people because I have never smelled more B.O. in my life than when I have been in Europe. I used to live in Italy, so I think I'm a little biased maybe. In Italy, people love spraying expensive cologne everywhere, but I would say Pompeii is the worst city for B.O. It's like the city of love, which means the city of sex, which means the city of sex smells.PRANCEHALL
Video: Kid Sister Live at SXSWRight now if you're an aspiring non-ghetto girl rapper from the U.S. all you need to do to get a feature in Urb magazine is add Diplo to your friend list on MySpace and have a few references to giving head in your songs. It's pretty sad because it means talented, grinding girls like Kid Sister - who sounds like Trina if she'd grown up listening to booty house and going to Chicago loft parties – aren't getting the shine they deserve. Songs like "Pro Nails" – an ode to making your fingernails look like those of a 14-year-old Puerto Rican girl with a gang-member boyfriend - with its screwed and chopped chorus, are about as fun as music gets. Currently working at a local baby clothes store in Chicago selling burp rags and nappies, she is making tracks with people like Spank Rock, TTC, and her boyfriend, DJ A-Trak. We met her at a show at Cargo, east London, where she was drunk as hell and bouncing around giggling non stop.
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Kid Sister: I could not tell you. It's like when you see your friend jump into the deep end of a pool, you're like, "Oh, that nigga didn't die, I can go in there too." I think when one person does something and does it successfully, it makes it less intimidating for other people to go ahead and do it. Everyone knows that.What was your first ever performance like?
It was on Halloween and I dressed up and performed at this little club - it was like a rock 'n' roll / country music club. I wanted to be like Salt-N-Pepa or Roxanne Shante. I wore a purple check, really Polish-looking jumpsuit and all these chains and I never changed anything from that Halloween night, when everyone dresses up crazy. I just kept doing shows after that and then eventually I performed at a Spank Rock show with my brother. I got on the mic because I was drunk and I was like, "this will be fun, wooooo". Alex Spank Rock, who does their beats on YoYoYoYoYo, does my beats now, too. And he is like the sweetest guy and the best cook you will ever met in your life. He makes his own tortilla chips – the best I have ever tasted.Does your boss at the baby store where you work let you have time off to perform abroad?
Yeah, even though I tour kind of a lot now, the store are cool. They don't care. They are like rock 'n' roll bitches. There's two women who own the store, Randy and Amanda, and they are super cool. They're like: you wanna go, you go girl, you go. They have a beer fridge in the back, with like, wine and lots of Coronas and Heinekens. They're like: you had a bad customer, you drink that beer, bitch. I love this shit, my life is great. It's the best job in the world.One more thing: are there more people or more bricks in the world?
Hmmm. There's more people because I have never smelled more B.O. in my life than when I have been in Europe. I used to live in Italy, so I think I'm a little biased maybe. In Italy, people love spraying expensive cologne everywhere, but I would say Pompeii is the worst city for B.O. It's like the city of love, which means the city of sex, which means the city of sex smells.PRANCEHALL