Last Night: A-Trak and Kid Sister at the Good Magazine Block Party

Better than: having to Walk it Out
Watch: Here.

Attention all you hipster kids: don’t be so shocked to see more heads with New Era caps at your trendy dance clubs. Hip Hoppers feel like dancing now, and they can’t. Leaning wit’ it, nor rocking wit’ it, simply doesn’t cut it. Sorry Franchize Boyz. Instead they’re turning to a new movement of artists rooted in the old boom-bap aesthetic, but aren’t afraid to let loose with electronic blasts directed towards the hips and those fly Jordans on your feet. Spank Rock, Chromeo and Flosstradamus couldn’t be here, but likeminded A-Trak and Kid Sister served as prime examples at Sunday’s Good Magazine Block Party.

A-Trak, also known as Kanye West’s DJ, kept the party going on Minna Street with due respect to a wide spectrum of beat and rhythm, beginning his set with Kanye’s latest single “Stronger,” a song cementing the new love affair between dance and hip-hop as the self-proclaimed Louis Vitton Don laces rhymes and Jay-Z samples to a collaboration with Daft Punk. Trak then regressed to classic Hip Hop and R&B favorites to warm up the crowd before offering upbeat, dance treatments to recent radio hits, giving life to monotonous and contained rap singles in the vein of his Dirty South Dance mixtape.

Trak’s mix then gave way to his better half- Chi Town emcee Kid Sister, whose lighthearted party rhymes paired with beats sporting boisterous 808 kicks and BPMs well over 100 is evidence of the evolution of the female emcee. Kid Sister rocked the stage with high energy and a fun smile, getting the bodies moving and managing to get even the most masculine Hip Hopper to sing along with the chorus, “Got her toes done up, with her fingernails matching.” Thanks to Sister along with M.I.A. and Jean Grae, the ladies don’t need to act all hard and raunchy to rap with the boys now. Later in the set, someone yelled at her, “Take your shorts off!” to which she replied, “Eww! You nasty!” This just might be the demise of Lil Kim, if going to jail wasn’t.

Kid Sister’s set with the help of A-Trak as DJ, wore shades of old Klymaxx, Debbie Deb and Vanity tunes, in that Sister’s beats sport insanely danceable qualities to go along with her fun-loving vibe. Only what separates Kid Sister is she can rap and isn’t high on cocaine.

Critic’s Notebook
Personal Bias: I too wear New Era fitted caps
Random Detail: Where’d all this damn Vitamin Water come from?
By the Way: A-Trak’s brother is part of Chromeo, and Kid Sister’s brother is part of Flosstradamus. It’s officially a movement. Watch out, Hyphy.

--Oscar Pascual