The cover of Kid Sister's new album
Kid Sister’s debut album Ultraviolet dropped yesterday, and she can definitely be the companion doll to My Buddy, A-Trak. A-Trak is the executive producer on the album, but unlike many other critics of her sound, I will not credit the glory of the album strictly to the producer and his artfully used samples. No, this is Kid Sis’ gem, and she doesn’t even need to rely on the popular single “Pro Nails” with Kanye West, who apparently, is going to let her finish.
Let me first touch on “Pro Nails” for a tic, as it WAS the single that granted Kid Sis all of her Myspace fame. The video featured breakdancing hand puppets and a sample of Three 6 Mafia’s “Good Googly Moogly”. The track was a hit and there were quite a few remixes of the original version. It was supposed to be the lead track on her album, which was supposed to be released last year under the name Dream Date. Word was that Kid Sis didn’t like the direction of the tracks, and wanted to start over. That’s the PR version of the story, I’m sure. Instead we have Ultraviolet, with a cover designed by Dust La Rock, and it was well worth the wait.
The album definitely has a different feel than what we normally see from female rappers – as a matter of fact, it is best described as ClubVerse, as it is definitely in its own genre. The tracks are HEAVILY influenced by the house music that made Chicago famous. Nods to the house genre include repetitions of the lyric “the bass, the bass, the treble, the treble” on “Life on TV” and the XXXchange-produced “54321”, which could easily be one of those Madonna remixes by JellyBean Benitez. The songs contain samples or interpolations of samples of “Don’t Go”, “Love on a Real Train”, and “Boogaloo Anthem” by Funkmaster Ozone, which was used “with kind permission.” A lot of the tracks sound like Jock Jams, but I mean this in the nicest way possible. Everyone got amped by Jock Jams, and they WILL get amped by this whole album. There are virtually no pauses between each song, so the album plays like a mixtape, with every song as danceable as hell.
Kid Sis has the flow of rapper Twista on some tracks (on “Big N Bad”) with exaggerated drawls of sing-songy vocals in between her sped-up verses. She sings on a lot of the tracks, and her voice is pretty good, if not purposely comical at times. The Kid actually has something to say, and there are a handful of hilarious lyrics laced throughout the whole album, including:
“We keep it Big (Tom Hanks)/We Keep it Bad (MJ)”
“Karl said ‘Kani?’/Yes you can!”
“Doing my laundry with pockets of change/Famous in a Hyundaiiiiiii”
Standout tracks include “Let Me Bang 2009” produced by XXXChange, which isn’t the version that I’ve heard before (and not my favorite version, sadly), “Switch Board” with DJ Gant-Man, which is a BANGER (reminiscent of Bmore Gutter), and “You Ain’t Really Down”, which sounds like a Teddy Riley jam performed by En Vogue. I mentioned this to Kid Sister on her Twitter page (follow her here), and she RT’d, replied, and said “Couldn’t have said it better.” The track “Control” is also amazing, with her brother Young Josh from Hollertronix on the track vocals – but if you are really a Kid Sis fan, you have probably been rocking out to this for a minute already. I predict the general population will jump on “Daydreaming” featuring Cee-Lo, because it was produced by Brian Kennedy for Team BK (who crafted the song “Disturbia” for RiRi), and it has the same sound as “Disturbia”. It probably has the most mass appeal on the album, although it is personally not one of my favorites.
If you need some music to keep you going once the snow and the S.A.D. hits, get Ultraviolet by Kid Sister. Especially if you gotta work out your “Coca-cola shake with an onion in the back” after Thanksgiving dinner (hey! Apparently it worked for Kid Sis, who was once reportedly over 215 pounds). This album is going to give me a soundtrack for Randi’s Workout Plan – I’m definitely going to let my “wrist and my knuckles bang” to this album for the remainder of 2009.
