Naturally, things move very fast in cyberspace; a few months could feel like an eternity – so it might have seemed a little hyperbolic for the music website Pitchfork to ask Kid Sister herself if her anticipated first album was a “Chinese Democracy-type situation,” referring to the Guns N Roses album that was released almost eighteen years after its predecessor, but the point remained: a lot of people are waiting for Kid Sister’s first album to drop.
The first time most people (myself included) heard of the now-twenty-nine year old Chicago MC Kid Sister born Melisa Young, was when the remix to her single “Pro Nails” was making its way across the blogosphere in 2007 and was aided by a couple of verses added by Kanye West. The song was produced by West’s DJ and Kid Sister’s boyfriend, A-Trak and is an addictive pop song with a big hook in the chorus and Kid Sister’s smooth delivery. It is the type of hit that would be at home in both a dance club and on urban pop radio stations. West’s star power didn’t hurt either and the song found itself flirting with the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts (peaking eventually at number twenty-one).
She subsequently signed with Downtown Records in early 2008 and recorded a proper album, which is called Ultraviolet and will be released next month, on November 17. The final track list looks different from the details that trickled out since her signing with Downtown. The song “Family Reunion” with David Banner didn’t make the final cut and neither did a tribute to Queen Latifah and Monie Love’s “Ladies First” with the British R&B star Estelle. Another song with Estelle, called “Step” did. It is probably not coincidental that Kid Sister and Estelle collaborated on a couple of songs because both of their breakthrough singles include cameos by Kanye West (for Estelle, it’s her flawless hit “American Boy”). From what I have heard of Ultraviolet, it blends dance, pop and hip hop together while having plenty of hooks.
When I talked to Kid Sister, though, she didn’t seem too worried about any expectations surrounding Ultraviolet and said that prior to signing with a label, her idea of making music was writing and working with her friends on their songs and all of the internal issues were there for the label to deal with. While it’ll be more than two years between her first singles started getting attention and when Ultraviolet will be available in record stores, Kid Sister was more eager to talk about her upcoming tour and a mixtape that she is making with Chicago house producer Felix Da Housecat. She also mentioned another forthcoming project with Green Velvet, another Chicago dance producer, but said she wouldn’t give out any other details but hinted “you can let your imagination run wild”.
The production credits for Ultraviolet reads like a who’s-who of dance and hip hop music, including A-Trak, Spank Rock’s XXXchange, Count & Sinden, DJ Gant-Man (who also appears on a song, “Switch Board”) and Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso produced the first single “Right Hand Hi”.
When I asked about the delay between albums, pointing out that she had been on the cover of magazines for a few years now and is just now putting out an album, she said laughed and said she didn’t think “it has been years”. Touring and her collaborators were the two things she was most eager to talk about. Her first tour kicks off on Tuesday night at Neumos, which would be her first proper show in Seattle (she said her first and only show prior was a private party). Joining as support is Flosstradamus, a Chicago DJ duo that is half Kid Sister’s brother Josh “J2K” Young.
2009 has been a difficult year critically for albums by female emcees. To cite one example, the aforementioned Pitchfork wrote scathing reviews of albums by Lady Sovereign (whose sophomore album Jigsaw had gotten a score of 3.1) but far less “lucky” was Spank Rock protégé and Kid Sister’s Downtown Records labelmate Amanda Blank, whose I Love You was given a 2.0. I’ve only heard about half of Ultraviolet, although I did thoroughly enjoy what I’ve heard so far (I also liked both Blank’s and Lady Sov’s albums as well). The point isn’t to say that all female emcees are the same or face the same hurdles but to say that talking with Kid Sister, you get the impression that she has spent a lot of time on her album, worked hard on it and is proud of it and content with that.
Listening to Kid Sister on my iPod (“Pro Nails” and “Right Hand Hi” were in very high rotation the week leading up to our interview) and talking with her on the phone, you get the sense that she is having a great time making music and playing it for people. I’ve had artists tell me in interviews explicitly their goals for their album or tour but Kid Sister never mentioned anything like chart positions or album sales. She was excited to tell me who she worked with and how much she was looking forward to playing her songs live. If she becomes a superstar, that would be nice, but right now she’s having too much fun to worry about something like that.
{Photo by Don Flood Photography}