Rap Atticts Review: The Cool Kids-When Fish Ride Bicycles

When you look back on 2008, you’d be reminded of how hard it was to not find The Cool Kids on an “Artist to Watch” list for the next year. The tag team of Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish were seen as the next big thing in hip-hop with their stripped down production and rhymes about their everyday lives. Despite this however, their critically acclaimed EP, “The Bake Sale”, and a few mixtape releases could not stop them from losing that title and assumption. In between this time, they still remained relevant, as Chuck became a bit of an in-demand producer, and Mikey made numerous appearances on other artists’ songs and released some solo material as well. Three years after their previous rise, and numerous push-backs the loyal fans have finally been blessed with the long awaited “When Fish Ride Bicycles”.  

We begin this three year stalled LP with two songs about how killer their cars are, “Rush Hour Traffic” & “GMC”. Both of the songs are very bass heavy and are perfect to ride to this summer. Another song about cars is up next in “Boomin”. That being said, the content doesn’t differ, but production takes a smoother, mid tempo tone. All of the slang-filled rhymes are working very well with the beats. The album moves on to the pursuit of women in “Sour Apples”. Of course we also get a little bit more conversation about cars, but we also get a surprise feature from Blink-182’s Travis Barker. All of it works nice together. More of the fly talk occurs in the Ghostface Killer featured, “Penny Hardaway”. Mikey takes this one hands down.

All of the production so far is pretty impressive. the largely Chuck Inglish-produced album showcases how he’s been able to improve as a producer, but still remain true to the formula of The Cool Kids that made them famous. Our next song, “Bundle Up”, recollects on the very cold conditions that Chicago carries in the winter. It’s not really bad, but something tells me it was a leftover song from “The Bake Sale”. It isn’t really weak, but it isn’t really strong either. Bun B shows that he still has some years in him on the stellar “Gas Station”. At this point, the narratives on regular, everyday life are gelling well with the beats, but it’s starting to become apparent that the content doesn’t really switch from song to song. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up to the listener.

After another great song, we’re given our first Neptunes produced song in “Get Right”. It reminds me of a song that could’ve been on N*E*R*D’s “In Search Of” album, but it’s an okay song nevertheless. The album continues the previous song’s topic of women on “Swimsuits”. Chuck’s beachy production and Mayer Hawthorne’s awesome hook singing make this one come out pretty good. The posse cut, “Roll Call”, which also features Asher Roth, Chip Tha Ripper, & Boldy James, can probably be seen as one of the more lyrical songs on the album, as all three features come pretty hard. Our last Neptunes production comes in the final song, The Maxine Ashley & Pharrell featured “Summer Jam”. I mistook the hook for Beyonce at first listen, but the very chill song is perfect for those times that you want to feel good. The content about the vibe that the summer gives you is also true to the content we all can recognize as The Cool Kids.

The Real Deal:   No pun intended, but the album is very cool. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its problems here and there. The main problem is it doesn’t switch up in formula, but that may be a great thing to the many diehard fans of the Chicago natives. Does this album live up to its expectation? To a certain extent, but it’s not really different from the anything you haven’t heard from The Cool Kids. It’s an album that will need some growing on for some people to love, but in time, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is labeled a classic. A solid, unmoving effort from The Kids of Cool.

Rating: 3.5/5

-Raul. A