Greedmont Park

Pro Nails. Kid Sister Interview.

Thursday, June 17, 2010 by Team Greedmont | 5 Comments; | Category: Entertainment, Interview

I’m dying in a fit of laughter as Kid Sister goes into detail about her first ever nail installation, “[I was}13 about to be 14 when I first got nails they were blood red and VERY whorey. So racy. I look back at pictures. I was overweight. Looked like a brunette Miss Piggy.” She goes on to assure me that she took a break during college, “Because it’s hard to type with them.” Of course, I start off the interview with nails, especially since it’s Kid Sisters iconic
trademark and the theme behind her chart topping, Kanye West featured single “Pro Nails” that brought her career to sudden and unprecedented fame. Many people know Kid Sister for her electronic, smack talking, and sassy singles and at times, they associate the themes behind Kid Sister’s musical releases to her character. She has been dubbed: care-free, strong, sassy, and uncensored, and it’s not a bad thing. In a world full of females who are content in being Barbara Walters, Honey Bee Home Makers, Martha Stewarts, and Barbies, Kid Sister is Mae West meets Jane Fonda.

At first I was taken back by her bluntness. It came in a disparate variety of truth that you don’t come across often these days. How does love inspire your music? It’s more like lust. How Does Pain inspire you? It doesn’t my life is awesome, I don’t go through too much stuff. Do you ever get compared to Lil Mama? Not really ever. What would be your dream collaboration? Someone no one would think I'm a fan of like Hurricane Chris or something...

She’s strong. You probably have heard her music at parties more than you’re seen her face. The Chicago native is all about working and often plays a creative role in a lot of her music videos. “Some of them, I do. And the ones that I have, have turned out pretty awesome,” she tells me when I ask her if she plays apart of the creative concepts that are behind her videos. We begin to talk about the Pro Nails video which leads to us talking about the collaboration with Kanye West that went down for the song, “You always hope those things will happen. Never anything that I would hint at or ask. Heard it over the phone without any warning, that the collaboration came through.Kanye was on the stage at the MTV Europe VMAs angry because Justice won best video. A-Trak was stuck in the middle of situation because he was friends with both of them. He then gave Kanye some new artists to check out. Played him all this new stuff [our stuff]. Kanye West said he wanted to get on Pro Nails.” Kid Sister went on to tell me some of the emotions that were behind the creation of Pro Nails stating, “It was talking a lot of smack in a fun way. It was to illustrate the girl that I am. I’m very sweet, but hold fast cuz u might get touched. At the end of the day to know me is to love me.”

We kicked things off with her Ultraviolet album and the concept that she had in mind when it came to the songs, themes etc, “[I wanted] to bring a cohesive, grouping of sounds, a movement. When I started there wasn’t a name for what I do. I started doing hip-hop lyrics over electronic beats. No one was doing it before. All of a sudden it blew up. With it blowing up there hadn’t been an artist to put out a body of work that is the essence of that movement,” she told me. We began talking about some of the singles that were released for the album and a few of the videos. After the single and video for Pro Nails was released, Kid Sister landed some star heavy features for her Ultraviolet album namely the likes of Estelle and Cee-Loo. When asked about the collaboration with Cee-Loo for the DayDreaming single, she stated that “it was good” and he was “super sweet.” When asked about the theme behind the song “Step” that featured Estelle, it was simple. “That song is about going on vacation.” Having already worked with Kanye West, Estelle, Cee-Loo, A-Trak and many more esteemed producers and artists, I wanted to know if Kid Sister had anyone in mind who she would love the opportunity to collaborate with. “Someone completely random. Like Hurricane Chris or OJ the JuiceMan. What I do is to make me happy giggle and laugh. All I want to do is have fun.” Of course, hearing the Chicago native talk about her music and upcoming events, I couldn’t help but think of another particular Chicago group whose art could be considered a part of the musical sub culture movement thatthe subculture that we are so heavily in has had the opportunity to witness rise to fame and acclamation: The Cool Kids. “There are certain artists that you are always surprised at and The Cool Kids continue to pleasantly surprise me” Of course there is a sense of camaraderie between the two artists, “We came from the same place, same culture,” she tells me.

Of course, the age old question of whether or not as a female hip-hop artist Kid Sister feels as though she has to work twice as hard to prove herself came up, but Kid Sister managed to answer it in the most iconic of ways. “I guess, thats what everyone says. Ignorance is bliss I haven’t really felt it. I grew up with all boys I think thats why. If I want my voice to be heard, I just speak louder, you just have to do everything a little better and quicker and more frequently. Its like that with every profession. Some people, like 9-5 types or whatevz don’t take me seriously with my nails. I think the key us to just keep on doin what ya do, unfazed by outside influences.”

“If I want my voice to be heard, I just speak louder”

As a female she has nothing to prove and being the sister of Josh Young, who is one half of the duo behind Flosstramadus, she assured me that an unbalanced type of relationship was not the case at all. “I don’t think either one of us have anything to prove to each other. We’re part of a big family and big crazy, crazy family. It’s more of a joint effort. There’s a familial group feeling to what we do. We’re all part of a larger team.”

Long nails don’t care, Kid Sister is one to look out for in the music scene, with recent collaborations with AfroJack, Bun B, Paul Wall on the way and a new single on Ed Banger out now. A tour that she has scheduled in the near future, a video for the single Big and Bad directed by Rik Cordero to hit TVs in the upcoming weeks, and a new album in the works, Kid Sister is staking her place in the industry, one nail at a time.

Buy Ultraviolet Album Here

[Words by Rose Bellefleur]