Kansas City Blog

This past Friday night at the Granada was a series of surprises large and small.

Large: The headliner, Chicago-duo the Cool Kids, gave a decidedly un-cool performance. Small: Kansas City artist Steddy P. is far more beastly onstage than he is on wax.

Clayton Hauck

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Sadly stricken from the formal record of the evening's festivities is Topeka's Stik Figa, who reportedly got things popping with a short set that included crowd favorites "Absitively," "Class of 2000," and "Caked Up," a joint effort with Ron-Ron. (Note to Granada management: Don't advertise a start time of 10 pm if two of Kansas City's most talented rappers are going on at 9:45.)

Throughout the first half of the evening, Approach, a native of Kansas City who is now based in San Francisco, hosted a sort of homecoming for his label, Datura Records. For the first hour or so, Granada patrons were treated to a long set by Smoov Confusion, a surprise performance by Steddy P (who is not on the label). The set drew to a close with an impromptu performance that included all of the Datura artists in attendance.

When Approach and the other Datura artists departed, however, they seemed to take much of the building's energy with them.

A crowd of about 250 people braved the vomit-and-beer stench of the Granada to see the Cool Kids, a Chicago hip-hop duo who describe themselves as the "black Beastie Boys." Sandaled frat boys with Jayhawk hats on gangster tilt and a handful of hippies stood united in their appreciation for a group lauded for their throwback, 80s style and fun-loving lyrics.

The Cool Kids have in fact received a wealth of positive critical attention, most notably by hip-hop critic Jon Caramanica of The New York Times. In a September 2008 article, Caramanica calls The Cool Kids "meta-rappers," part of a growing group of hip-hop artists bringing back the beats and sounds of hip-hop's late-'80s-early-'90s heyday, a group that perpetually comments on their own genre's legacy through their music.

In many ways, Caramanica's perspective is dead-on. Popular Cool Kids tracks like "'88" and "Black Mags" pay creative homage to groups like EPMD and the Beastie Boys.

Yet the surprise, this evening at least, was that the Cool Kids sounded nothing in concert like they do on record. Whereas Steddy P displayed an aggressive charisma absent from his recorded music, the Cool Kids performance felt generic and lackadaisical. Many of their lyrics were indecipherable, drowned to oblivion by heavy bass. Crowd interaction was standard and rote.

And other than the large screen behind them, which featured a streaming flurry of images from the '80s (a weed plant momentarily appeared, sparking the most visceral of the evening's crowd reactions), nothing felt explicitly retro -- or even original.

Instead of the group that has garnered a cultish following for their playfulness, the Kids felt like a garden variety underground act plagued by a raw, if not boring, stage performance.

Blame it on the arrhythmic frat boys. Blame it on the alcohol. Blame it on the rain.

This evening at least, the Cool Kids simply didn't live up to their own hype.