THE COOL KIDS
The Bake Sale (C.A.K.E Recordings/Chocolate Industries)
When Chicago hip-hop duo The Cool Kids rap about ice cream, it's hard to tell if they mean the dessert or the clothing label -- that's how well they balance good-natured nerd rap and style-conscious snark. Perfect, too, is their mix of old and new production: on "One Two" they claim to be "the new black version of the Beastie Boys," and The Cool Kids' self-produced beats prove they can hit the spot between clunky, '80s beats and spacious, Neptunes minimalism. Members Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish have self-assured deliveries that add shades of cockiness to their rhymes -- whether they're complaining about grocery store lines or, more often, bragging about their clothes. Sometimes their confidence dips into laziness: Rocks' flow slows to molasses on tracks like "Mikey Rocks." But "88" credibly celebrates both the year Rocks was born and the height of the hip-hop era the Kids reference the most. And The Bake Sale's best summer jam, "Bassment Party," has enough bounce to melt a Miami dance floor, or an ice cream cone at least. Jessica Suarez
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