Buckets of hype funneled onto Kanye years ago, nearly drowned Lupe, and with the Windy City now on the map, a scene formed in the cracks of the national consciousness. The Cool Kids are the freshest to emerge thereupon, and the causes are tautological. They are fresh because they are consumed with the idea of being fresh; "this" is why they're hot. Central to this inherent freshness is an inversion of Chicago hip-hop's ideals. Instead of reaching to old school rap ideas in an effort to teach the listener of the purity of "hip hop culture," '80s sonics and touchstones are yoinked and reappropriated merely to help prove how ill the Cool Kids are. It's a method so obvious it hurts, but done here bursting with joy and devotion. In the process the Cool Kids seem to have channeled the spirit of that cherished era of rap with greater fidelity (and likeability) than any of their peers.

"'88" is their case-in-point, where mission statement meets beat, Licensed to Ill (1986) guitar slits hit against Clipse drums, Run-D.M.C. cadences are delivered with post-Jigga whispered menace. Phrases like "sucker emcees" and "gazelle shades" are delivered with straightfaced dickheadedness. Again, the track oozes proof like so much ruptured pudding cup. There, the beat is too good to cast off; here, this kid spits hard. I'm talking about the Cool Kids because Pitchfork has been, and the four tracks they've hosted are among the most exciting music in this calendar year. An original aesthetic, it is that rarest of things in hip-hop. An overarching reverence for the dignity of the culture has kept Chicago rap culturally irrelevant since Common brought it to attention in the last decade and no Windy City rapper has proven capable of thinking outside this "responsible" box, even when, like Kanye, selling millions. The Cool Kids buck this trend by fusing an almost slavish devotion to the preservation of this culture with a much more contemporary tendency; that is, shit talk. All that remains to drive this fully-formed wedge into the mainstream is a hurdle away from indie-rock fetishists. Let's get these Kids next to Jeezy and see what happens.

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