REVIEW: THE COOL KIDS - HI TOP FADE

4/5

Hi Wind

Legend has it, in the same week that a new album from Mobb Deep, featuring a posthumous Prodigy, hits shelves, all to the tune of a Marvel Comic celebration of these hip-hop hero's Mass Appeal, alternative rap legends 'The Cool Kids' will hit us with that 'Hi Top Fade'. The Chicago, Illinois duo, like Havoc and P, of Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish return for the first time since 2022's three chapters of 'Before S### Got Weird', 'Baby Oil Staircase' and 'Chillout'. All as some long fingernails and wrist jewellery puts a burned mixtape into a car's CD changer. These kids have been doing it ever since 'The Bake Sale' of 2008 (what?!) came after their 'Totally Flossed Out' tape. An E.P. that will soon cook up its twenty-year anniversary (WHAT?!). Their debut, 'When Fish Ride Bicycles', hit the stereo spokes hard, like Lupe Fiasco on the skateboard, before the days of Kid Cudi. And they've had 'Special Edition Grand Master Deluxe' and 'Volumes' since then.

Now, there's a whole host of singles for your crates and 'Rockbox'. Like 'Foil Bass', '95 South', featuring A-Trak and Sango, and the Seafood Slim guest spot on 'Banana In The Tailpipe'. But it's when this perfect pair put their 'Cigarello Helmets' on in the outstanding opening that things get really rolling. Back to that 80s 8-bit style from one of the purest in the genre. 'We Got Clips' feels as old school as the appeal of the legends that currently have it this year. Whereas 'Dang' brings you even more hip-hop drums, straight out of Hollywood. "Hotter than a hairdryer, intertwined with some wires." And they're all plugged in into this studio sound. The movie making continues on 'Blade Runner', for the sci-fi cult favourites that feels like 2049, just like 'Tron: Ares' that also comes out this week, laying the grid groundwork for future tech, and love for the Depeche Mode 80s, all at the same time. It's that 'Crunch Rap Supreme' soul singing chorus that tells us, "I stay about the jam and I know when I'm in amber."

Scream for more Rocks and Inglish when they tell you 'Don't Say My Name' on the government issue, like a recent Dallas Mavericks TikTok trend. Smoother than a 'Clean Linen Satin Pillow', or how that track name sounds over xylophone playing keys. On 'Tryin To Get You' they rap "when you get that grill lit, you gotta let them coals burn/Just to heat up, where you put your feet up/Chefs let the smoke settle before they cut the beef up/Carry water, chop wood/Like a mud in the flood/It's gonna fell where it's stuck, like this page in that book." They even give us part two of 'Cinnamon', after their latte sprinkling classic off the 2009 Don Cannon mixtape 'Gone Fishing'. On 'Live Wire', the fuse gets lit even more with lines like, "I could win it all with you/I got tickets in the player's ball for two/Stepping out, had your dress matching my suit/The deeper the root, it's like the sweeter the fruit." All on a beat that Uncle Charlie Wilson would be proud of, because you know what these Chi-towners say about R. Kelly. It's something like 'Back Up Off Me', from these kids stepping in the name of the right way. Now, that's cool. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Cigarello Helmets', '95 South (Feat. A-Trak & Sango)', 'Blade Runner'.

Spin This: The Cool Kids - 'The Bake Sale'

REVIEW: MOBB DEEP - INFINITE

4/5

The Prodigy

Deeper than rap, Mobb Deep remain, in spirit, one of the best brotherhoods in hip-hop. No group was dirtier or grimier. The violence of the genre immortalized in something scarier than 'Shook Ones'. No halfway crooks allowed. You only had to see Eminem lip-sync along to them, rapping in the mirror to begin his legendary battle-rap movie '8 Mile'. Prodigy and Havoc were so renowned, even 50 Cent has to sign them, like fellow legends M.O.P. and Ma$e at the peak of his powers. This was a pair who weren't afraid to go up against the late, great 'Pac. But you can't listen to them diss tracks any more in all good faith. Tragedy struck in 2017, three years after their last album (2014's 'The Infamous Mobb Deep') when Prodigy passed away due to accidental choking. The rapper, real name Albert Johnson, had been battling with sickle cell anaemia his whole life. His legacy lives forever.

And now it's immortalized once more in the 'Infinite' album for infinity. A part posthumous Mobb Deep album and the final LP from the pair as previously unreleased vocals from capital P are mixed with producer and rapping partner Havoc, and longtime collaborator and the legendary producer of this album, The Alchemist (nobody works harder). Part of the year-long 'Legend Has It...' series from Mass Appeal records, it joins Nas and DJ Premier, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, De La Soul, Big L, and Slick Rick as one of the best rap albums of the year. And, like Big L, a life after death one. The amazing artwork, a tribute testament to their style, feels like they're still here together. And Prodigy again is immortalized forever in the accompanying Marvel Comics series that turns these legends into the superheroes that they are. Frequent flyer Nas gets down with Mobb on 'Pour The Henny' (like that, 'Bron, 'Bron?) and the sweet sample of the 'Down For You' single, featuring soul singer Jorja Smith ("If bein' in love is my downfall, then I'll be down for you.") for one of the best rap songs of the billboard year. Not to mention it's 'Love The Way' part two featuring H.E.R. herself. And after their own 'Legend' albums, Wu-Tang members Raekwon and Ghostface appear on 'Clear Black Nights'.

The reformed Clipse also shoot some on 'Look At Me' after their own amazing album reunion in 2025. Joining big hitting singles like the opening 'Against The World' Mobb opera and the grand 'Taj Mahal', built for the fans. Between all the 'Gunfire' and closing 'We The Real Thing', there's even a Big Noyd on 'The M. The O. The B. The B.' with a curious sample. But it's not like we can listen to 'Diddy' any more, anyway. This album clearly 'Score(s) Points', before the penultimate 'Discontinued' that will never happen to this band of brothers. They give it up for 'My Era' and all their classic contemporaries. And they also stick to their violent wordplay for 'Mr Magik', which won't bring you back after sawing you in two. It's like Prodigy says on 'Easy Bruh', "Longevity in hip-hop/The run is endless, our cash don't stop/You the great prеtender, you not this hot/I'll boil over, I'll mеlt the whole pot." Or when Havoc simply puts in "R.I.P.". These two will live on together in infamy. What else could you expect from the Infamous Mobb Deep? Legend has nothing on this. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Down For You (Feat. Nas & Jorja Smith)', 'My Era', 'Clear Black Nights (Feat. Raekwon & Ghostface Killah)' 

Spin This: Mobb Deep - 'Infamy'.

REVIEW: TAYLOR SWIFT - THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL

4/5

The Last Showgirl

Swifties rejoice. The new era is here. Recently, in the multiple Grammy (no need for Kanye) singer/songwriter's life and times, she's rerecorded and re-owned her renowned masters, embarked on an epic 'Eras' live concert circuit, that might just be the greatest and most successful world tour of all-time, and announced that "your English teacher and gym teacher are getting married", with her engagement to NFL, Kansas City Chief tight-end Travis Kelce. And we can't and won't forget how she stood in solidarity with our hometown of Southport, either, after the cruel Hart Space dance class tragedy that took too many innocent lives and showed us real heroes in the face of such evil. The Elvis of our generation, recently on Travis and Jason Kelce's 'New Heights' podcast, also revealed she'd be releasing a new album. Although she didn't show the album artwork until she got on her socials of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and more. But now, here she is, in a bath in a cocktail dress with more than champagne problems, giving us 'The Life Of A Showgirl', from Elizabeth Berkley to Pamela Anderson.

'Elizabeth Taylor' too, for one of this twelfth night's best. Every album of this artist amazes, whatever the version, but since '1989' made her country career go genre bending supersonic, she's been on one, post 'Reputation' critic tasking (and this one reunites her with that LPs producer, Max Martin). Although this one feels closer to that one's standing. This 'Lover' gave us pure pop before the world shut down. Then during lockdown, she quarantined in a studio in the woods to give us both 'Folklore' and 'Evermore' in the same year, that felt like a century, of 2020. Before returning for the magic of 'Midnights' two years later. That felt like the trend, in-between 'Versions' albums that offered richer and deeper takes of her definitive discography that is now well and truly hers. Yet it's only been a year since we signed up for 'The Tortured Poets Department'. Now with 'The Life' and those boys behind her, Taylor moves on swiftly with a classic concept album that speaks now and speaks to more. You only have to hear 'The Fate Of Ophelia', sealed with a kiss that says, "I do" to know. Or the title-track, debuted live, featuring the only star capable of going for her crown, Sabrina Carpenter.

Alas, there is no beef here. No Kendrick Lamar 'Bad Blood'. That would be a real bad way to 'Ruin A Friendship'. And no, don't worry. That infamous track is not about Blake Lively, either, as her and Ryan Reynolds are taking more heat than a 'Deadpool' co-star right now. This is the same superstar who had fellow one, Katy Perry, literally send her an olive branch. And nothing is on the nose here, no "boring Barbie", or cocaine about it. Although Taylor does get into love addiction with the outstanding 'Opalite'. It's just good music here. A dozen to add to the discography that is getting definitive, like a Sinatra or Springsteen set-list. Just let it play. YouTube has even given Swift her own 'TLOAS' icon to drag and drop play along with the album's video visualizers. Taylor Swift's music is like Marvel movies. There's so much of it, maintaining a great quality, and it's always a blockbuster moment. Sure, in this busy life of ours, showgirl or not, some of us may only have the chance to take each one in once or twice, but it always sounds fresh and fond. Especially if we get the chance to watch, listen and learn again.

Like her 'Gasoline' friends, Haim ("he did it") telling us 'I Quit', Tay also samples the late, great George Michael on a 'Father Figure' song of the same name. Yet it's 'Eldest Daughter' that might be my favourite, like my idol sister. Whereas nothing sounds as hook, line and sinker slick as the stylized 'Wi$h Li$t' that will soon be the request of everyone's "playli$t". On 'Actually Romantic', Swift sings, "I heard you call me "Boring Barbie" when the coke's got you brave/High-fived my ex, and then you said you're glad he ghosted me/Wrote me a song sayin' it makes you sick to see my face/Some people might be offended" on a track that flips haters like Mariah Carey's 'Obsessed'. That queen before the queen was 'Here For It All' last week, but nobody dares come in listening distance of Taylor Swift this New Music Friday. Not when the likes of 'Wood' or 'Honey' are playing, bringing out the bears, like the folk and ever 'mores'. This showgirl's muse even takes on a culture with 'CANCELLED' in all-caps. "Good thing I like my friends cancelled/I like 'em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal/Like my whiskey sour/And poison thorny flowers." "Something wicked this way comes", indeed. Can't cancel the syndrome of this album recorded in Stockholm, during the Sweden leg of her 'Eras' tour, though. The show goes on, girl. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Elizabeth Taylor', 'Eldest Daughter', 'Wi$h Li$t'.

Spin This: Taylor Swift - 'Midnights'