Kid praises J. Cole and salutes Melle Mel during an interview with Live With Steve Lobel.
One-half of gold Rap duo Kid ’N Play, the Bronx, New York-born and Queens, New York raised rapper emerged with partner-in-rhyme Play in the late 1980s and released two gold albums, 1988’s 2 Hype and 1990’s Kid ’N Play’s Funhouse. The pair also starred in the House Party film franchise, among other projects.
As for the current crop of rappers, Kid says he is particularly impressed with J. Cole.
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“I feel like he’s improved and expanded his repertoire every record,” Kid says during his interview with Live With Steve Lobel. “And I also like the fact that when other artists and fans were talking about some of these other artists, I never felt like he was getting his shine.”
Kid says that Jay Z, to whom J. Cole is signed, didn’t support J. Cole as he has other artists.
“I always felt like Jay Z didn’t embrace him like the way I thought he deserved to,” Kid says. “He’s taking pictures with all these other rappers and you’ve got this diamond. This dude is yours.”
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Nonetheless, Kid says that J. Cole’s music stands the test of time.
“I can go back and listen to J. Cole’s stuff two and three years later and hear shit that I didn’t pick up on then,” he says. “Like, his shit ages well.”
Kid Was Inspired By Grandmaster Melle Mel
Growing up in New York in the 1970s and ‘80s, Kid got to experience Hip Hop in its formative years. While in the Bronx, he says that he would listen to tapes of Grandmaster Flash. That’s when he discovered the rapper he tried to emulate.
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“To me, there’s only one,” Kid says. “This dude is the reason why I became an emcee and that’s Grandmaster Melle Mel.
“His voice was just like thunder,” Kid adds. “I wanted to pattern my whole Rap style [after his]. My Rap style was reminiscent of his. I wanted to come big with the voice so that way I got you sonically. Then I’m going to give you the rhymes. His stuff is awesome. I could quote Melle Mel stuff all day.”
Melle Mel, as he’s also known, is the lead rapper on Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s landmark 1982 single “The Message.” It is one of the most influential and sampled songs in Rap history and was named Rolling Stone’s Greatest Hip Hop Song Ever. It is often cited as the first Rap song with social commentary.
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Melle Mel also appears on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ 2015 single “Downtown,” which has been certified gold.
During his interview, Kid says that when Melle Mel and even later when Kid ’N Play were in its prime, Rap music was still considered new and got push-back from both Whites and Blacks – including his own father, a Jamaican immigrant.
Give the genre’s rich history, Kid has seen it evolve and adapt for since its inception in the 1970s.
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“So much has changed, a lot of it for the better and some maybe not so much,” he says. “But I always feel like Hip Hop is the type of entity and type of ecosystem that is always, it’s going to correct itself. As Hip Hop lovers, we have to trust in there. There may be some trends we don’t particularly like from time to time, but it always kind of rights itself.”
