Pitchfork

Photo by Brendan Smith

"The other day, we were doing a show with Akon," Kid Sister tells me apropos of not so much, "which was ridiculous. I was unloading my baggage and going through my stuff, my outfits for the show, and inside my luggage, I found a [Midwest grocery/drug store chain] Jewel-Osco sale paper. I'm like, 'Really? It's all out there for the world to see. Ooh, ten for ten!'"

These weird juxtapositions-- playing with Akon one night, clipping celery coupons the next-- seem to follow Kid Sister around. There was her "Pro Nails" video, shot on the cheap in a Chicago nail salon with a pop-in from one of the biggest rappers in the world. There's the retail job she still keeps in between tour stops, dropping in to sell children's clothes on Black Friday just because "it's the right thing to do, you know?" The woman known to her mom as Melissa Young is something of a celebrity, but nobody seems to have told her that.

But she's moving up. Kid Sister has just signed to Downtown Records, home of Gnarls Barkley, Spank Rock, Mos Def, Art Brut, Justice, and other artists you generally wouldn't think of as bargain shoppers. (Well, maybe Art Brut.) On the phone with Pitchfork Thursday afternoon, she insists "I wasn't really anywhere before, so it isn't a move! Just a move from my kitchen to the living room, and then to Downtown." And then, as always, she laughed.

Still, one has to wonder about Fool's Gold, the label owned and operated by her boyfriend, DJ A-Trak, and DJ Nick Catchdubs. Fool's Gold has released two Kid Sister singles, "Control" and "Pro Nails". She explains, "They're still involved as far as packaging goes, and A&Ring the project. Everything we worked on before we will continue to work on with a little bit of help! Put a little proton pack on our backs for a little bit of a boost!"

Kid Sister says the label decision has been quite a while in the making. "We've been talking about and discussing, figuring out what would be the best home for me in terms of a label with a little bit more muscle. That's been going on for months and months, nine months or a year. Vice was trying to get me over a year ago, and I was just like "hmmm." It was a developing deal, and I feel like you never really have to go for those. So I kinda let that go, and maybe it's good that I did!"

Kid Sister will issue her debut album, tentatively titled Koko B. Ware (after the pro wrestler), "hopefully June/Julyish." "It's almost done, actually! I've just gotta get into the studio!" She adds, "I haven't had a second to breathe since the ["Pro Nails"] video dropped. I'm only telling you because you asked, but it's one of those things where, did I ever expect it to get this crazy this fast? No. 'Cause it had been a pretty steady kind of ascension. It wasn't meteoric like somebody might call it. For me it was nice and slow and steady and good, and then the video dropped and the 'Benny Hill' song came on."

Then she sang the Benny Hill song for a minute.

So what guests can we expect on this much-anticipated disc? "Everybody! All my buds," she says, more than a little coyness in her voice. We could guess, but where's the fun in that? "It's gonna be, of course, the old regulars like XXXChange from Spank Rock, Trackademicks out of the Bay, obviously A-Trak. Flosstradamus [Kid Sister's younger brother Josh Young, aka J2K, and partner Autobot], they're trying to work on some production, they wanna have a song on there too. And I'm so so excited to hear what they have. Who else? DJ Gant-Man. I'm doing a little duetish dealie with [reggaeton singing duo] Nina Sky. It's gonna be so dope! And obviously Kanye." Obviously!

Though that's a mighty roster for a debut, Kid Sister hopes to keep the disc from getting too cluttered with cameos. "I don't wanna have too many guests. 'Cause if there's too many features and stuff, it's like less you and more everybody else. That's what, back in AP English, my teacher used to call 'fluff'. I don't wanna make an album with too much 'fluff'."

Once the album makes its way to shelves, what's next? "Well, I'm a retail worker," she says slyly, "so I'm not familiar with how this all works, but in my mind, you go on tour after you put an album out. Is that how that works?"

As we started to say our goodbyes, Kid Sister suddenly remembered one more thing she wanted to talk about. "Can I give you some more reasons [why I signed to Downtown]? I will stack 'em up like a hoagie! I really think it's important for everyone to know that, yes, the roster is impeccable and wonderful and that is part of the reason why I picked them. But it's also because it's such a small company, and the attitude at the company is just so relaxed and cool. You can walk from one side of the office to the other side and meet the whole entire staff. Their publishing company is right on site. It's not like some weird publishing land where all your songs go. It's just there. They're little! But they're not too little to get things done. I don't like to call them an indie, and definitely won't call them a major. They're like a medium. A medium fry."

Then we talked about the two-cheeseburger value meal at McDonald's for a while. It's her favorite, after all.

Kid Sister dates:

02-01 Los Angeles, CA - L.A. Museum of Natural History *
02-09 Melbourne, Australia - Good Vibrations Festival *^
02-10 Gold Coast, Australia - Good Vibrations Festival *
02-16 Sydney, Australia - Good Vibrations Festival *^
02-17 Perth, Australia - Good Vibrations Festival *^
02-23 Mexico City, Mexico - MX Beat Puebla *
04-27 Indio, CA - Coachella

* with A-Trak
^ with Kanye West