COVER: Kindred soul

Chicago MC/singer Melisa “Kid Sister” Young (and her littler brother Josh) on staying stable, dodging labels and taking a seat at the grown-ups’ table

A STAR IS BORNE: Kid Sister
Photo by ANGELA BOATWRIGHT

Having hit the big three-oh this past summer, Chicago’s Melisa Young proves, among other things, that you can’t take the kid out of the sister.

“I have, like, the brain of a 22-year-old,” laughs Young, better known on frenetic dancefloors around the planet as microphone ripper Kid Sister. “I feel like nothing really changed, and I’m living the life of, like, a… I don’t even know! This life is crazy!

“I’m in a different place all the time, and surrounded by such incredible experiences, and blah blah blah. So I mean, I don’t feel like it had any… there was no, like… you know when you’re working at an office, or something? And your friends throw you a 30th birthday party, and all the balloons are black or something? It wasn’t like there was this event, you know? It was just kind of like, ‘happy birthday, I know you like cupcakes,’ alright, on to the next shit. Same old soup, just reheated.”

Since stepping onto the Chicago club scene, mic in hand, some six years back, Kid Sister has gone from viral hit-maker to Kanye cohort, all the while ducking labels both figurative and literal by refusing to place herself under any one given spotlight. She will, however, freeze her ass off for the fans to kick off this weekend’s edition of winter shakedown party Igloofest.

Following Young’s 2009 debut album, Ultraviolet, which introduced her to a wider audience with the Kanye West collab “Pro Nails,” a bangin’ new mixtape, Kiss Kiss Kiss, hit the web for free download less than two weeks ago. “As far as the record industry goes, I’m in it, but I’m not of it. Ever since I started, that’s just kind of been my stance. Because I always wanted to be the girl who was normal, and not the per­son that was some idea that was drawn up in a boardroom.

“You know, I am a person, not an idea, and that’s really the way I wanted to do it. And in that, I feel really good about it. When I talk to people from my audience, people from my core fan base, my audience, they’re like ‘You’re so normal and chilled out. You seem like we could be friends.’And that’s exactly what I want them to feel. That’s exactly what I want to feel when I’m look­ing at an artist and someone I’m a fan of. You just wanna feel like they’re normal, and they’re cool, and they’re real people.”

THE YOUNGS AND THE RESTLESS

Young is definitely real. With a lifelong interest in the performing arts, she found herself entering her mid-20s unfulfilled by working several jobs at once to get by. Meanwhile, her younger brother Josh (known also as J2K of DJ duo and fellow Fool’s Gold artists Flosstradamus) was busy having fun and pursuing his own artistic ends. Acting as a Sherpa to his older sib, he helped guide her across the stages of the Chicago party scene, where she picked up the mic and found it to be a good fit.

“The name Kid Sister is really, just… Josh picked it! He picked it for me because I couldn’t think of a name. I came up with everything late. I was writing all these songs, I didn’t have a name, I didn’t have a MySpace or really any online identity. And he just really helped me with it. So I guess if you look at the way things went down, he did kind of act as a big brother, even though I’m the big sister.”

“I think [my music is] really fun, but I will still fuck you up. Like, I will cut you, let’s not make any mistakes about it.” – Melisa “Kid Sister” Young

Lil’ bro, full of piss and vinegar, immediately understood the potential for them both to get their names up out of Chicago.

“Melisa was always involved in musical theatre,” recalls Josh “J2K” Young. “All through grade school, junior high, into high school, she was always in plays and doing little skits with her friends. It’s always been obvious she had musical and theatrical talent.

“I remember talking to people from Vice Records when we first started to get some shine, telling them they should hurry up and sign her because, in a year, she’ll be too expensive. Actually, I told them we’d all be too expensive. But yeah, Curt [Autobot, Young’s partner in Flosstradamus] and I were the DJs and Melisa was the face and voice of our world. I always knew she’d blow up. As for ‘Kid Sister,’ I couldn’t have picked a better name. It suits her personality.”

In fact, the younger of the Youngs has no shame at all in playing with his big sis. “Musically speaking, our relationship has been completely symbiotic. For every step I’ve helped her along the way, she’s helped me. We’re both very supportive of each other, professionally and personally. So everything she credits me for goes for her as well.”

WISDOM OF THE ELDER

Riding her well-deserved party-starting buzz all the way to ’09 before dropping her acclaimed debut LP, Kid Sister can make a thug sway while a raver does the wop, leaving on-looking hipsters con­founded, confused and possibly titillated. But her influences are pretty basic.

“Old school R&B from the ’70s and ’80s,” Young says of her primary listening habits. “I’m not really tuned into pop so much. And then I listen to hip hop music and I listen to house. And that’s pretty much all I really listen to, so that’s pretty much all I’m really aware of. But hip hop, meaning—I don’t even know what that means. I listen to like, Dipset, and you know, beats that my producers give to me. I pretty much live in a bubble, I’m not gonna lie about that one.”

Blowing up in numerous circles, without going pop, can be at least in some part credited to the degree of life experience she already held at the outset of her career, something younger acts hand-selected from the usual channels of the music industry generally haven’t had the chance to earn.

“I think if I was that young and had to deal with what I had to deal with [in breaking into the industry], it would just be, I mean… I completely understand now why you look at these crazy-ass young girls that go in rehab, and this and that. I totally get it, because they can’t handle it! I mean, they’re kids. So really, I was really fortunate to have not been so vulnerable to those kinds of trip-ups. I think it was just really great that I had experienced what adult life is like before going through all this stuff. Because really, if your head is on straight, then you know you’re gonna be okay.”

Young has clearly worked to foster her reputation for being easygoing and approachable, but that doesn’t change the fact she’s a rapper from Chicago that’ll merk you on a dime.

“My music is fun. And that’s really all I want it to be,” Young states plainly. She pauses, then continues.

“I think it’s really fun, but I will still fuck you up. Like, I will cut you, let’s not make any mistakes about it. I think music, yeah, it should be fun, and people get caught up in the minutiae of trying to understand it. But sometimes you don’t need to understand it. Sometimes all you need to know is that you need to shake your ass, and if you don’t shake your ass, you will get touched.” ■

WITH MARC RÉMILLARD, TERROR DANJAH, ESKMO, MAYDAY AND BLISS AT IGLOOFEST AT QUAI JACQUES-CARTIER (OLD PORT) TONIGHT, THURSDAY, JAN. 20, 6:30 P.M., $12

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