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player ready...Before releasing its debut album, “School Is My Hustle” (Rawkus), Naledge and Double O of Kidz in the Hall had to hustle just to finish up with school.
The pair met at a talent showcase at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000, where Double O was a college junior. The DJ/producer was struck by Naledge’s skills when the rapper, then a senior at Chicago’s Luther South High School, took the mic.
When the MC started at Penn the following fall, the pair reconnected, recording demos before Double O graduated and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music industry career and to train for the 2004 Olympics. (The DJ was a state champ in track as a New Jersey high schooler.)
Following Naledge’s college graduation in 2004, the pair started recording an album rooted in the MC’s experiences growing up in Hyde Park and the South Shore. “I’m a Chicago lyricist through and through,” explains Naledge, who dabbled in poetry before discovering Common as a 14-year-old and deciding to try his hand at rap. “I’m unapologetic about using slang references that you wouldn’t know unless you were a native Chicagoan. It’s time for people to get a view of what the city really is.”
Chicago couldn’t ask for a better pair of ambassadors, despite the fact that Double O currently makes his home in New York City. During the interview the Kidz talk up the Windy City’s rich musical history, bringing up everything from Sam Cooke’s days with the Soul Singers on the South Side to the advent of house music.
Naledge has even deeper ties to Chicago’s more recent hip-hop history. His first cousin, Memo, is a founding member of the Molemen, and the MC can recall weekend afternoons lugging around crates of records and trekking to WHPK-FM with his then-babysitter.
“I was one of the backpacker, intellectual types in high school,” continues Naledge. “I refused to listen to [hip-hop] on the radio.”
Double O, by contrast, started deejaying in 8th grade and grew up listening to a cadre of New York rappers. “If you even mentioned Tupak [Shakur] you might get beat up,” he says. “Biggie was the biggest thing on Earth.” While Naledge gives due credit to East Coast MCs — he talks up the influence of Jay-Z and Nas, among others — it’s the Chicago mentality that fuels Kidz in the Hall.
“There’s no Chicago artist you can name that doesn’t have passion in their lyrics,” says Naledge. “The sound here is soulful because the city is soulful.”
Kidz in the Hall
Chicago pride in this rap duo’s stride
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St.
Price: $12; 773-478-4408
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