Chicago Beatmaker of the Year: A Q&A with Kid Sister

Chicago-area hip-hop artist Kid Sister (Melisa Young) isn’t an overnight success. But to go from rapping for the first time in 2006 to having Kanye West perform on your song a year later is as overnight as you’re going to get in this industry. But it wasn’t until this year, when Kid Sister’s exceptionally strong debut album “Ultraviolet” was released, that she really came into her own. Featuring the year’s best song from a local artist, grooving dance jam “Right Hand Hi,” as well as guest turns by Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green, Estelle and West, “Ultraviolet” pays respects to Chicago house and retro hip-hop, but at the same time, establishes a distinct and exhilarating sound for the breakout artist. That’s why Kid Sister is Chicago Beat’s pick for Chicago Entertainer of the Year.

A few days after her first hometown show post-“Ultraviolet” last month, Kid Sister talked to Chicago Beat about her influences, her favorite spots in Chicago and her love for bowling and local TV personality Will Clinger.

Chicago Beat: You played at the House of Blues right before Thanksgiving, your first hometown show following the release of your first album  “Ultraviolet.” What was that experience like for you?

Kid Sister: Very cool. It was really, really fun and it was nice to be back in Chicago with all my friends and family. And it was also nice to play such a professional-looking, fancy venue. So it was an experience. … It was pretty fun and wild, but also very early, all ages shows in Chicago, especially doing a Live Nation show, are very corporate. So you know, it was a little bit different, but we slide by.

CB: Talk a little bit about the album and how growing up in the Chicago area has influenced your sound.

KS: Well I grew up listening to classical music until I was 11. I guess it was right around 11 that I switched from listening to classical to listening to pop, Chicago house and Chicago hip-hop. And not Chicago hip-hop mainstream like Common, but it was a grimier stuff like Do or Die, Public Announcement, R. Kelly. And that’s not hip-hop, we’re getting into R&B. But I was into a little bit grimier, less conscious side [of music]. And also house music like Jamie Principle, Paul Johnson, Felix da Housecat, Cajmere now known as Green Velvet.  [It was about] listening to them, and also listening to that tapestry of hip-hop, and putting them together to make a really cohesive sound. To most people, that doesn’t seem natural, but for me it came super organically.

CB: So how did you make that switch from classical music?

KS: I don’t know. It was like crack for my ears. It was like the part in ‘Wizard of Oz’ when everything goes to color. I was like, ‘Whoaaaah! This is crazy!’ [Laughs]. I can’t really tell you how it happened but I can tell you that I’m glad that it did.

CB: As far as you rapping, you haven’t done it for that long, just since 2006. So what exactly pushed you into actually performing and making your own music?

KS: I saw my brother [Josh Young, a.k.a. J2K from Chicago DJ duo Flosstradamus] doing it and making lots of money and I was like, ‘Oooo, I want to do that too.’ Shoot.

CB: Ok, but then to go from just starting to getting to the point where you have Kanye West on one of your first songs, “Pro Nails.”

KS: Yeah, that’s really weird.

CB: So what was the key to your success? Luck? What was it you think you were able to tap into to get you to that point so quickly?

KS: I don’t know. Happy accidents I guess. [Laughs]. It literally is like everything that happens to me I’m like, ‘Are you fucking serious?’ It’s really weird, but it’s a blessing nonetheless.

CB: So when you were starting off and working on, you grew up listening to this stuff. But being an active member in the Chicago hip-hop scene, what you were learning from your peers and musicians, how did it influence the very modern sound you’ve got now in ‘Ultraviolet?’

KS: I don’t know. I wasn’t really a part of the Chicago hip-hop scene when I was being influenced by all these people. I was just a fan, you know what I mean, back in the early to mid-90s when I was going to shows. I was in high school. [Laughs]. I wasn’t some active member of a scene or something. I was learning how to do algebra and doing ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in theater class. But I loved being influenced by all these different types of music in the mid-90s. It wasn’t until later that I think I could have said, ‘Oh yes, I’m a part of this scene.’ And by that time, I was at the forefront of the movement rather than soaking up other people’s creative influences.

CB: In terms of what your songs explore, there have been comparisons to other Chicago artists like Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West …

KS: In terms of how they seem like a normal person, like the topics?

CB: In terms of the content in your songs and their songs might be different than what people might incorrectly stereotype as hip-hop music. So did those Chicago artists directly influence what you were hoping to say?

KS: I think that happens from growing up in a place that’s not completely focused on glitz and glamour, as a result of coming up in a blue-collar, normal, workaday culture. Which is very Chicago, you know? And I don’t think it’s a big coincidence that a lot of us are from the same area. Cajmere is from Markham; that’s where I grew up. Felix da Housecat, he’s from Richton Park; that’s where my parents moved when we got in high school. Lupe, his father lived in Harvey, right next to Markham. Kanye, his mother lived in Blue Island, right next to Markham. We’re all from the south suburbs. Antoine Reed, a.k.a. Mikey Rocks from The Cool Kids, he’s from Matteson, right next to Richton Park. It’s just a hot bed. I don’t really know why. But we all came from right around the same area, and that’s probably the main reason why we all sound kind of similar in that we all had kind of similar upbringing.

I didn’t even know what a red carpet was; I had never seen one before [until] I did a ‘Sex and the City’ premiere a week before the BET Awards last year. So I said, ‘All right, let me do the ‘Sex and the City’ red carpet so I can have an experience with a red carpet before I go to this lions’ den.’ I have never been on the red carpet before because that doesn’t exist in Chicago. It does in New York and L.A., but that’s not the way we live here.

CB: How would define the scene in Chicago?

KS: Fun, fun and more fun. It’s fun, it’s laid back, you come as you are and no one judges you, and you have a good time. Those are the only requirements, at least for our city.

CB: Now that you’re starting to get more affiliated with that red carpet lifestyle…

KS: I know, weird.

CB: You’re rubbing shoulders with Kanye West, you got the BET Award nomination before you even had the album out. But now that you do have the album out, is that intimidating at all to have all that hype behind you and to deliver on those high expectations?

KS: There’s only pressure and there’s only expectation if you build them for yourself. If you take yourself seriously and you buy into that whole lifestyle of like, ‘I am so important, and I am so this and I am so that and I spend my life on red carpets and blah blah blah,’ if that’s the life you want to lead, I can see where that would be very intimidating. But you should take a look at me, I am sitting in my bathrobe talking to you with a cup of Earl Grey in my Albany Park apartment. I could not be further away from that lifestyle. I mean, I like to think of myself as someone who can straddle both sides, you know what I mean? I can go to that world when it’s something I want to do, but I don’t live in that world 24-7, because I think you start to lose focus of what’s important in your life when you start to think of yourself that seriously and you come to think of yourself that much. Yeah, tomorrow I’m going to New York, and I’m going to party with Perez Hilton, and it’s going to be fun. But after that, I’m going to go to Brooklyn Bowl, and I’m going to bowl a really shitty game, and it’s going to be awesome! [Laughs]. You know what I mean? You got to balance that, that’s what I think. And when you do balance that, pressure can’t get to you.

CB: So it seems that it’s really important for you to have your place in Albany Park rather than somewhere that’s more glamorous.

KS: I guess I could, but why would I want to? It’s so cheesy.

CB: What do you think is the cultural heart of the city?

KS: The cultural heart of the city? I don’t know if I can comment on that. I can give you some uncouth, ghetto places.  [Laughs]. I like going to Long Room on Ashland and Irving because it’s got great beer. And I love going to Lincoln Square Lanes because it’s the oldest, cool bowling alley in America. I like to live my life like I’m living on ‘Wild Chicago.’ That show was so good. Will Clinger, where are you? I miss you. I do, he was so awesome, he looked like Bill Nye, but like nerdier and cooler. …

I really don’t go out when I’m in Chicago, because I’m here less frequently than I like, and when I’m here I’m here for 24 hours and I just sleep the whole time. But I definitely like to go out with friends and we just like to go to baseball games and bowling and stuff like that.

CB: So what do you hope to accomplish with the album and where do you go from here?

KS: Well the thing that I hope, let me see, is I hope that through my music I will bring people together from varying demographics and varying walks of life that under normal circumstances wouldn’t necessarily have been brought together. And that’s the goal behind everything I do, musically or otherwise. So that’s it.

CB: And where do you hope the hip-hop scene will go from here?

KS: I hope it will get more creative. I hope it will get more interesting. I don’t know. I hope Chicago continues to be a place where creativity thrives.

CB: In Chicago and hip-hop in general, a lot of people associate it with being a guy’s world. There’s a ton of big name Chicago hip-hop stars, but you’re one of the first big name female artists in the city’s hip-hop scene to emerge in recent years. So any thoughts on that, being a woman in this genre of music?

KS: I think its important not to think of yourself in terms of, ‘I’m a woman, so this is a separate skill set that I have.’ I think I need to do what the boys do as good if not better and have a great time doing it too, to not carry any jadedness about my lot as a female or whatever. It’s not about that, it’s about making really good music, and it’s about outshining everybody out there but also complementing them at the same time. For me it’s not about being a woman or a man, it’s about making good music.

Kid Sister appears on IFC on Dec. 22 for a special segment previewing IFC’s new show “Dinner With The Band.” Check out a video here. She’ll also make a guest appearance  at Green Velvet’s DJ set Dec. 25 at Sound Bar, 226 W. Ontario St. Show starts at 10 p.m. $20; RSVP to get in free before midnight.