The Cool Kids

While the hip-hop world is awash with braggarts and poseurs proclaiming their fame at the top of their lungs, the laconic Antoine ‘Mikey Rocks' Reed, one half of duo the Cool Kids, demonstrates a maturity that has been lacking from the industry for quite some time.

"I don't have any aspirations to be the greatest ever," he says. "I just want to be real nice, real real nice at music, and I want to have fun while I'm doing it. To be the greatest you have to appease a lot of people, and to do that you have to give away some of yourself. I don't want to do that. Hip hop is not a sport to me. It's not a race - you're either nice or you're not."

Formed back in 2005, the Cool Kids have risen slowly to international popularity, releasing minimal, bass-heavy tracks to eager audiences through their Myspace page. Independent label Chocolate Industries snapped them up, and their first EP The Bake Sale was one of the best releases of 2008. Now they are set to return on their second visit to Australia to play the Parklife festival, and they still don't have an album under their belt.

"It's coming up," reassures Reed. "We just haven't finished it yet. We had one version of the album done, but a lot of that stuff ended up on the mixtapes. We gave those tracks away because we knew we could come better than that. We're always out to put our best foot forward, so as soon as we finish it up we'll set a proper date for release."

Reed remains cagey about the project, though. When asked about details such as guest stars he clams up, offering this advice instead: "I kind of want to keep that a mystery until we do it. Everybody always shows all their cards right before their stuff comes out. It's time to let hip hop be fun again. Don't base the success of your music on who else is on there. If we have anyone on the album, you'll find out when you hear it."

The Cool Kids are no strangers to the stage, having played huge events like the Rock the Bells Festival, and touring with superstar MIA, which Reed considers a highlight: ‘That was crazy, man. Every show we played was sold out. And [MIA] is such an artist. There are a lot of people who use that term loosely, but she is really creating something that people can appreciate. To be around her and able to pick her brain and see how she does things is inspirational, and it definitely makes you want to step your stuff up too."

Their upcoming festival appearance is a far cry from their first trip Down Under when they played the boutique Laneway Festival. How will they be able to cope with thousands of screaming dance fans at Parklife? "We handle it the same. We're gonna go out there and try to rock. You gotta bring the same energy, whether it's 10 people or ten thousand people. You can't base your show on how many people are there, you gotta deliver a good show. That separates the men from the boys."

The Cool Kids are playing at Parklife on Sun 4 Oct.

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