Interview

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While she's waited for her music career to take off, 28-year-old rapper Melisa Young, a.k.a. Kid Sister, has sold everything from baby clothes and scented candles to reasonably priced lingerie. But it took a song about fake nails (and a video featuring dancing fingers) to turn the Chicago native into an overnight sensation. Channeling the spirits of old Salt-N-Pepa and J.J. Fad, Kid Sister makes hip-hop that is funny, smart, and seemingly tailor-made for a bonkers house party or a backyard dance-off. Despite the sudden avalanche of media attention, a number of big-name collaborations (she's got Kanye West on speed dial), and a highly anticipated debut album due out this month on Downtown Recordings (tentatively named after macaw-toting WWF wrestler Koko B. Ware), Kid Sister still just thinks of herself as the girl next door-especially if that girl "got her toes done up, with her fingernails matchin' " and appreciates the joys of a silky weave.

T. Cole Rachel: What did you study at college in Chicago?

Kid Sister: I studied film. I feel like everybody does that, and then they're like, "Oh shit, I need to do something else." So that's basically what I did-something else.

TCR: When you got out of school, did you wonder, Okay, now what?

KS: Oh, my God, I was scratching my head. My father is black, and so the black side of the family was like, "Yay! You did it! Walk yo crazy ass across that stage and grab that motherfucking diploma-you did it!" And I'm going, "Aw, all right, you do know I got a degree in film, right?" Like, they were expecting me to get some crazy job and buy a car-just really live that kind of glamorous lifestyle. There's not really a film industry in Chicago. I looked for any kind of job I could get and all I could do is work as a production assistant on Starting Over. A fucking reality show! I don't think it's even on the air anymore.

TCR: Oh, my God. That show was so crazy.

KS: You think so? I thought it was really boring.

TCR: The show was weird. Obviously there was a lot of created drama, but then they would say something like, "I want you to sit outside in this cardboard box all day and think about the things that are keeping you in a box."

KS: Like, "I want you to lie facedown in this pool and drown yourself because you're drowning in your emotions." [laughs]