Steve 'Flash' Juon“Page not found.” That’s likely to be the first result you get trying to look up Kid Sister. Then you’ll be told she was a “protege” of Kanye West, and that West appeared on the remix of her single “Pro Nails” in 2008. Both things check out, but they don’t appear to have done much long term for the career of Melissa Young. In the process of reviewing “Kiss & Tell” I came across three different YouTube channels for the artist, which should give you some idea of how scattershot either she or the music industry has been about promoting her work. I’m going to say the industry is at fault because we all know how rule #4,080 works, which is probably why her page is “not found” now.
The EP appears to reflect a lack of confidence in Kid Sister to be a star in her own right. I get that a song with Ye was her biggest hit, so the temptation to recreate that is inevitable, but I don’t think Riff Raff was the right person for that on “Hide & Seek.” Sister raps “I guess you could say I come with a whole lot of baggage” but so does the Sinden & 5kin&Bone5 track. Their synthetic electronic production and manipulation of her vocals make the song sound like a poor imitation of a Cataracs track, while Kid Sister’s breathless delivery seems tailor made to make horny dudes jizz in their pants. The “Gucci Rap Top” remix fares a little better thanks to a minimalist percussion track and bars by Danny Brown, but continues to show Fools Good’s desire to pair her with other artists to succeed — this time one of their own.
In fact let’s just be honest here — this whole extended play feels like the worst of the early 2010’s in one package. Female emcees were being regarded for their sex appeal first and their lyrical performances second, which led to songs like “Mickey” where Kid Sister was attempting to prove she was a down chick based on her beverage of preference, and/or daring men to drink her like one. I drank a lot of Mickey’s fine Irish malt liquor in college, but not because it was good — I drank it because it was CHEAP. That’s what the production on this song sounds like too. Cheap.
The only track that really holds up is the Scoop Deville produced “Cliq Claq,” even though a better instrumental shows why Kid Sister had a short shelf life once Kanye got bored. With a delivery that’s part Kreayshawn and part immature teenager, her entire steelo is unconvincing, especially when she says “me and my girls just got it like that.” I could really care less that they got it like. “Pockets full of dough, got hundreds and 50’s.” Yawn. It just feels so manufactured and forced. That’s a shame given Kid Sister has a very interesting background and could have been a game changer if she was left to her own devices. There’s that rule #4,080 rearing its ugly head again. Instead of letting her talk about her own background and experiences, they forced her to play the sex appeal bombshell with more money than you, and we already had Nicki Minaj for that. “Page not found” is no surprise given that Fools Gold lived up to their name here.