I was always suffered a feeling of unease at hip hop gigs. Maybe it’s my Caucasian feet that just couldn’t get into the groove, or maybe I couldn’t connect with the obsessive lust for money and bitches. Either way, when the Cool Kids came to town on Friday night they shook out all my preconceptions. They were ‘bringing back 88’ to a packed Oxford Art Factory, and they showed us that as children of the 80s we all had something in common. With a deep and stripped bare bass beat it was a mash up of old and new, they had hands in the air as they brought back the sound of the Beastie Boys and hip hop’s formative days of NWA and Public Enemy.

Rocking up a little late, I was excited to be finally checking out the Oxford Art Factory. After running the gauntlet of three different door checks I made it into the inner sanctum and was blown away by the setup of this stellar live music venue. There was already a tight crowd swaying to the shout-outs of K1. They rolled out the crass “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi,” which made me cringe… Until I realised I had a VB long-neck in my hand and so I joined in with the increasingly vocal crowd. A crew of hyper-active dancing girls clad in tights and lots of dangly gold accessories were up next. Taking turns behind the decks, the trio danced like MIA, dressed like MIA and sang covers of MIA. Spinning high energy funk tracks and dub grooves, they effortlessly brought the South London style. With their cheeky smiles and confident moves, they looked like those chicks who are always the first ones to dance at a house party.

As the crowd grew restless, the MC started the chant to call the kids to the stage; “We say Cool, you say Kids,”… “Cool!”, “KIDS!”, “Cool!”, “KIDS!” The chant got the crowd fired up and before long, the two coolest kids of MySpace fame were stalking onto the stage. Their bass-heavy but minimal beats were a solid footing on which to lay their signature tune Black Mags. Taking Lupe’s lead they worked the street level style and talked up their pimpin’ BMX and the joys of rolling on two wheels.

The pair relied on only the most basic of beats and their interlinked rhymes to develop a flow that even the most jaded of Aussie rockers couldn’t deny. In their quest to “bring back 88,” they dug up classic tunes to remind us all what hip-hop was all about. Fuck the Police got a run and as always everyone sung along, feeling like the most badass gangsters ever to raise their middle finger to law enforcement. As they sung about “a little bitta gold on pager,” they managed to share the beat as their rhymes twisted and looped together. Taking turns to finish each others lines they were reminiscent of the Beastie Boys in the way they strode across the stage bobbing to the beat and mixing rhymes.

As the pair left the stage and the crowd were left to scream for an encore, I was amazed at how well the pair had worked the crowd. There was nothing glaringly original about the tunes, but it was instead the return to fundamentals that had everyone in raptures. As they jumped back on stage they gave the crowd precisely what they wanted in the form of the Fresh Prince and his tale of moving to Bell Air. As they mixed and mashed the lyrics we all know so well, they made it their own. They departed the stage to a raucous applause and left the punters wholly satisfied.

The party continued out at the Gallery Bar where cats danced to 80’s rock and electro tunes, there was hard-core porn on the big screen and by all accounts the party didn’t slow down. Thanks to the Cool Kids for coming all the way to Oz and thanks to the Oxford Art factory, I’ll most definitely be back.