By now there’s a good chance that you’re familiar with new Chicago hip-hop duo The Cool Kids. But if you’re not, their impressive debut album, Totally Flossed Out, hit stores a few weeks ago and it’s definitely one of the more creative efforts we’ve come across this year. I first heard about The Cool Kids when DJ Benzi put them on a Lil Wayne remix on one of his mixtapes over the summer. A few weeks later, the video for the lead single, “Black Mags,” was all over the internet.

With virtually no promotion, the overwhelmingly positive response to “Black Mags” from hip-hop fans and critics alike seemed like an interesting phenomenon to me. The Cool Kids don’t talk about money, cars, nor do they curse much in their music. They talk about playing Street Fighter on Sega, shopping for limited edition sneakers, and riding around on BMX bikes.

The reason I didn’t review this album until now was because I still have pretty pretty mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the beats and the hooks on pretty much every song are tight. But on the other hand, as creative as some of the subject matter is, the lyrics really aren’t anything special. On Totally Flossed Out, The Cool Kids rely on their beats and classic samples to fill in the gaps where they fail to come up with a decent rhyme.

Most of the beats are pretty stripped down and are obviously influenced by 80s production, but they’re easily the most impressive part of The Cool Kids’ debut album. Mikey is the more lyrically talented one of the group, as exhibited on tracks like “Pump Up The Volume” and “I (Mikey) Rock.” His nasally voice is almost similar to Spank Rock, but his laidback delivery sounds pretty amazing. However, Mikey even suffers from writers block on “A Little Bit Cooler,” on the first part of his verse where he can’t find a rhyme for “fruity pebbles” and just repeats it a few times. On “Pump Up The Volume” and “Gold And A Pager,” both rappers use the samples from their hooks to fill in the parts where they fail to come up with lyrics.

On “88,” Chuck Inglish tells a fictional story about riding down the street on his bike and picking up a girl, who rides off with him on his pegs. Far from realistic, but undeniably comical, this track is also an ode to The Cool Kids obvious obsession with 1980s music and fashion. Their beats are largely a cross between 80s production as well as modern day influences like the Neptunes and Timbaland. The modern influence is evident on what is probably my favorite track, “I (Mikey) Rock.”

Overall, Totally Flossed didn’t exceed what expectations I had for The Cool Kids’ debut album, but it is by no means a let-down. The Cool Kids definitely get an A for effort, but they simply need to have a better balance of good beats and lyrics. On some of the songs, I just found myself lost in the music, and not really even listening to the lyrics. There is obviously a mountain of creativity between Chuck and Mikey, but to really impress me, they need to combine more of that creativity to make a better album, preferably with more than 8 songs.