“Everybody, look at the sunset,” exclaimed Kid Sister from her late-afternoon set in the Gobi Tent. “That is some beautful, awesome stuff” (we may have paraphrased a bit for family audiences). That’s the kind of rapper Kid Sister is: in love with simple pleasures like Aqua Net, elaborate fingernails and the sound of her own elastic, hugely charismatic voice. Jacking samples from Cajmere and riffing on Fam-Lay’s corner boy anthem “Beeper,” she spat pure fire in an abbreviated set backed by A-Trak’s virtuosic DJ’ing (the difference between a great DJ and an okay one is huge).

She’s begun to make the rounds on MTV, and it couldn’t come a moment sooner, as hip-hop is in desperate, chronic need of some new female stars. Her electro-infused single “Pro-Nails,” a jump-roping ode to all things acrylic and manicured, has become a calling card of sorts — a shot across the bow to a time when hip-hop was giddy, boastful, fun, and kids wore electric colors while spinning like dervishes on club floors.  It’s coming at just the right time.

– August Brown

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