The Official ACL Blog for like Eight People!
If you want the daily schedule post, look below at those tabs or down and to the right at the September posts. Have fun!
Wikipedia Genre: Kiddie Home: Louisiana? Poster Position: 27 Weekend One Only. Day: Saturday
Thoughts: His Spotify bio has a quote from the Houston Press saying that this sounds like if Prince made a children's album. I can't go quite that far here, but it definitely has a nice little sound for the kiddos. he has FYUTCH on one track, he was a kiddie rapper who was on the bill last year. Honestly, "Roly Poly" is catchy, totally has me boppin around. That is his top solo track. 20k streams.
ROLLIN AROUND! "Uncle Jumbo is a Texas born son of a Disco and Reggae DJ, who got his start, as a four year old, playing accordion with touring Zydeco bands on the front porch of his Aunt Helen’s house in Louisiana. After spending years blending the grooves of Hip Hop and Soul, new inspiration struck deeply when he heard the first rhythm of his daughter’s heartbeat. Soon after, Jumbo and family held tightly to music as a way of bringing hope and healing to their home, when his daughter was diagnosed with a rare liver disease at birth. This led to the evolution of Jumbo turning his musical focus into creating heartfelt, uniting and jammin’ music for children everywhere, in an effort to help raise generations of positive, loving people."
One Liner: Possibly not the worst Kiddie Limits band, if you believe Joseph
Wikipedia Genre: None, bad kiddie raps Home: Chicago Poster Position: 27 Both Weekends.
Friday.
Thoughts: Every freaking year. Although, after having bagged on them year after year (examples in my prior reviewsof this dreck), my buddy Joseph went to see them with his twin boys a few years back and they really enjoyed it. Dammit. Because I love nothing more deeply than finding something horrible and then making sure that everyone agrees with my stance on that horrible thing. And so, when Joseph sent me a video or audio file (something, I can't recall now) of his boys getting to help come up with topics that the Q Brothers then used to freestyle a rap on the spot, and I was impressed both with their rap ability and their improvisational skills, it crushed my black little heart into a sad place.
Shakespeare promo. Run away!
So, all that to be said, know that I would not recommend going and listening to their music online, but I would probably say that their live show is worth doing with your kids. BLECHH, I need a drink!
On top of that, they have actually released an album! 2021's Long Way Home! And the only song with any accumulated streams on Spotify is called "Chicago Fire"! And sounds like a crappy Hamilton rip off about the city of Chicago!
One Liner: English, Spanish, and Hebrew tunes for the kiddies
Wikipedia Genre: Kiddie
Home: Philadelphia
Poster Position: low Weekend Two Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Time for the kiddie section of Friday. Cute, silly little tunes like "Senorita Mariposa" and the "Purim Party Song" and "Chocolalala" and the big streamer, "Siete Elefantes." 76.4k streams.
Let's learn to count in Spanish! Except only to seven. That is advanced as we need to get y'all.
This is Ben Gundersheimer, a Latin Grammy Award winner who was apparently originally dubbed as Mister G by his young students while he was student teaching. His mom was a children's book author and illustrator as well. He graduated from Amherst College and then Berklee College of Music, so the dude is pretty dang smart. In addition to his bilingual action, he is also acclaimed as one of the world’s most widely distributed Jewish artists for children and two of his albums are in that vein. He also wrote a picture book for the Jewish homies. He has 14 albums, so if this is your jam, dig in and get your kids pumped about Austin Kiddie Limits!
Thoughts: I feel like there is a certain strum of the ukelele that just immediately tells me that the incoming music is about to be a silly, whimsical thing for children. "Little Bitta You" speaks that to me immediately. 2.1 million streams.
This is Andrew Balkan and Polly Hall, who have received a Children's Music Award from the ASCAP Foundation - strangely enough this song was a big deal - also spent seven consecutive weeks on the Sirius XM Kids Place Live 13 under 13 chart, and yet it is not in their top ten for streamers. "When You're a Dog."
Oh boy. That one would have driven me to wreck the car if it was repeatedly playing on Sirius on my commute. Nope.
Wikipedia Genre: Children's music Home: Brooklyn Poster Position: 27 Weekend Two Only
Sunday (they don't even publish times for these folks on the schedule, rude!).
Thoughts: While the lyrics are, of course, goofy as hell on these songs, the music and her voice are great! Heavy on instruments like ukulele and clarinet, but jazzy and cute with a good bit of jazz-scatting as she goes along. Wikipedia says that she was born to a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father, and graduated from college in New York the same year that I did. She has won a bunch of awards, including two Grammy Awards for Best Children's Album in 2018 and 2020. She apparently teaches college and high school kids about music, although I'm not sure in what capacity.
The top song by a good bit is the very literal "Our Garden." 56k streams.
I want to grow some sweet basil! But a really nice little cute and silly song. Oddly, not all of the albums are available on Spotify. So you can't hear the newest disc that won a Grammy. But you definitely get the vibe here anyway. She's great!
Poster Position: ? Weekend Two Only. Saturday at 2:30. Sunday at 4:15
Thoughts: Their band name actually has an umlaut in it, which I always approve of. You pronounce the name like "fyooch" - like a shortened version of the word future if you were one of the girls from Mean Girls. "stop trying to make fyutch happen!"
These are classic kiddie limits tunes - the top one is called "Empathy" and is a lesson on what empathy is and why we should all practice it. I guess this is rap, although the beat is really sparse and sounds like it is being played live.
Real name is Harold Michael Simmons II, and he was born in Gary, Indiana. At age 7, he won the city-wide speech contest and that kicked off a life of speaking in public. He's given a TED talk. He graduated from Belmont University. Before aiming at the kiddie market, he was in a rap group called The Legendary Biscuits and Gravy, which was apparently good enough to open for Kanye, GZA, and Nappy Roots in Nashville. He then released music as Future the Artist (which seems like a bad idea when Future already exists in the rap space, although he has been quoted as believing that he used the moniker first.). He also went by Mr. Flattop - on the album by that name he samples the hell out of "Listomania" on the track called "Ballin'." Kind of fun. Probably not a cleared sample. His top single overall is called "Rainin' Money," and interpolates "It's Raining Men" - 158k streams, but I doubt he'll be playing that one in the Kiddie Limits area.
One Liner: The elementary school choir from the campus closest to Zilker Park.
Wikipedia Genre: Awesomeness (and no Wikipedia) Home: Austin Poster Position: Not on the poster Both Weekends. Saturday at 11:30am
Thoughts: Like School of Rock, I'm pretty much just going to give you my review from last year. It sounds like they are very much still into the Grateful Dead at all times. Dammit. I don't think we even had an elementary school choir when I was a kid, they were too busy bussing us all over town and spending all of their money on crazy ass bus drivers and diesel instead of innovative music programs and fancy microphones with pop filters. But this is freaking so awesome. And it's actually good. I've just let YouTube autoplay all morning despite being done with this post, because the tunes are legitimately enjoyable. I just read an interview with the choir director, Gavin Tabone, and I couldn't love his attitude more. Oh, and in case you aren't going to read the article, just know that he mentions that he has between 150 and 200 kids involved in the choir program at an elementary school with about 375 kids. That is amazing. And he's helping these kids find a real, deep love for music, something that will make them better people for the rest of their lives. Because complete fanatics about music, like people who would write about 100+ bands in their spare time, are the best kind of people. ;)
They appear to have been in this Dead phase since 2017. Not sure why their director quit moving things around, but since I dig the Dead, I'm on board. This year's new crop of videos appears to be for a concert they had in Berkeley, CA. Here is "Cumberland Blues."
They're not all perfect by any means, but that is truly fun stuff.
2022's new addition was "Goin Down the Road Feelin' Bad/I Know You Rider."
Dig it. I feel bad that they have to do those weird hand motions when they don't sing, but otherwise that sounds dope. And here is "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman." Why was I not allowed to be born in 2009?
Let's go back to last year and the awesome Dead stuff (and because I'm lazy, this commentary is all the same): "Ripple" is a jam anyway, and these kids do it up right.
I love that song anyway, but hearing a roomful of kids throwing down serious harmonies? Aw man. 51k views of that video (and I just added eight to the count). "Cassidy" is also pretty solid, as is "Scarlet Begonias." One more, let's get the whole choir involved. Here is "Touch of Grey."
SOMEONE BUILD ME A DAMN TIME MACHINE RIGHT NOW SO I CAN TELL MY PARENTS TO MOVE ME TO BARTON HILLS TO SING IN THIS CHOIR AND THEN JOIN SCHOOL OF ROCK SO THAT I COULD BE BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES TODAY!!!
Really cool deal, first that this choir director takes the time to make this a truly cool thing, and second that the ACL folks sign them up to come and perform on a real deal stage at the Festival. Good stuff all around. Hooray for humanity!
Wikipedia Genre: None, going with silly children's music Home: Chicago Poster Position: not on the poster Day: Saturday at 4:30; Sunday at 12:45 Weekend Two Only.
Thoughts: Some more ridiculousness for the Kiddies. This dude came in 2014 and 2019. The group was created by Ralph Covert, who was previously in a band called Bad Examples. Since then, he's released 11 albums (if Wikipedia is to be believed) in the kiddies music world and even been nominated for a Grammy. I'm not going to go much further in depth to this, except that the now most-popular tune allows children to make farting noises as they sing along, and I fully co-sign this. "Drivin' in My Car." Has 9.7 MILLION streams, somehow.
ppptttttthh pppppttttthh pttttthhhh. Woohoo! If you have kids who like to make fart noises, which is every kid except for some future serial killer who is all serious and weird, then go request this song.
Wikipedia Genre: His Wikipedia says he is also known as Tambourine Guy.
Home: America! Poster Position: Not on the poster Weekend One Only.
Saturday and Sunday.
Thoughts: Wikipedia says he is an American actor and musician, and lists some bangin' roles in movies, like Chinese Food Delivery Boy in Why George?, Young Paul in What Happens Next, and Fratboy in Grand Street. For his television career, he's popped up in soap operas, Law and Order SVU, and The Sunny Side Up Show, which is likely where he got the singing career from, because his songs are generally all kiddie action. He was the host of that show.
Biggest tune is "Breakfast Club," with 118k streams.
He's got a nice tenor voice that is super purely cute and non-threatening. He's gonna be great for those of you with little kids.
Home: I'm super not researching that Poster Position: Not on the poster Weekend One Only.
Saturday and Sunday.
Thoughts: Weird. Smith & Yarn is actually the name of an album by Aaron Nigel Smith and Red Yarn. Not a band? Or maybe it is? Why does it matter. This is more kiddie stuff and its vaguely pleasant and if you are stuck with little kids then you should totally skip out on hearing something rad like Mt. Joy or Kingfish so that your kids can dance terribly to this song. 59k streams.
One Liner: Kids jamming cover tunes based on what they learned at private lessons
Wikipedia Genre: Rock Home: Austin Poster Position: Not on the Poster Both Weekends - Friday AND Sunday.
Thoughts: Just using most of last year's entry, because its pretty much the same. But here is a new one I hadn't heard yet - pretty solid!
I don't know if that is a difficult song or anything, but they nail it! For last year, I did find a recent video to add to the post. A concert video uploaded two weeks ago (which is now a year ago).
The vocals are entirely drowned out, so I have no clue how she sounds. But the bassist is pretty dope.
The classic rock staple "Freebird."
Pretty solid though, right? The lead singer could use a little more volume when she's down at the bottom of her register, but the instrumentation is solid. How about some stuff from last time: Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker.
The band does a pretty solid job of cranking out the classic rock jam right there, including a pretty passable (if a little muddy) guitar solo in the middle. The singer (and the crap echo-effects thing she is using) could dial it back by a bit. Also love the kid psyching himself up, down to the right of the stage, getting ready for his big star turn next on stage. Elton John's Bennie & the Jets.
So freaking cool, man. I wish I could have had something like School of Rock when I was an awkward 13 year old. Screw playing french horn in the school band, I COULD HAVE BEEN AMERICAN BONO, MOM!!! WHY DID YOU HOLD ME BACK!!! WITH ONLY A FEW YEARS OF INSTRUCTION IN AN AUSTIN STRIP MALL I EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN ERIC CLAPTON!!! Although the sound sucks on these videos, you get the idea, these kids are doing some pretty solid cover tunes.
One more, "Valerie" by Amy Winehouse.
Hold on a damn minute, that is freaking good. The sound is good enough on the video to tell, but the singer is great and the rest of the band is actually really solid too. I'm actually impressed. Well done, kids.
One Liner: Spanish (mostly) action for the Kiddies
Wikipedia Genre: None, singer-songwriter-ey kiddie tunes Home: Monterey, Mex. Poster Position: Not on the poster Weekend One Only. Friday and Saturday.
Thoughts: Her Spotify bio mentions that she has played Austin City Limits, but I don't find an old review for her. Not sure if that means I was just a jerk and didn't review her, or if her bio is looking forward. Either way, this is some bilingual kiddie tunes with simple beats and fun lyrics (or at least the ones I can understand).
Her top streamers are all from 2018's Alegria - this is "Mi Papa Me Va a Comprar." 299k streams.
According to Google, that title translates to "my dad is going to buy me." Which is an odd song title. Is this song about adoption? Is that like the way the youths use "Daddy" to mean their lover? I think I heard them sing something about an orange and an accordion, so maybe this song is just them singing that their dad is going to buy them a lot of crap. It's a capitalism anthem in Spanish.
One Liner: Possibly not the worst Kiddie Limits band, if you believe Joseph
Wikipedia Genre: None, bad kiddie raps Home: Chicago Poster Position: Not on the poster Both Weekends. Friday.
Thoughts: Every freaking year. Although, after having bagged on them year after year (examples in my prior reviewsof this dreck), my buddy Joseph went to see them with his twin boys a few years back and they really enjoyed it. Dammit. Because I love nothing more deeply than finding something horrible and then making sure that everyone agrees with my stance on that horrible thing. And so, when Joseph sent me a video or audio file (something, I can't recall now) of his boys getting to help come up with topics that the Q Brothers then used to freestyle a rap on the spot, and I was impressed both with their rap ability and their improvisational skills, it crushed my black little heart into a sad place.
Shakespeare promo. Run away!
So, all that to be said, know that I would not recommend going and listening to their music online, but I would probably say that their live show is worth doing with your kids. BLECHH, I need a drink!
On top of that, they have actually released an album! 2021's Long Way Home! And the only song with any accumulated streams on Spotify is called "Chicago Fire"! And sounds like a crappy Hamilton rip off about the city of Chicago!
One Liner: The elementary school choir from the campus closest to Zilker Park.
Wikipedia Genre: Awesomeness (and no Wikipedia) Home: Austin Poster Position: Not on the poster Both Weekends. Saturday.
Thoughts: Like School of Rock, I'm pretty much just going to give you my review from last year. Dammit. I don't think we even had an elementary school choir when I was a kid, they were too busy bussing us all over town and spending all of their money on crazy ass bus drivers and diesel instead of innovative music programs and fancy microphones with pop filters. But this is freaking so awesome. And its actually good. I've just let YouTube autoplay all morning despite being done with this post, because the tunes are legitimately enjoyable. I just read an interview with the choir director, Gavin Tabone, and I couldn't love his attitude more. Oh, and in case you aren't going to read the article, just know that he mentions that he has between 150 and 200 kids involved in the choir program at an elementary school with about 375 kids. That is amazing. And he's helping these kids find a real, deep love for music, something that will make them better people for the rest of their lives. Because complete fanatics about music, like people who would write about 100+ bands in their spare time, are the best kind of people. ;) Before I get into a new batch of videos, here are the past few years' reviews.
2017's Review has a bunch of awesome Grateful Dead songs. I loved it. I am going to keep those videos in here, down below, because they are quite frankly quite a bit stronger than the two new ones I found.
Actually, it looks like they are still in a Grateful Dead phase. One of their most recent videos is "Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad/I Know You Rider."
Dig it. I feel bad that they have to do those weird hand motions when they don't sing, but otherwise that sounds dope. And here is "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman." Why was I not allowed to be born in 2009?
Let's go back to last year and the awesome Dead stuff (and because I'm lazy, this commentary is all the same): "Ripple" is a jam anyway, and these kids do it up right.
I love that song anyway, but hearing a roomful of kids throwing down serious harmonies? Aw man. 51k views of that video (and I just added eight to the count). "Cassidy" is also pretty solid, as is "Scarlet Begonias." One more, let's get the whole choir involved. Here is "Touch of Grey."
SOMEONE BUILD ME A DAMN TIME MACHINE RIGHT NOW SO I CAN TELL MY PARENTS TO MOVE ME TO BARTON HILLS TO SING IN THIS CHOIR AND THEN JOIN SCHOOL OF ROCK SO THAT I COULD BE BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES TODAY!!!
Really cool deal, first that this choir director takes the time to make this a truly cool thing, and second that the ACL folks sign them up to come and perform on a real deal stage at the Festival. Good stuff all around. Hooray for humanity!
One Liner: Kiddie music with a Hawaiian and East Asian bent.
Wikipedia Genre: Kiddie
Home: Brooklyn
Poster Position: Not on the poster Weekend One Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Her website shows a pic of her holding a violin on the main page, but it seems like her most popular songs angle more towards the ukulele as the starring instrument. "Let It Come, Let It Go" has a jam band sort of vibe to it. "Sol Nal" and "Akatombo" have a Hawaiian vibe.
Very important sounding bio. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She double-majored at Northwestern University and then got a Masters at the New School in New York. It seems like she was on her way to becoming a crusader for good causes, but then started making music for all ages, and has been cruising with that ever since. She helped to launch OneBeat, "an annual global music diplomacy program that brings together musicians from around the globe to the U.S. each fall for one month of creative collaboration, performance and engagement with communities."
Two albums - 2012's Rabbit Days and Dumplings and 2020's Unhurried Journey. That first album has some songs not in English as well as a lot more of the East Asia feel. But her top track is from the newer album, "Underneath the Marshmallow Tree." 215k streams.
217 total views of that video. Kinda weird, right? I guess little kids don't YouTube their music as much as TikTok kiddies? Nice little tune though! The lyrics make me think of a jam band singing goofy lines for the dudes on drugs. "ramble through the breeze" ... "and the sound comes alive" - these are straight out of the String Cheese Incident songbook.
One Liner: Acoustic hip hop (but also real beats) for the Kiddies
Wikipedia Genre: Rap, Acoustic Hip Hop Home: Houston Poster Position: Not on the Poster Both Weekends. Saturday and Sunday.
Thoughts: Last here in 2018. At first, I was unsure whether this was a Kiddie Limits guy or a gospel guy. On the one hand, the name SaulPaul invokes the transition of general jerk Saul into the Apostle Paul (from the Bible, not some weird Breaking Bad episode). On the other hand, his tunes are less gospel and more positivity rap with titles like "Encourage Me" or "Do That Hula Hoop," which sounds more kiddie. He's actually pretty solid. Beats are pretty basic, and his flows are similarly simple, but I appreciate that he sounds like legit rap instead of obviously pandering stuff for kids. Moms and dads can snap and bounce to "Do That Hula Hoop" just as easily as the toddlers. His biggest streamer is also his most recent single, 2021's "Best Day Ever," which is pure and fun. 157k streams.
I wonder if Apple is cool with him using their emoji head for a video. But that is a cute video and a cute track. Let's have some fun! Way better than the brooding 80's music I just had to listen to.
His top song back in 2018 was "Rise," a 2013 single, boasting all of 4,612 streams on Spotify back then, but now up to 23k.
Acoustic hip hop. Actually a cool angle to take on the overproduced world of rap. After that, he put out a handful of albums over the years. 2016's Tower to Tower 2, 2017's We Dream in 3D, 2018's All Star Anthems, 2020's Be the Change, and then 2021's Okay to be Different. If the dude's Wikipedia is to be believed, he has a very cool story. Raised in the rough parts of Houston, kicked out of college for grades, and ended up in jail for two years. Got out of jail, got into Texas, and graduated with honors. He also got notoriety for doing rapped recaps of ESPN radio shows (based on his skills at just making up raps on the spot), which is a weird thing, but seems like a cool talent.
Pretty clever. OK. Very interesting dude who seems to be doing good things. I hope the kids enjoy the hula hooping!
One Liner: Kids jamming cover tunes based on what they learned at private lessons
Wikipedia Genre: Rock Home: Austin Poster Position: Not on the Poster Both Weekends - Friday AND Sunday.
Thoughts: Just using most of last year's entry, because its pretty much the same, but I did find a recent video to add to the post. A concert video uploaded two weeks ago.
The vocals are entirely drowned out, so I have no clue how she sounds. But the bassist is pretty dope.
The classic rock staple "Freebird."
Pretty solid though, right? The lead singer could use a little more volume when she's down at the bottom of her register, but the instrumentation is solid. How about some stuff from last time: Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker.
The band does a pretty solid job of cranking out the classic rock jam right there, including a pretty passable (if a little muddy) guitar solo in the middle. The singer (and the crap echo-effects thing she is using) could dial it back by a bit. Also love the kid psyching himself up, down to the right of the stage, getting ready for his big star turn next on stage. Elton John's Bennie & the Jets.
So freaking cool, man. I wish I could have had something like School of Rock when I was an awkward 13 year old. Screw playing french horn in the school band, I COULD HAVE BEEN AMERICAN BONO, MOM!!! WHY DID YOU HOLD ME BACK!!! WITH ONLY A FEW YEARS OF INSTRUCTION IN AN AUSTIN STRIP MALL I EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN ERIC CLAPTON!!! Although the sound sucks on these videos, you get the idea, these kids are doing some pretty solid cover tunes.
One more, "Valerie" by Amy Winehouse.
Hold on a damn minute, that is freaking good. The sound is good enough on the video to tell, but the singer is great and the rest of the band is actually really solid too. I'm actually impressed. Well done, kids.
Poster Position: not on the poster Weekend Two - BOTH Saturday and Sunday.
Thoughts: The lady half of this band looks extremely like a kind music teacher who would have made me love music when I was in fourth grade. I swear she looks like a teacher a I really had. Husband and wife duo who makes children's music in both English and Spanish. They've won a Latin Grammy and have been nominated for a Grammy as well. It really seems weird that we have Latin Grammys and then just Grammys. I know it gets more recognition for Latin artists who might otherwise be ignored, but it just still feels odd. "The concept of a separate Grammy Awards for Latin music began in 1989. According to organizers, the Latin Grammy Awards was established as the Latin music universe was deemed too large to fit on the Grammy Awards. The Latin Recording Academy defines Latin music as music in Spanish or Portuguese." Still weird.
Anyway, wifey grew up in America in a Spanish speaking household. She earned a master's degree in education from Penn. Impressive! Hubby grew up in Columbia, and has since earned his doctorate in music and was awarded first prize in a national composition contest in Columbia. WTF, man. These people need to be like curing cancer or something, not writing lullaby songs in Spanish.
All of their most popular tracks are literally lullabies from 2020's La Luna. I know that the kid in the song I'm listening to right now just said the word "shoes." My Spanish knowledge is deep. Their first album in 2015 was 11 songs in Spanish followed by the same 11 songs in English. Uno, Dos, Tres Con Andres! En Espanol Y En Ingles. 2016's Arriba Abajo was the one that was nominated for a Grammy. 2019's Canta las Letras has freaking 38 songs, all about the letters of the alphabet (apparently). 2020's Una Idea Tengo Yo lets us know that they have an idea. 2020's El Mejor Regalo is their Holiday album. 2020's Hola Amigo: Songs of Friendship is friendly. 2021's Activate is about being active, I think. Finally, two new EPs, YO SOY and I Am, both in 2022. That is a lot of albums! Most of which I can't understand!
The top track is Fly, Shine, Soar with a friend named Little Miss Ann. 307k streams and a classical sounding track.
Snow, man. Snow looks dope as hell. Lovely harmonies and lyrics though. I wish they would sing me to sleep each night. I don't want to do another lullaby from that La Luna album, so we'll do their next most popular that isn't on that disc. "Sacala del Estadio" from Activate has 83k streams.
I am going to assume that the song name means we're gonna party at the stadium. No clue what is being said, but that is a fun little ditty with lots of traditional flavor. I'm sure the kiddos will go crazy for some sweet bilingual action. I hope so.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but positive kiddie raps
Home: San Francisco
Poster Position: not on the poster Weekend Two - BOTH Saturday and Sunday.
Thoughts: They don't have their own Wikipedia page, but on the Wikipedia page for "kindie rock," they are mentioned this way: "Also from the Bay Area that emerged in the 2010s were the Alphabet Rockers, a hip-hop kids group aiming to use their music towards the fight for social justice and equality." Their web bio sounds similarly exhausting: "Led by Kaitlin McGaw (she/her) and Tommy Soulati Shepherd (he/him/they), Alphabet Rockers create brave spaces to shape a more equitable world through hip hop, as two-time GRAMMY nominees, Othering & Belonging Institute Fellows and industry leaders for change."
"Eat The Rainbow" is all about eating good-for-you food that is colorful, but avoiding candy. "Yummy Yummy Fresh" is also about eating healthy food. His rapping kind of reminds me of KRS-One in many of these tracks. "The Word is Love" sounds like they brought Lenny Kravitz on to guest. Their 2007 original album looked very generic - like the cover has a cartoon hippo on it holding a microphone. 2012's Go! at least added in their pictures on the cover, but kept a kind of generic look. 2012's Back to School is a little more cool, but 2017's Rise Shine #Woke finally has a good cover art. 2019's The Love also looks good.
The top track is "Just Be," with 107k streams. This is off of The Love, and features rappers Mahawam and Billy Dean Thomas.
Pretty fun track, although it makes me sad that the comments are turned off to the YouTube video. Maybe it means nothing, but probably it is because some dirtbags called them groomers because they made a song that is positive about being yourself. Their second-most streamed is annoying because it involves counting and ain't nobody wanna learn about counting right now. So, here is their most recent single instead, the lovely summer jam called "Slide."
No stream numbers yet, but a nice, chilled beat to go with some nice lyrics. Although, where the hell is the slide in that video? Do they just mean the slide dance move? I thought that the pool scene in the video meant that I'd get to see a bunch of kids riding a slide into the pool!
One Liner: Possibly not the worst Kiddie Limits band, if you believe Joseph
Wikipedia Genre: None, bad kiddie raps Home: Chicago Poster Position: Not on the poster Weekend One Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Every freaking year. Although, after having bagged on them year after year (examples in my prior reviewsof this dreck), my buddy Joseph went to see them with his twin boys a few years back and they really enjoyed it. Dammit. Because I love nothing more deeply than finding something horrible and then making sure that everyone agrees with my stance on that horrible thing. And so when Joseph sent me a video or audio file (something, I can't recall now) of his boys getting to help come up with topics that the Q Brothers then used to freestyle a rap on the spot, and I was impressed both with their rap ability and their improvisational skills, it crushed my black little heart into a sad place.
Shakespeare promo. Run away!
So, all that to be said, know that I would not recommend going and listening to their music online, but I would probably say that their live show is worth doing with your kids. BLECHH, I need a drink!
On top of that, they have actually released an album! 2021's Long Way Home! And the only song with any accumulated streams on Spotify is called "Chicago Fire"! And sounds like a crappy Hamilton rip off about the city of Chicago!
