During their interview with HipHopDX, the members of Kidz In The Hall were laughing and goofing off more than they were answering questions. But the emcee/producer duo of Naledge and Double-O has reason to be happy: about a year after making noise with their Rawkus debut and with a couple of solid mixtapes to hold listeners over, they’ve got a new deal with the legendary Duck Down Records. Their sophomore disc, The In Crowd, features them continuing their versatile, fundamentally sound brand of Hip Hop with guest shots from their Duck Down label-mates and the likes of Masta Ace, Phonte of Little Brother, Black Milk, Guilty Simpson and more.

Though one-time wallflowers, perceived by some as an aspiring Lupe Fiasco and a Just Blaze/Baseline Studio understudy, the Kidz have grown up into that popular crowd. The proverbial braces and zits have vanished, and the Chicago and New Jersey duo now can bask in the glory of comparing condom brands, sprinkling game on the freshmen and making an album that needs no comparisons or protege comments. New gear, new sounds and new swagger could position Naledge and Double O as independent Hip Hop's best bet. Like their Canadian namesake suggests, it's all sketch comedy for these gentlemen, and while their brand of Hip Hop remains intelligently crafted, nobody is seemingly looking at the Ivy League diplomas - posted next to the dartboard on their walls.

HipHopDX: I last interviewed you guys a little more than a year ago, and a lot has happened since then. What’s been going on with y’all?
Naledge: A lot of good vagina.
Double-O: It’s basically like that. We figured out a way to crawl out of the womb and crawl back in when we want to, and it’s been a great experience because of that.
Naledge: And we need that Magnum sponsorship real quick, right now.
Double-O: I’ve realized Magnums are a lie. They only equate five millimeters or some shit larger than regular condoms, and that’s a lie. Tell them they need to make every condom feel like natural lamb. If every condom felt like natural lamb condoms, we wouldn’t have the problems in the hood that we have now.
Naledge: That’s how our album feels, it feels like natural lamb.

DX: [Laughs]
Double-O: No, it does. You listen to that shit, and you think, “Wow, it shouldn’t feel this good, it’s so how unsafe [sic], but at least I won’t get pregnant." Nah man, we’ve just been livin’. That’s really all we’ve been doing. You grind for so long so that you can wake up every day and make music, so we don’t take that for granted at all. We have fun with this shit.

DX: You guys have a decent history as far as labels: you signed with Rawkus before, and you just signed with Duck Down. What do you think it is about you guys that makes you gravitate toward such grassroots type labels, and what makes you so attractive to them?
Double-O: Honestly, I think it’s more of a business move for them. They look at us and they see our team, and they see that 90% of our grinding, of us getting out there, is done by Major League [Entertainment]: myself, Naledge, and our two managers, and whoever else is working at Major League at the time as interns. We do it. So it’s in their benefit to do deals with us in terms of joint ventures, because they know we have this growing fan-base and dope music, but more than anything, we have this overly basic grind process. Not everybody puts in that work, and I think from the business end, that’s why people want to come fuck with us. They see what we do every day and out. … And, because I have amazing breasts.

DX: Breasts?
Double-O: Man-breasts! This is like our fourth interview. It’s about to get crazy.

DX: I look at your guys' situation, and it makes me have faith in music. You guys came in, got a record deal, maximized that situation, and you’ve been doing your thing ever since. How has your experience changed your perspective of the industry?
Naledge: I think we knew it was shady coming in, but shadiness is a way of life when you start creating music. It’s crazy what’s conventional in this industry is some of the most misogynistic, addictive, self-destructive things you can do in life. It’s a balance between knowing that it’s wrong but still loving it at the same time, and you have to be crazy to want to get involved in this industry. But the art that comes out of it is so beautiful…it makes it all worth it. Dealing with executives is a hassle, sometimes doing the business side of it is a hassle. But you love making the art, and that’s what drew you to Hip Hop in the first place, the moment you fell in love with it. Whether you heard a song, you were in the park, you were at a party, whatever. Whatever happened, that’s what drew you in, that’s why you stay with it. The industry aspects of it, you get used to. I’m sure if you become a doctor, you might not have always liked looking at blood, but it’s just something that you get used to. It’s the same type of thing with Hip Hop. I never thought I would be in the studio with people consistently doing drugs and things of that nature, but that’s how the music gets made, so you kind of just live with it.

DX: Your song “Work to Do” was chosen as the theme song to Barack Obama’s campaign.
Double-O: It’s just a great thing. A lot of the time we make these records as passing thoughts, and they become these huge things. We made the original version of “Work to Do” probably about a month and a half after School Was My Hustle first came out. It was still very early in terms of the Obama campaign, but the more we listened to it and the bigger we made the record, in terms of the choir and bringing in my man Robin and having him replay some stuff, it felt like it could represent something more. Naledge has always been behind Barack since there was a possibility that he was going to run, so once that became official, we ended up doing a version for him. Luckily, there were people connected to the campaign that we know and we were able to get it around there. That was another situation where they were sort of hesitant to pull the trigger, but as soon as we put it out and we did what we did in terms of the Internet with it in a matter of 24 hours, they hit us back like, “Boom, let’s go. We see what you guys do.” Like I said, it’s one thing to make a record; it’s another what you do with it.

DX: Have you guys had a chance to meet Obama?
Double-O: Not as of yet. I think Obama likes gangsta rap. He might not really like us. He’s a big N.W.A. fan; him and Oprah, they Crip-walk to N.W.A.
Naledge: [Oprah’s best friend] Gayle be in the club, I’m sure Oprah be in there with her every now and then.
Double-O: [sings] "Shot of Patron and I’m gone!"

DX: This time around, your Ivy League background isn’t as big of a plot in your marketing scheme. Was that a conscious decision, or just the way things worked out?
Naledge: I didn’t really go to school. I dropped out of high school, I was a joke. It was something we made up for the sake of the media. I didn’t really go to school. Eighth grade.
Double-O: I’m actually 43 years old. I’ve been to jail for about 15 years, and I came out and decided I could just make some shit up because I still got a baby face. The baby face didn’t work well for me on the inside, but on the outside, I’m good.Nah, the Ivy League was where we came from on our first album. We haven’t been to school now in a number of years. You can’t still rely on school. The records we were making were in school and fresh out of school. The first mixtape that we made that started getting buzz was two months after Naledge graduated in ’04. I was running track that whole time too, so even though I wasn’t in school, I was still in school mode. I was at school every day training. I dealt with all kinds of students. That was our mindset. Now we’ve been on the road, been in Europe. I basically lived in Europe for half a year. We are coming from a different standpoint now. And I’m smart; I don’t need to tell you I’m a genius, you hear it when I talk. [Laughs] It’s apparent. We came from school, we did what we did, we put this album out, and now we’re putting out the new album. We don’t need to go back and rehash the same thing.
Naledge: There’s also a lot of dumb mothafuckas with degrees too, though. You can be smart, and it doesn’t always tie in to having a degree. At the same time, going to school don’t make you a goody-goody either. I know a lot of whores that are in college right now, and a lot of man whores that are in colleges right now.
Double-O: I’m hoping to reach some more whores when we go on our college tour.
Naledge: And if you go to the club right now, a top-level club and you surveyed the entire crowd, I wouldn’t trip to say that four out of five people attended some type of college, or junior college or university. And they might be acting like idiots. So I think people need to get that whole school out of their mind, because we’re just individual people and that’s it. We come from where we come from, and that’s the moon.

DX: Sonically and lyrically, the new album seems a lot more accessible than your last one.
Double-O: We just got better. You get better every time you sit down to do your craft. Every shot that you make is better than the last shot you made while you’re practicing playing basketball. That’s kind of how we look at all this stuff. So for us, if you follow progression—which most people won’t, so we tell them—go download Detention, Naledge of Power, Geniuses Need Love. You hear the progression, you hear the songs getting better and getting better until we get to this point where we put this album out, and it’s kind of hot.
Naledge: It’s like buckets of fried chicken. And everybody loves chicken.
Double-O: We make fried chicken for the people. Our album is fried chicken and natural lamb condoms. And trees, all night. With Sportscenter on. With strippers that take paper instead of real money. All in one room, and it’s only you and the black light. That’s what we like to do, William.
Naledge: That’s why you should buy the album alone. We’re cool people to hang around. Who cares if you make decent music? If you’re a loser, you’re still a loser.
Double-O: This album is an experience of hanging out with Kidz In The Hall. You get the album, you also go to the corner store and get a square bottle of Patron, if not some Don Julio, if not some plastic bottle vodka, or Andre. Turn the lights down low, press play, sit in the dorm room, invite some people over, and ya know, do what you do. Hopefully, it’ll end up in an orgy. That’s really all that we want. This is how I knew this is what our place was. My homeboy calls me. School Is My Hustle is in stores, he goes to Best Buy. His name is in the “Thank you’s.” He buys the album, opens it up immediately, and he’s like, “Awww shit!” There was a girl there, apparently in the Hip Hop aisle too. So he’s like, “This is my boy, look, my name is in here.” Did he get her phone number? Yes he did! Did he have sex with her? Yes he did! That’s what we do. We’re that last song at the end of the night that you get a phone number for. When I play that last song when I’m deejaying and I give you an extra five minutes to get that girl’s phone number, because you were talking about some other shit the whole time? We provide that gift for the world.

DX: The album’s got a lot of guest shots, too: Masta Ace, Phonte, Guilty Simpson, Black Milk. The last album was mostly just you guys.
Double-O: You can thank Rawkus’ budget for that. Nah, all albums only start with two or three songs. That’s the kernel of the album, the root of the album, everything builds around it. When this album started, it only started as an album where we wanted a little bit of a sparring session. Sometimes, you have to lay shit out in front of people. So it’s like, “Okay, we fuck with all of these people, let’s get them together to show that this is going to be the next 10 years.” These people are not the only people, but they’re representative of people that are pushing the forefront of music. You should support them, because they love what they do, we love what we do, and that’s all of it. It’s almost a call to arms: “Fans, if you think this way, this is what you need to be doing. This is what you should be listening to, this is what you should be looking for in new music.” This is our mission statement, to be a part of The In Crowd.
Naledge: The person who thinks they can change things by themselves will be the person that will end up alone, with no children, no wife, and no husband. Because at the end of the day, it’s a community. You came in this game appreciating artists, so if people appreciate you, at the same token, you can’t always isolate yourself off. The best artists of the game fed off people, the best artists in the game take ideas from different people in the room. The best artists in the room surround themselves with the best so they can compete. It’s a competition that’s healthy. If you just sit in the corner or on your block and spit your raps around your boys, they already sound the same. If you make your beats in the basement, they’re going to always sound the same if you don’t open yourself up. We’re opening up a community to where we feel like the future great should belong. At the same time, we’re making our record. It ended up this is our album, viola: it’s music, here it goes. It’s an exhibit of art: come in and look at it.