Before they rocked SXSW today we had a chance to chat with Kidz In The Hall about their upcoming album, the Chicago scene, and, of course, booty.

When does the album come out?
Double-O: It comes out May 13th. The In Crowd: The Greatest Story Ever Told On Earth, In Life, and In Space. The short title is The In Crowd.

Why should geniuses get love?
Double-O: Hmmm, Naledge should answer that.

Naledge: Why do geniuses get love? I suppose because they are able to outsmart everybody. That's attractive. Power is attractive. Knowledge is attractive. And it just so happens to be my moniker so it's fitting, it's very fitting. Geniuses normally have great sex drives, so that's another reason I suppose. Actually I admit it, I'm a genius and I have a pretty great sex drive. You know, all that pent-up intelligence has to come out, you know. I'm creative, creativity is important if you want to keep it interesting.

So what's your relationship status?
Naledge: I mean, I don't have a ring on my finger but, you know, I do what I do when I can do it.

Double-O: I am an international man of leisure! That's really all. I mean, that's all I got right now. I mean, definitely, you know. Single.

There's a lot of buzz about Chicago this year, Kanye's winning Grammy's, Obama is doing well—is the scene coming into it's own? Is this it's year to shine?
Double-O: Yeah. Naledge is from Chicago, so I'll let him answer, but I definitely think Chicago is going to have a strong year. Because not only Kanye, but Lupe won a Grammy this year. You know, you have a bunch of people having fun and really getting their just due or really breaking through and obviously the underground scene in Chicago is definitely getting it's light now, so.

Naledge: I think it has less to do with Chicago than, like, people wanting something different. I think some of it is coincidence that there's no other right now, where, when you get creative artists that are coming into the market that are being innovators and doing things differently and getting attention you're going to wonder where they came from. And, I feel like people just keep digging and digging and digging.

Chicago's always had a lot of talented artists and now it's just being exposed. It's something that was already there. I don't think that it's our year, it's just Chicago's time to be exposed. I don't think it's going to stop after a year. I think these are credible artists that are coming out. And it's not necessary trendy and there's nothing linear about it. You can't really compare a Kid Sister to me or the Cool Kids to Lupe. You could try, but it's not really the same. There are traces where you can tell we're all from the same place, but we're all artists in our own right. It's not necessarily a wave like you saw in Atlanta or when LA had it's run or even Houston, with the screw music. It's a little different.

Is the underground just particularly nurturing there? Is it friendly or is there beef or what?
Naledge: Oh there's no beef! I think for a long time Chicago artists kind of just looked at it like “well, since we can't get record deals we should be competitive with each other”. And now we're starting to realize that having a unified front makes up more valuable to the industry and it's going to allow us to make a lot more money. I think there was a point in time where artists would know that another artist was talented, but wouldn't necessarily respect it. Because we figured there was only room for one artist from Chicago to make it. And now that's not necessarily the case. We realize that we all bring something to the table, that we can all be exposed. And if we all get on, we can all tour, and if we all tour, we can all get money, and be happy ,and bring money to the city we love and that we always envisioned. And I think that's something unique.

Who are you liking right now? Who do you think is getting more attention than they deserve?
Double-O: I mean, honestly, like, I like attention, I always thinking I should be getting more attention. But you can't really worry about what other people are doing. Because is everybody was a star there are still going to be stars that burn brighter than others. So you can't sit there and worry about what somebody is getting. Because what I've learned in this game is that if someone doesn't necessarily have a certain of level it's not that they haven't busted their ass, you know. There are a lot of people that really grind, that are just great hustlers, that just might not be talented musicians or artists, but because of their hustle, grind, and business acumen, have been able to get far. And that, in turn, gets them a certain amount of status. So, you learn to respect all of those people because they got there. So, I don't think anything is undeserved. Sometimes I think some things are premature. But, you know, definitely not undeserved.

How do you feel about the term hipster rap? Do you feel it applies to you?
Double-O: No. Because the definition of a hipster is a, well, I don't know what the original Wikipedia definition was when they used it back in the '50s, but now it's become a very pretentious title. It defines somebody who may or may not really be attached to the art form, but they just like it because it's kind of ahead of the curve or it's cool. So, I think that all it is is another definition, trying to define a sub-genre of music that they just haven't figured out how to define yet. That, really, to me, that's the buzz on music going around right now. I don't call it hipster rap, there's a lot of different types of stuff going on, it'd not just hipsters that like it. It just so happens that the bloggers and some of the more forward-thinking people are up on it.

I mean, every box is going to be a poor definition, because no box is truly that solid on every side. Every time they try to coin a phrase for somebody, they next time they do some shit, they're probably going to defy what that definition was. Not on purpose, just because you're regular people and no one is one-dimensional.

Is hip-hop dead?
Double-O: Not at all. I feel like, with The In Crowd it's a call to arms to all the people that still love this music. Because regardless of people may think, I mean, say what you may about Soulja Boy, but Soulja Boy is what? 17 years old? Which means that he only really got into hip-hop three years ago. People have been saying hip-hop is dead for a long, long time, and the fact that he still comes out and makes his music because he loves hip-hop and just decided to do it his way, it's very much alive.

Not everybody may like it, but, I'm not his age. I'm not meant to like it. You see these new generations of musicians coming out and you know these kids can do it. I mean all this beef between Sean Taylor and him is like, these are young, young people that are under the age of 18 making hip-hop. How can you it's dead when you have a whole new generation of kids coming out?

Yeah, I mean, regardless of what you may think, that kids younger than you or I are making music, that's impressive. You don't see that in a lot of other genres.
Double-O: Exactly. I mean, so, it's very much alive, it's very much still organic in a certain sense. And that's why I think the Chicago scene is blowing it because they did it for the love for so long and now the love and talent has spawned a very creative base for a lot of dope things to come out of.

How are you spending your time these days?
Double-O: I'd like to just lay on a naked booty, most of the time. I'd just like to lay my hand on a naked booty. That's really how ideally I'd like to spend time. I might cup a breast, I might not, but really my hand is on the booty. Or right on the arch, in the sway of the back. With one eye looking at the booty.

So it's about the booty these days?
Double-O: In the downtime, in the downtime. Obviously music is the number one priority, but booty is very inspirational to so many things. The way it moves, the way it feels, the way you bite it and it feels a certain way. That inspires me to do a lot of stuff musically.

So it's work and play together, then?
Double-O: Exactly. I mean, but that's what it is, because life inspires what we do musically. And so that's a part of the life right now.

But, I mean, we're going on tour with Gym Class in a month, we shoot our video this weekend, so really just working right now. The artist grind.

When does the tour with Gym Class start?
Double-O: April 3rd. It's a month-long tour.

Are you excited about that? I guess I see Gym Class as more pop-punk or rock, are you looking forward to that kind of audience?
Double-O: We've done some shows with them before, but our audience is very diverse, and their audience is very diverse and people aren't one-dimensional anymore. You can listen to us and you can listen to Gym Class and Fall Out Boy and Wu-Tang and Rage Against the Machine and it's all in one, it's all on your iPod. All these audiences cross these days.

It's definitely an exciting thing. Sometimes I think, unfortunately, those audiences are a little more open-minded than some of the super, super stick to the script hip-hop audiences, who still base everything on the five elements and if it's not about the five elements it's not about anything. I think that, for us, it's about just enjoying the music. Forget any attachment to a definition that you had, you take it and you love it. So I think there is definitely audience is able to do that, so that's exciting right now.

Naledge, you have a book coming out? Or that has already been published, depending on the source.
Naledge: Both. I got one that came out when I was in high school and one I am currently working on. It's an idea, a dream I've always had to put a book out the same time as I put my solo album out, so that's probably one that will come to fruition. That's a motivation to go into the album.

What do enjoy about writing prose? How does that connect to your music?
Naledge: If you're a writer, you're a writer. If you want to express yourself with words. I've always said anybody who's a poet or anybody who's a writer, they're able to do rap music. It's whether they're able to put the time and due diligence into being into that game, as to whether they could be successful at it. It's all the same thing, really, it's all seamless.

The same opinions I would have writing an essay is the way I approach writing a verse, writing a song. A lot of time there's a thesis, there's a point to the song, the subject matter. Then you intro that, then you kind of get into the meaning of the story or the point you're trying to get across, then you conclude it. That's what most rap songs do. Whether it's about being at a party or going on a date with a chick or being in a relationship or talking about...anything. Any subject matter you could approach, it's a story. You have to write it. Or even if you don't write it, if you're making it up in your head as you go along, that's still an art.

Unlike some artists, my life is an open book. My emotions, I wear them on my sleeve. I leave it all on the paper, I leave it all on the beat. So if you hear one of my songs, you know me. If you understand my music than you understand me.

What's next for you?
Naledge: Solo record's next for me. That's something that's important to me, I've been working on it for so long. It's very important to me. This record with Double-O is the next twelve months, going to take up a lot of our time with shows and continuing to make good music, you know, we're going to keep putting out music that we love.

As far as branching out in our music, I'm not quite sure what ventures I'm going to get into, but i have an artist I've been working with. He's actually on the album, his name is Fooch, and I'm working on putting his music out and possibly starting a label of my own. Those are the types of things I'm interested in, but right now the focus is on just putting out music. That's the one thing I see a lot of artist do, venture out into acting, reality TV, clothing, things of that nature. I love hip-hop, that's why I'm in it. I'm not one of these people, who are trying to get money and get on to the next. I love to rap. I love to make rap music. I look at it as an art form, almost be like a jazz musician. I'll probably be writing raps when I'm 70. That's just me.

Any last words?
Naledge: Definitely check out the album, it's going to be the best album you hear all year.