Hip-Hop Duo Good Kid$ Launch Great EP With LoveLustLost

Words by Howi Bakunawa

Photos by Alyssa Chen

Good Kid$ Gaby Singson and Bernie Margulies dip out from Tipple and Slaw Katipunan, the location of their LoveLustLost EP launch show, to talk to us during a quick mid-set intermission. Gaby’s voice is already a little hoarse from rapping over Bernie’s tightly-produced beats. I ask him: “How are you feeling?”. Being the lyricist of the hip-hop duo, Gaby replies with a string of words that sound like they had been rapped rather than spoken: “I’m feeling great, having fun, feeling good. We’re Good Kid$ feeling good”.

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With Bernie Margulies (left) bringing in the beats and Gaby Singson (right) bringing in the rhymes, they’re both Good Kid$ feeling good. 

It’s not difficult to see why. It’s been a good year for the Good Kid$. Within a year after the launch of their first single, Show Me, the duo have just brought things full circle with the launch of their debut EP, LoveLustLost. The 5-track EP features songs like the aforementioned Show Me, Got Away (feat. Manu Guzman), and Sweeterman along with two previously unreleased songs: Coffee (feat. Trina Guytingco) and Lost in Your Soul (feat. Manu Guzman).

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Both Singson and Margulies draw upon personal experiences in the lyrical content and overall sound of LoveLustLost. A lot of the themes present in their debut EP, as the Good Kid$ name suggests, comes from the “experience of being a kid”, says Margulies. The tracks on the EP capture “what it’s like to fall in love as a teenager and the heartbreak,” Singson continues. Ultimately, the songs on the EP all come together to tell a story that “helps you grow as a person,” concludes Marguiles.

Hip-hop as a genre has always paid respects to the innovations of its forebears. If that’s the case, then Good Kid$ Gaby Singson and Bernie Marguiles have definitely paid their respects to the hip-hop game with the release of their debut EP. Their musical sensibilities are present throughout the EPs soul-infused sound. In writing his flows, Singson draws inspiration from the late Mac Miller, J.Cole, and Daniel Caesar along with locals performers like Curtismith. Marguiles’ ear for production is just as impressive with influences ranging from such acts as Kenny Beats, Dominic Fike, and BROCKHAMPTON.

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Fresh off the launch of their debut EP, things are looking bright for the Good Kid$

All of these musical influences come together along with both Singson’s and Marguiles’ own personal experiences to create something which they can call their own.

As Marguiles shares: “We just kept working on it [on our music] until we got out of SoundCloud… I’d cook up the beats and Gaby [Singson] would channel the vibe”. The Good Kid$ LoveLustLost EP represents their first big step from being 17-year olds making music in each other’s living rooms not too long ago to being musically-inclined, energetic, 20-something-year-old college students already making a name for themselves in the music scene today. It’s a debut effort that’s deserving of a listen based not only on its own merits but also to see where their sound will take the Good Kid$ in the years to come.

LoveLustLost available on all streaming platforms now. Follow the Good Kid$ over on www.facebook.com/goodkidsofficial