All the plate glass on the front of Nails R Us was covered with black plastic, but when I opened the door it was like I’d been gang tackled by color and light. The salon had been repurposed for the day as the set for the first video by local rapper Kid Sister, and it was a lot to take in: the walls were stunningly orange and covered with racks of nail polish in every possible shade, and the place was stuffed with lighting rigs and cameras and technicians and stylists and dancers dressed like In Living Color Fly Girls in multicolored DayGlo flight jackets.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Everyone else in Nails R Us had already been through “Pro Nails” at least a dozen times by the time I showed up. At first I only knew the chorus–“Got her toes done up and her fingernails matchin’,” delivered in a slowed-down, Houston-style slur–but like most people on the set, I could soon rap through the verses, which are about not only having good-looking nails but encountering the kind of jealous hating you get when you have nice things like good-looking nails. Even after hearing it all day long, most of us singing along still smiled while we did it.
Considering he had one day to shoot, Fleischer had a lot planned. As soon as he got a couple good shots of Kid Sister getting her nails done, he rounded up the Fly Girls and had them wreath her face with their own elaborate acrylics. From off to the side where I was standing, it looked corny, but on the playback monitor it was super slick. “It looks like a Maybelline commercial,” A-Trak said, beaming.
That process ought to get a big bump from Kanye West, who rapped on “Pro Nails” when he put it on his Can’t Tell Me Nothing mix tape this summer, then made sure his verse stayed in when the song came out on Fool’s Gold. Kanye happened to be in town to accept an award at a Recording Academy event honoring Chicago artists–he’d invited Flosstradamus along to spin a tribute set–and afterward he rolled over to Nails R Us to jump into the video. He came with an entourage, but he wasn’t too stuck-up to jam his expensive-looking blond leather gloves into the little plastic Air Force Ones for some finger dancing. Curt Cameruci, Floss’s other half, sighed and said, “Man, from shitty-ass Town Hall Pub to here.”
