Photo: Mike Rosley

“Watch My Feet” from psychedelic rap duo Dude ’N Nem put Chicago’s juke footworking—an outgrowth of break dancing’s uprocking moves—on the big map. The duo is poised to blow up when its debut, Tinted Incubators, surfaces in 2008. We chatted by cell with Upmost (25, originally of Cabrini Green) and Trygic (24, raised on the West Side) as they took a break from the studio grind.

Were you into juke before you recorded “Watch My Feet”?
Upmost: We’ve been into juke since we were little kids because that’s a part of Chicago culture. [Trygic] wanted to do a song called “Watch My Feet.” It was going to be a juke song for the footworkers. Our in-house producer Xcel brought us the beat for that track and Trygic basically catered to it and the rest is history.

Can people handle the tempo?
Trygic: If you never heard what juking was and then you heard the song on the radio, you are like, “Okay it’s a little different, but it sounds kinda cool, it’s catchy, I like the song.” But when people see the dancing that go with it and actually see the culture through the video, then they get a better understanding.

Can you guys dance as well as you can sing then?
Trygic: Different people in the Chi…they know how to do it. We try to do it sometimes, I ain’t gonna lie, we try, but it doesn’t look as good as when they do it.
Upmost:
I used to do it so fast that I had to stop because my feet set on fire.

What does Tinted Incubators mean?
Trygic: We feel like we’ve been cool since birth, so when we were born they put us in tinted incubators because we was different.

What else is coming up?
Upmost: Look for the Dude ’N Nem cooking show on YouTube. We going to be in the kitchen doing our thing. We’re going to shoot the “McDonald’s” video. We made a song about going on a date to McDonald’s.

Why wouldn’t you just cook for your girlfriend instead of going to McDonald’s?
Trygic: Because we done that already, that’s too expensive. We wanna let people know it’s okay to go to McDonald’s from time to time. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to make a connection and have a good meal.

Where do you like to hang out?
Upmost: We like to go to the gym, work out. We like to go to little cafés and sip on some tea. We’re more laid-back and reserved, but when we get on stage it’s like Superman, when he put on the cape—it’s time to save the day.

Is there a connection between juke and fine food?
Trygic: It’s a new thing. It’s like Dude ’N Nem is laying eggs all around and waiting for dinosaurs to hatch. They ain’t never seen a dinosaur before, they gonna see one.

—John Dugan