Dr. Octagon (Kool Keith) launched the mind-blowing hip-hop album Dr. Octagonecologyst on Might 7, 1996—completely satisfied 27thbirthday! I keep in mind so very clearly first listening to that album—which featured Kool Keith and Dan the Automator—shortly after its launch, and I did not know precisely what was occurring, however I knew I beloved each second of it. It has been on heavy rotation for nearly 3 many years now—it is laborious to consider it is 27 years previous, when it sounds prefer it might have dropped yesterday. The Ringer celebrated its 25 birthday with a terrific article offering a deep dive into Kool Keith’s life and the album’s historical past. This is a pattern:
And so we come right here at this time to reward Dr. Octagonecologyst whereas additionally releasing Kool Keith from the monumental burden of being Dr. Octagon on a regular basis. Within the mid-’90s, the beyond-eccentric rapper—born Keith Matthew Thornton within the Bronx in 1963—was finest identified for his stint within the Golden Age crew Ultramagnetic MCs, whose 1988 debut, Important Beatdown, is an all-timer (“Kool Keith Housing Issues” is reality in song-titling) and whose full catalog deserves extra respect than it will get. (“Gentle up your internal cranium and fritter away your rectum,” Keith boasts on a late-period throwaway referred to as “Talkin’ Out Ya Ass,”which flaunts extra uncooked persona than loads of his opposition’s failed hit singles. “MCs are doo-doo, I by no means did respect ’em.”) However this man was destined for various planets, totally different galaxies, totally different faculties of musical and medical and sexual thought. And with some assist from San Francisco producer Dan the Automator, whose style for eerie whimsy would quickly mild up information by the likes of Gorillaz and Good-looking Boy Modeling College, Keith kicked off one of many wildest solo careers in rap historical past by reinventing himself as a sex-crazed, homicidal, space-age experimental surgeon named, sure, Dr. Octagon. So many rectums to fritter away, so little time.
Go learn the remainder right here, and please, I encourage you, take a while to take heed to Dr. Octagonecologyst at this time!
