NEW YORK (Damon Locks) - 9 years since the critically acclaimed debut came out, Kool Keith has resurfaced with "The Return of Dr Octagon".
While people all over the world had been trying to work with Keith for years, the production team of One Watt Sun were the guys to finally nail him down. Berlin based, One Watt Sun consists of Ben Green, Simon Walbrook and John Lindland, all three prominent producers, Djs and electronic musicians in their own right, collectively having shared stages with everyone from New Order to Radiohead to Fugazi. They recorded the album between a 12th century turret in Prague, Australia's Byron Bay and in One Watt Sun's home studios in Berlin. This album has Keith doing his thing over electro-influenced futuristic hip-hop beats that suit his style perfectly, talking about dying trees, peanut-butter-assisted stalking encounters, gorillas driving pick up trucks and searching for a perfect world.
From the rumors about having written the first Dr. Octagon record in one night while on acid, to stints in Bellevue, to penning some of the most original and brilliant rhymes in hip-hop history, Kool Keith is an elusive, enigmatic hip-hop legend who's done it again.
Background info on the infamous Kool Keith aka Dr. Octagon below.
Kool Keith aka Keith Thornton, first emerged as part of the legendary New York crew, the Ultramagnetic MCs, back in 1987. At a time when rap was slowly making the transition from B-Boy braggadocio to a more aggressive, politicized stance, the group quickly established themselves as lyrical innovators with such classics albums as Critical Beatdown, Funk Your Head Up, and the Four Horsemen. >From the Ultramags to his own solo releases under a number of different identities, Kool Keith has been responsible for now-classic hip-hop records, each one a testament to his bugged out sensibility and lyrical genius: Sex Style, his album under his own name, started it off, followed by the legendary Cenobites project with Godfather Don, to the Dr. Dooom project with Kutmasta Kurt, to his Black Elvis project. But the one that garnered him the most notoriety and praise was the 1996 classic Dr Octagonecologyst. Produced by Dan the Automator, Kool Keith played the role of a sexually deviant doctor, telling tales that dropped the jaws of everyone who heard it. Assisted by Q-bert on the turntables, this album was a landmark in the careers of all three involved.
