Eight times the kool

Kool Keith's favorite rhyme is doodoo and voodoo. \nDr. Octagon, Kool Keith's most famous alter ego, is the hip hop embodiment of his scatological, occult obsessions. While his contemporaries were glorifying gang violence and misogyny, Kool Keith was exploring his own brand of interstellar, mutant gore and bizarre sexual fetish. At times, it's hard to tell which is more obscene.\nDr. Octagonecologyst, released 10 years ago, opened up the world of underground hip hop to an otherwise oblivious audience. The album's critical acclaim has been a mixed blessing for Kool Keith. He is by no means an unskilled rapper, but he has struggled to prove that he is more than aliens, monsters and porn. This year's The Return of Dr. Octagon and Nogatco Rd, which continue the saga of the vulgar doctor, do not speak in his favor. Controversies aside, Dr. Octagonecologyst is an important album to the history of rap.\nThe album begins with an ominous groove layered with a sample from a doctor/nurse porn scene. This track sets the mood for the rest of the album, an even mixture of b-horror movie and x-rated movie. "Halfsharkalligatorhalfman" and "Girl Let Me Touch You" perfectly embody this dynamic. \nNo track on the album comes close to what you would expect from a rap album, especially not one from 1996. Tracks like "3000," "Earth People" and "Blue Flowers" most closely resemble traditional hip hop. Even those tracks are a stretch. The hook for "Earth People" is "Earth People, New York and California. Earth People, I was born on Jupiter," and "3000" contains the diss "Your whole crew is ice cream." Hardly the words of a ruthless gangster.\nWhile undoubtedly great, this album is still plagued with filler. Skits are par for the course in rap, but Dr. Octagonecologyst is bursting at the seams with skits, whose uncompromising anatomical and sexual specificity could make Dr. Ruth blush.\nThe album's disjointed flow almost seems an appropriate companion to Kool Keith's angular, stream of consciousness raps. His lyrical skills are on par with better known, yet comparable, MCs like MF Doom and Ghostface Killah, but his pacing leaves something to be desired.