Kool Keith - Nogatco Rd
Label: Insomniac Music
Grade: D
Highlight: Live Dissection
Overview: Is there any doubt that Kool Keith doesn’t have his stars aligned? This album is clearly on some intergalactic, space age shiz. It’s part emceeing, part poetry and a lot of babbling about topics such as dinosaurs, alien autopsies, and force fields. Keith is fortunate that he has his Ultramagnetic rep to fall back on or many hip hop heads wouldn’t even pick this album off the racks. Then again, the cover artwork is dope, so you never know. Honestly, I just don’t get the whole Dr. Octagon (Nogatco spelled backwards- get it?) shtick. Either it makes no sense or I need to start staying up late to catch the new Battlestar Galactica. The album is produced by IZ-REAL (“Venomous Villain”), and the beats are decent, but it they would hit a lot harder if someone was actually spittin’ over them. Instead, you get a lot of rambling, half of which doesn’t rhyme or make sense to the non-Trekkie population. If I had to pick a highlight, I would go with “Live Dissection,” only because it features Sole (of Anticon) and Sage Francis, who rhyme a few words here and there. Other than that, Kool Keith/Dr. Octagon/Black Elvis/Dr. Doom continues to be in his own celestial galaxy. If you are a fan of this, please drop me a reply and let me know exactly what it is that continues to make labels fund these sci-fi projects. I’m all (Spock) ears…
May 15th, 2006
Yo, if you are a real Kool Keith fan this album is one of Keith’s hottest in a long while. The production is wild cause it’s not your typical 4 count type thing, it goes all over, with rock and drum n bass and just fat beats. Keith raps in his own world, so you either get it or you don’t. I’m feeling this for sure. Plus, not sure if you checked the crazy CD Rom bonus stuff. When it comes to the master of out of this world hip hop it don’t get much better than this. Tezzy