Kool Keith

Keith Matthew Thornton, better known as Kool Keith, is an American hip hop artist and record producer.

Biography

Career

Dr. Octagon publicity photo: Dan "The Automator" Nakamura and Kool Keith.

An original member of New York's new-school pioneers the Ultramagnetic MCs, Kool Keith is best known as a somewhat controversial solo rapper. Keith's signature style of stream-of-consciousness lyrical flow, and his ability to drop complex vocals with apparent ease, earns him a perennial nod from the underground hip-hop community. Bizarre, disjointed, even delusional or disassociated themes, concepts, and references tend to season the average Kool Keith track or album. Nearly all of his albums incorporate a satirical dislike for more commercialized strains of hip-hop, which he finds to be gimmicks and mostly full of false tales. Throughout his raps he likes to expose major labels and overhyped MCs for what they are in his eyes, phonies and fakes.

Kool Keith's early career and lyrics with the Ultramagnetic MCs often made use of his growing reputation as a somewhat unstable character, and onetime patient of Bellevue, a psychiatric hospital, where he was treated for depression. With Ultramagnetic, Keith's abstract style developed, maturing in songs like "Poppa Large." Almost all rappers have an alter ego (i.e. Keith Thornton v. Kool Keith), but Keith was probably the first whose alter ego had its own alter ego (Kool Keith v. Moe Luv). After Ultramagnetic broke up, Kool Keith expanded his resume, experimenting with new styles, including his self-described "pornocore," known for pornographic imagery and brutal, abstract lyrics. Sex Style released in 1997, was the showcase for this style.

Teaming up with Dan "the Automator" Nakamura under the name Dr. Octagon, Keith again reinvented his image, recording the self-titled Dr. Octagon album (later reissued under the title Dr. Octagonecologyst) which was released by the English trip hop label Mo' Wax. The album received critical acclaim, though mainly from atypical sources outside the mainstream hip-hop community. The critical success of the album helped to open the accessibility of the underground hip hop scene to an appreciative audience. For the Automator, this album laid the foundation for a burgeoning career and accolades as a producer; for Kool Keith, the success of Octagonecologyst seemed to put him in danger of being typecast as a "space and Mars" rapper, or an industry tool, which he throughout his career has looked down upon. Such typecasting would not be completely unwarranted. However, his science fiction-influenced technobabble is better understood in the context of his style as a whole, which is characterized by non sequiters and bizarre commentary, particularly anal, fecal and genital references. For example, "Chief administrator suck my oil," "Dr. Ludicrous I turn into an octopus," "All this jealousy shit is mayonnaise and celery shit," "Two drinks minimum, don't worry, we're maximum," etc. Increasing Keith's frustration with the Octagon crew, an instrumental version of the album, Instrumentalyst, which showcased the production, became a rising success with most of the credit given to the Automator and other collaborators, even though Keith is credited on the LP with more roles than just lyrics. The result was Kool Keith's complete rejection and abandonment of the Octagon character, who was literally killed off in the introduction to Keith's next album, Dr. Dooom. Perhaps as a jab at Instrumentalyst's success, Keith has released instrumental versions of many post-Octagon albums.

While Octagonecologyst was many Kool Keith fans' first taste of his style, still others discovered him on The Prodigy's 1997 album The Fat of the Land. Long time fans, the Prodigy invited Kool Keith to supply the lyrics on "Diesel Power" after they used a sample from Ultramagnetic that became the lyrics and title for their (soon-to-be) hit "Smack My Bitch Up." In a surprising turn of events, Kool Keith sued Prodigy for failing to clear the "Smack my bitch up" sample, claiming he did not support the misogynistic views from that late 80s song any longer. Previously Liam Howlett had sampled "Pay close attention, I'll take your brain to another dimension" on the single "Out Of Space", without incident.

Released simultaneously with the independent Dr. Dooom was major-label effort of Black Elvis/Lost in Space, which, ironically, saw Keith rapping about "space and Mars." While Dr. Dooom was produced with the very cut-down, minimalist beats and production work of Kutmasta Kurt, Black Elvis featured much more complex lyrical styling and deeper, multi-layered tracks developed by a host of collaborators and Keith himself. The dichotomy lead to something of a division between Keith's long-time fans: many regard the minimalist work with Kutmaster Kurt (e.g. Sex Style, Dr. Dooom, and the later Matthew) to be the authentic Kool Keith, while others, longing for a return to the deeper and more complex work on Octagonecologyst and Black Elvis were disappointed with what they considered to be mediocre, or even shoddy work by Kurt.

Keith returned to his commercialism-critical bitterness in 2000's Matthew, including the widely-cited anti-label rant "Test Press", lambasting mainstream rap record labels as being "white" and damning them for performing devious, duplicitous tricks with acts, artistic decisions, and profits. Subsequent collaborations have included Masters of Illusion, Clayborne Family, the Analog Brothers, Jurassic 5 and his current effort (as of 2004) with Thee Undatakerz, who have collaborated with members of the Wu Tang Clan to produce the soundtrack to Blade: Trinity. Keith is also a well-known favorite of Princess Superstar, and has collaborated with her on several tracks. Keith played Crazy Lou, a gun dealer and former marine who was, "dishonorably discharged for sexual misconduct with a deadly weapon," in Prince Paul's groundbreaking hip-hopera A Prince Amongst Thieves. The password to his underground bodega/R&D facility? "Enema bandit."

Miscellanea

Kool Keith is often credited with playing bass on his tracks in album liner notes (among other roles), and was pictured with bass in hand on the back of the Black Elvis album.
Keith has stated in an interview that his favorite rhyme is voodoo/doodoo.
Keith come out with a DVD in 2005 called "Global Enlightenment, Part 1." In he talks about why he drinks seltzer water, celery, and pumpernickel bread. He does this so his friends won't steal his food. After that there is not too much interesting material to this very short DVD.

Notable lyrics

"Creating rap music cuz I neva dug disco."
"Don't sleep on me, you slept on Bernhard Goetz."
"I don't give a fuck about Funkmaster Flex, he don't give a fuck about me."
"For additional information please dial 1-800-PP5-1DOODOO."
"Back in Spyro, I roast humans like a Gyro, New York to Atlanta to Africa to Cairo."
"Dr. Octagon now serving coleslaw with pink pickles."
"Live, from the Great Western Forum, May 17th 1996, Dr. Octagon (Oncologyst) performed live with Chewbacca Uncircumcised, Kurt Cobain, and Roger from Zapp,
"That's word to Mom Duke, you wack you get the boot."
"With my white eyes, gray hair, face is sky-blue yellow sideburns react, my skin is colored lilac. My skin turn orange and green in the limousine People think I'm mixed with shark, drinking gasoline."
"I choose my subjects personal man that's what I want to write, critics critique I compel their docile rap is weak."*
"Sweaty as a muthafucka/The best rapper can lick my ass."
"Pissin' in ya face/Pissin' in the right place."
"Museums worship me like pyramids."
"Earth people...New York and California. Earth people...I was born on Jupiter."
"Touch my private, my thing made of steel/Shootin gizm, she ride like a Geo Prism."