Kool Keith’s ‘Blast’ b/w ‘Uncrushable’ on Three One G

If you’re looking for one of those doctors who has taken the Hippocratic oath, Kool Keith may not be your man. “Fuck it, he’s dead,” Keith’s alter ego, Dr. Octagon, pronounced on his 1996 debut, as his latest patient expired of cirrhosis of the eye and a horse wandered the halls of the hospital. Truth be told, the bedside manner of his alter alter ego, Dr. Dooom, was not very comforting either. Doing harm was pretty much his bag.

But if you’re looking for a barber surgeon of the medieval period, who’ll do you for a bloodletting, a leeching and an enema—a specialist in taking apart who still needs some practice putting back together—no one will slice and dice you like Kool Keith. I think that’s why the line “Do not be bougie with the facelift” on “Blast” chills me to the bone: can you imagine how your face would look after a few hours in the operating room with Kool Keith? Emerging from anesthesia, feeling the new apertures for undiscovered bodily functions with which he’s pimped your head? Looking in the mirror through the eyes of an alligator and a shark? As Keith feeds you sashimi cuts of your own brain?
 

Heather Hunter Photography
 
Speaking of horrors, one of the best performances I have ever seen in my life was Kool Keith’s set at the 2004 Coachella Festival, the only year I attended the Southland’s annual historical reenactment of a dysentery outbreak in a Civil War infirmary. About 20 minutes in, Keith stopped rhyming and started counting: “one. . . two. . . three. . . four. . . five. . .” He counted to, I think, 27 before making an abrupt exit (“Fuck it, Coachella, we out!”—mic drop) that left his nonplussed hype man swaying on the stage, eyes darting anxiously from side to side.

So I’m pleased to introduce the music video below, a short slasher movie dramatizing Planet B’s (i.e., Justin Pearson and Luke Henshaw’s) remix of “Blast” from Kool Keith’s new EP on Three One G. (The record concludes with a mashup of “Uncrushable” and “Church of the Motherfuckers” by Dead Cross, the supergroup with members of Faith No More, Slayer and Retox.) Unless you work in a charnel house, it is NSFW.
 

 
WARNING: Extremely catchy earwig ahead.

For the first time since 1996, the trio behind Dr. Octagonecologyst the classic and influential Kool Keith solo album have joined forces again. Dr. Octagon, a three-member group—Dan the Automator (Handsome Boy Modeling School, Deltron 3030, Gorillaz), DJ Qbert (Invisibl Skratch Piklz) and Keith—are back with their first video “Flying Waterbed” from the upcoming album Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripulation which is due out on April 6th via Dan the Automator’s Bulk Recordings. (Stream it now via NPR First Listen.)

“Flying Waterbed” shows that they were ready to pick right up where they left off, offering up an insanely catchy song with all of the silly, surreal wordplay Kool Keith is known for, with Qbert’s nearly superhuman technical skills and Dan Nakamura’s synthy sonics and production chops ably backing him up. The video wasn’t halfway over before I was thinking to myself “This song is going to be playing over and over in my head all weekend.”

The Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripulation album will be released April 6th digitally and on CD and double LP. All physical versions of the album include an exclusive 12th track “Aviator Hype.” The official artist store will be carrying a special limited edition version of the double LP, with only 1,000 copies printed worldwide on blood splattered vinyl and alternate gatefold album art.
 

 
Watch it, after the jump…
 

 
Take the “who said it” Kool Keith vs. James Joyce challenge:

One is the most innovative writer of the 20th century, the other is James Joyce. Can you distinguish between sentences written by the Irish novelist and the lyrics of surrealist rapper Kool Keith?

Via The World’s Best Ever