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Dusted Reviews
Artist: Dr. Dooom Album: Dr. Dooom 2 Label: Threshold Review date: Oct. 23, 2008 |
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On Dr. Dooom 2, Kool Keith kills Dr. Octagon again. And again. And again. He’s drowned. Stabbed. Stoned. Electrocuted. The plug of his respirator pulled. He also uses the time to ponder dilemmas like, “Since when do rappers wear shoes?”, manage a professional sports franchise with MC Serch, fill fish tanks with Patrón, unleash a diss track against Simon Cowell, bathe with raccoons and visit Octagon’s grave.
The record’s terminal mission aside, Keith’s latest exploit is one more chance to befuddle insipid rappers and flex his uncalculated argot. He boasts toting a “Louis V pad” and he’s using it to jot down anything that comes to mind. As with everything Keith-related, he’s on point when he’s leaving them nonplussed with wild tangents and non sequiturs. Like this classic detour after the graphic description of his alter ego’s demise: “A Yoo-Hoo and donuts / I had 200,000 people going so nuts.” He also doubts Kareem’s current ability on the blocks and has esophaguses shipped from China. All this lowbrow flippancy occasionally produces brilliance; in reference to bullshit critics he drops, “They destroyed the goodness like somebody pissing in the snow.”
Kutmasta Kurt, who helped give Octagon life in 1995 and steered Kool Keith’s personal climax, Sex Style, is back on the other side of the booth, and he keeps his “drums first” agenda intact, at times appending maelstroms of tablism to Keith’s free association. The two go way back, originally meeting after Kurt created a radio edit of unofficial Ultramagnetic MC Tim Dog’s “Fuck Compton.” The three would later form an abridged version of the crew dubbed Ultra. Kutmasta also helmed the first Dr. Dooom LP, the overtly hostile Matthew, and the Diesel Truckers record under both names.
Over a menacing TomC3 production (the lone not handled by Kurt), Dooom offers this unwitting, almost serious intro: “You ever notice, you hear the same guys talking the same stuff, every year after year. They use the same concepts. They kick the same stuff. It just gets monotonous over and over … I’m the best at this.” The excerpt works as a synopsis of Keith’s entire catalog. An MC is only as good as he thinks he is, and Dooom unflinchingly declares on the track, “I’m the God of Rap / The Lord of Music / The one who brought hip-hop back to life.” At the very least, his singleness of purpose is a reason it never died.
By Jake O'Connell
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