Kool Keith "Love & Danger". Not considered his best but somehow I love it. His rhymes are ridiculous.

#JukeboxFridayNight #KoolKeith #HipHop #AltHipHop

ok ok I'll cut it out now.

Concluding with a track that shows you so many of the #KoolKeith ingredients were already there right at the beginning. Ultramagnetic MC's - Traveling at the Speed of Thought (Remix).

"I'm like a bird when I'm pecking ya skull": https://youtu.be/h50LCkN08Lk?si=R4r5JgLd7t18VdPK

(I also love Ced-Gee going off beat in his verses, and calling himself out on it at the end: "that was too quick right?") #HipHop

would you like to hear a track featuring #KoolKeith and Faith No More’s Mike Patton? of course you would! https://youtu.be/AXBtWPjlpps?si=O5kfYyPkr5-TRkxK #hiphop

(note, by the way, how Dan the Automator is the connecting factor between Kool Keith and both Patton and Del)

none of you is liking my #KoolKeith 🧵 but I'm going to continue regardless.

I love his habit of working with lesser known but no less interesting artists. this duet with T-Love, title track from her debut EP The Return of the B-Girl, is a good example: https://youtu.be/I1dY_HhXCXM?si=dxPDoTptqGXptJRh #hiphop

Masters of Illusion, the Kustmasta Kurt-produced collaboration between #KoolKeith and Motion Man, comes closest to reviving the original Ultramagnetic MC’s sound: https://youtu.be/C-JA5RzxMkc?si=3tGB_xEwZdWv2zCT #HipHop

look at that amazing album cover, a pastiche on the No Limit Records covers of the time, but with 100% #KoolKeith bizarreness. #hiphop

remember Kutmasta Kurt from earlier in the 🧵? he kept making beats and they kept getting better and #KoolKeith kept working with him, creating another alter-ego, Dr Dooom, killing off Dr Octagon in the process. the first track after that execution is No Chorus, which has no chorus. https://youtu.be/BuWt_MaV6nI?si=gMekCLOlvmVOJX3S #hiphop

Pimp to Eat is also among the weirdest either #KoolKeith or Ice-T ever recorded. glorious, glorious weirdness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWI6_QTUbQ

plus most of the keyboards are operated by the same guy who sang the chorus on Ice-T's I'm Your Pusher, apparently. #hiphop

"Yeah #KoolKeith should keep it real
He should rap about space and Mars" - Kool Keith dissing himself is hilarious to me.

https://youtu.be/Sv6dYo_S8lg?si=LLj9pWVId9vc0BFi

(I suspect we also have the blueprint for early Neptunes production in these recordings) #HipHop #nsfw #lewd

"Yeah #KoolKeith should keep it real
He should rap about space and Mars" - Kool Keith dissing himself is hilarious to me.

https://youtu.be/Sv6dYo_S8lg?si=LLj9pWVId9vc0BFi

(I suspect we also have the blueprint for early Neptunes production in these recordings)

ok, so we have a set of ingredients: experimental, often abstract rhymes, exploring new genres such as science fiction and horror in #HipHop, and also often (alter-)ego tripping. The collaboration with Dan the Automator also signalled something else: #KoolKeith had moved from the Bronx to California. He settled in LA, and hooked up with producer Kutmasta Kurt to create a masterwork:

if you like that Dan the Automator and #KoolKeith collaboration, and who doesn’t, make sure you also give Dan’s own A (Much) Better Tomorrow a listen, featuring Sinister 6000, another Kool Keith alias: https://youtu.be/X18cfT42sg8?si=A7Oo8wpBzZDckiVc #HipHop

already in Ultramagnetic MC’s, #KoolKeith developed his science fiction raps, and a number of his alter egos - among them Poppa Large and Rhythm X; Dr Octagon would follow later. enter your spaceship! https://youtu.be/v0-CsyVUefk?si=P5X4ykH81wt9V68F #hiphop

Smack My… (based on a re-recorded verse from Ultramagnetic MC’s’ Give the Drummer Some) was not the first time The Prodigy took to a #KoolKeith hook; for Out Of Space they had taken “Pay close attention, I’ll take your brain to another dimension” from Ultramagnetic MC’s Ain’t It Good To You: https://youtu.be/FMe0ceUJWks?si=mSxk85_JN8Ql32RU #hiphop

Kool Keith is best known beyond #hiphop audiences for two recordings: Dr Octagon, produced by Dan the Automator https://youtu.be/V9VYzNUXGDA?si=i4H96DPCC11Rkq6_ and The Prodigy’s Smack My B**** Up https://youtu.be/xW17jtkjvvg?si=XbZiIuaVJMlgYKh5

in this 🧵, over the coming days, I will highlight some of my favourite recordings by #KoolKeith. his recording career spans three and a half prolific decades, so there’s a LOT to choose from.

digging the album in full, but special mention to the Ice-T verse on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJm0MZFZaTo

#KoolKeith #BlackElvis #BlackElvis2 #IceT #MarcLive

anyway, the new #UltramagneticMCs release is a double a-side, so here’s the other track for you to enjoy: https://youtu.be/-1_8JrPR_0U #hiphop #KoolKeith

#KoolKeith, by the way, one of the greatest #hiphop shows I’ve ever seen. Started out rambling, seemed to have forgotten his own lyrics (this being Amsterdam possibly substances were involved?), then said fuck it, I’ll freestyle, and did that the rest of the show and it was glorious.

new Ultramagnetic MC’s in the same week that Black Elvis 2 dropped. https://youtu.be/VlHaux5OssE #hiphop #KoolKeith #UltramagneticMCs

Underplayed, underrated

#koolkeith
#futuremagnetic