Over the course of hip-hop’s half-century and counting, few rappers have proven as unique, prolific and consistent as the inimitable Kool Keith. During his 40-year career, the New Yorker often known as the Black Elvis has logged nearly 50 solo albums and 15 side projects in conjunction with 31 other artists—all while performing as dozens more characters than any non-schizophrenic man named Keith ever has, or ever will. Mind you, aka’s are one thing, every rapper loves an aka, but Kool Keith is a one-man family tree.
THE MANY IDENTITIES OF KEITH
- Kool Keith, the body-movin’, MC-bruisin’ rap OG
- Dr. Octagon, the time-traveling gynecologist from Jupiter
- Mr. Gerbik, Dr. Octagon’s 208 year-old man-shark-alligator hybrid uncle
- Dr. Dooom, the cannibal villain who murders Dr. Octagon
- Black Elvis, the Presley-smooth brother of Dr. Dooom
The Kool catalog is its very own universe, a vast and ever-expanding world of Keith alter-egos and concept-character-Keiths (and friends, enemies, and relatives of concept-character Keiths), all played by Keith, in storylines that bridge dozens of albums. Some characters appear once and die. Others are dead but come alive. A few are spoken of and never heard from, some are one-offs, many are odd and a couple are seriously weird, but none are guest stars, none are not Keith.
YET MORE FACES OF KEITH
- Poppa Large, Willie Natural, Mr. Nogatko, Larry Lopez, Spankmaster
- Fly Rickey the Wine Taster, Big Willie Smith aka Willie Biggs, Keith Televesquez
- Keith Turbo, Orange Man, Lotion Man, MC Shopaholic, Mr. Green, Lonnie Hendrix
- Light Blue Cop, Doctor Sperm, Platinum Rich, Robby Analog, Bobby Grime, Elvin Presley, Axeon, Sinister 6000, Clean Man, Jimmy Steele, Crazy Lou the Weapons Dealer, Big Bongo Dong
Before his genealogy erupted, Bronx-born Keith Thornton entered hip-hop as a top dancer with the New York City Breakers, a squad to whom dance floors were usually seceded by rival crews at the Roxy, Mars and Danceteria nightspots, rather than battled for. Scribbling lyrics in secret during the day, Keith went on to join rapper/producer Ced-Gee to form Ultramagnetic MCs, a group that shook the early rap game with lyrics on science and space, delivered with deft flows that eschewed the “Yes, yes, ya’ll” block party-style favored by most MCs at the time.
As Ultramagnetic stacked albums, the Keith side-project-stravaganza began, growing to include the Analog Brothers (with Ice-T), Masters of Illusion (with Motion Man and Kutmasta Kurt), Dr. Octagon (Dan The Automator and Kutmaster Kurt), Luv NY (with O.C., A.G. and Roc Marciano), and Ultra (with Tim Dogg)—not to forget Project Polaroid, The Diesel Truckers, The Siamese Sex Show, The Conference Room, The 7th Veil, Project X, K.H.M., Thee Undatakerz, Clayborne Family, The Cenobites, and likely many others we’re too mainstream to have heard of.
“When you get the chance to be different, they’re going to say you fell off…I have license to do all kinds of records, [so] they can’t be like ‘Oh, Keith switched up.’ Because I’ve been doing all kinds of records since Day One. All they can say is ‘That’s Keith.’”
Keith speaking to Rock the Bells
THE BLACK ELVIS ON FILMS, FUNK AND THE FUTURE
SPIN: There have been endless Kool Keith collabs, but who haven’t you worked with yet that you’d still love to join forces with?
KOOL KEITH: I think I would want to work with Drake and Rick Ross, both on one song together. Actually, I think me, Drake and Rick Ross should have a supergroup. Probably called…Century? Oh, I like that. The Century.
You’ve almost always been involved in your own beat-making, a rarity among MCs. What all has this included?
I played a lot of bass on Critical Beatdown and other Ultramagnetic MC’s records like the Funk Your Head Up album. Also on all my own albums…Dr. Octagon especially, I did a lot of bass lines. I’ve always been a collector of keyboards, so some keyboards over the years as well.
Considering the cinematic vibe of many of your albums, can you think of any movies that have influenced you creatively?
Definitely, you have Black Caesar, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Super Fly, all the stuff like that. I actually did a movie before too called Champions, with [MMA fighter/UFC Pioneer] Ken Shamrock.
Hip-hop has hosted endless trends over the years. What do you foresee as the next trend in rap?
In the golden-age there were a lot of rappers that were rapping fast…a lot of people from the ‘80s also did faster records too. Whereas now everybody’s more a slow kind of rapper, they’re on that 85 beats-per-minute thing. So now, watch, it’s time for that fast flow to come back.