Kool Keith

Contrary to popular belief, Keith Thornton is not mentally ill -- he just made a joke about being a patient at Bellevue once during a marathon press conference with the Ultramagnetic MCs and the press actually took his word for it. But Kool Keith -- a.k.a. Dr. Octagon/Sinister 6000/Mr. Nogatco/Dr. Dooom -- does have a multiple personality condition, most recently manifested in the pseudo-pseudonymous Tashan Dorrsett. For one of the original golden age legends of boom-bap abstraction and a vanguard in horrorcore-satellite psychedelic rap, Kool Keith Presents Tashan Dorrsett is a relatively straightforward album: above all else, he’s one of hip hop’s premier pissed-off veterans, and much like last year’s Dr. Dooom 2, Dorrsett sees Keith affecting a persona not unlike his own, an estranged icon pissed off at every MC who half-asses the art of rhyme. Then again, his most recent album, Bikinis N Thongs, is more in the vein of his 1997 album Sex Style, all ogling and seduction and dick-swagger… and, uh, Autotune. But whether he’s battling against hip hop’s stagnancy or just expounding on his appreciation for the female butt, Kool Keith flows with a haranguing cool, with conversational tirades wrapped around slippery meter and unpredictable rhyme schemes built from the street up. With Har Mar Superstar, Bang Bang Eche. 18+
Thu., Nov. 5, 9 p.m., 2009