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Kool Keith

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Kool Keith
Keith Matthew Thornton (born October 7, 1963), better known by his stage name Kool Keith, is an American rapper and record producer from The Bronx, New York known for his surreal, abstract and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both as a solo artist and in group collaborations. Kool Keith is generally considered to be one of hip-hop's most eccentric and unusual personalities. Kool Keith was a cofounding member of Ultramagnetic MCs, whose debut Critical Beatdown was released in 1988. After two more albums with the group, Funk Your Head Up and The Four Horsemen, Kool Keith released his critically acclaimed solo debut album, Dr. Octagonecologyst under the name Dr. Octagon in 1996. He subsequently released a series of further independently released hip hop albums, including Sex Style, First Come, First Served (as Dr. Dooom), and most recently Keith. After releasing only one album on a major label, Black Elvis/Lost in Space, Kool Keith subsequently returned to independently releasing music, producing further efforts as a solo artist and in collaboration with groups such as Analog Brothers, Masters of Illusion, Thee Undatakerz and Project Polaroid. Kool Keith has also made guest appearances in collaboration with Peeping Tom and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was also featured on the short track DDT on Jurassic 5's album Power in Numbers. The Prodigy's hit "Smack My Bitch Up" was based on a sample of Kool Keith's voice saying "Change my pitch up. Smack my bitch up."
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Born
1963-10-07
Birth Place
South bronx
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SFStation.com

Kool Keith (Dr Octagon/Black Elvis), DJ Abilities (Eyedea & Abilities), Mophono (Change The Beat), Nebakaneza (MF DOOM VJ Set)

DJ Abilities (of Eyedea & Abilities) Nebakaneza (MF Doom VJ Set) You'll have to go pretty far to outweird Kool Keith, a rapper of some 58 alter egos, who for the last 35 years has stood at the front of the hiphop weirdstream. His style sounds beamed back from another planet, strange but not unknowable, an astral bedfellow of the metaphysical creativity of Sun Ra's cosmic jazz. Tellingly perhaps, when Keith told a journalist that he had spent time as a psychiatric patient in New York's Bellevue hospital - a story apparently invented out of boredom - it was widely believed.
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Picture for Kool Keith (Dr Octagon/Black Elvis), DJ Abilities (Eyedea & Abilities), Mophono (Change The Beat), Nebakaneza (MF DOOM VJ Set)
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brooklynvegan.com

Tour news: Talib Kweli, Kool Keith, Wale, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, The Hollies, more

Here's a roundup of recent tour news. Check the Tour Dates category for more. Talib Kweli has a bunch of upcoming shows, including dates in Portland, ME and Hampton, NH this weekend, and a show in Philly later this month. In 2022 he's join Diplo at Red Rocks, and has a four night run at NYC's Blue Note Jazz Club from March 3-6. Head here for all dates.
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Austin American-Statesman

Live music picks: Tracy Lawrence in Cedar Park, Kool Keith at Antone's and more

Here are our top picks among live music options in the Austin area for Oct. 28-Nov. 3. Jane Leo, Swimming With Bears, Saint Loretto at Haute Spot. Singer-songwriter Jane Ellen Bryant and Leopold & His Fiction frontman Daniel James both had good things going on the indie scene separately pre-pandemic. Now they’ve teamed up in one of Austin’s most intriguing new acts, introducing themselves with two videos over the summer. Also on the bill is pop band Swimming With Bears, a 2016 Black Fret grant recipient, and Saint Loretto. Located in Cedar Park, the Haute Spot has become one of the Austin area’s best outdoor venues over the past couple of years. $5-$15. 7 p.m. hautespotvenue.com. — P.B.
AUSTIN, TX
brooklynvegan.com

Televangelist teams with Kool Keith on “Leland Palmer” (watch the video)

Televangelist is the experimental electronic project of Dorian Domi, and he's releasing a new album, Daydream Abraxas, on November 19 (pre-order). One song, "Leland Palmer," features outsider rap legend Kool Keith, alongside Wolfie Warship, and we're premiering the video (made in collaboration with Jarrod Ajhar) for that song in this post.
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bkreader.com

PHOTOS: Kool Keith, Mari World Light Up the Stage at Prospect Park

One had a full jazz band, the other had a knack of turning the slightest observation into a catchy riff. And they both had the ability to get the crowd going. On Friday night, Kool Keith and Mari World took to the stage at Prospect Park’s Lena Horne band shell as part of BRIC‘s free summer-long concert series, Celebrate Brooklyn.
BROOKLYN, NY
brooklynvegan.com

Kool Keith replaces Junglepussy at Friday’s Celebrate Brooklyn! show

Junglepussy was set to headline the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival show on Friday in Prospect Park, but she has dropped off the show. "I will not be performing this Friday," Junglepussy wrote on Instagram. "I thought I could perform in a pandemic but that simply is not the case. I’m sorry to my fans💜"
BROOKLYN, NY
bkmag.com

11 things to do in Brooklyn this weekend, from Kool Keith to Club Titiboo

10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. The Gowanus Canal is officially a superfund site, which means the flora and fauna surrounding it need all the help they can get. Lend a hand this Friday by registering for Trees for All’s Volunteer Day, and help care for the young saplings and watering trees in the area. Sign up through the organization’s website for the two-hour horticultural experience.
BROOKLYN, NY
PopMatters

Mick Harris, Kool Keith, and Submerged Discuss Scorn’s “Distortion”

When you listen to Mick Harris’ long-running dub-industrial/dark ambient project Scorn, it’s easy to imagine a parallel world where it’s typical for young listeners to go from extreme metal to cutting-edge jazz to experimental electronic music to alternative hip-hop (or any variation thereof) rather than falling into musical camps. Harris’ story certainly suggests that any trajectory is possible as long as one keeps an open mind. Famously starting out as the drummer in three crucial lineups in the early history of the seminal grindcore outfit Napalm Death, Harris—who coined the term “grindcore”—went on to work with avant-garde legends John Zorn and Bill Laswell in the improv trio Painkiller before forming Scorn with Napalm Death founder Nik Bullen in 1992.
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PopMatters

Kool Keith Delivers Another Surreal Rap Odyssey on ‘Keith’s Salon’

One of the great cult figures in hip-hop, Kool Keith has forged a career defined by numerous eccentricities. His famous libidinous wordplay is often genuinely transgressive, while his personas are manifold and often disarmingly surreal. Then there’s his unrelenting musical output, which totals over 50 full-length releases. The whole character is so fascinatingly dense that Kool Keith himself (real name: Keith Thornton) has admitted, “I don’t even feel like a human being anymore.”
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gigsoupmusic.com

Kool Keith Releases New Single “Extravagance” with Logistic Records

Kool Keith Drops "Extravagance," the Second Single From His Forthcoming Album 'Keith's Salon' Due Out June 4th on Logistic Records. Written with a libidinal urgency that has come to characterize Kool Keith’s legendary lyricism, Keith’s Salon explores our current obsessions with luxury, beauty, and notoriety. But rather than fetishize the beautiful dum-dums who walk red carpets in black Prada gowns, Kool Keith’s most recent studio album shifts our attention to the work and workers that underpin our fantasies of American excess and the good life. As such, the album is also a timely meditation, during quarantine, on the economic precarity many of us now find ourselves in. Having teamed up with Triple Parked, the production duo of avant-techno maven Bruno Pronsato and Benjamin Jay Keith’s Salon moves between halcyon sonics and atonal warlord dystopia, while keeping beats minimal for Kool Keith to spread extra ketchup on the hamburger. An album at once topical and futuristic, lush and bizarre, Keith’s Salon is about the business of making people beautiful. It’s time to work. The album (vinyl, CD, digital) is set for release on June 4, 2021 on Logistic Records, with three singles dropping prior to the launch date.
BEAUTY & FASHION
gigsoupmusic.com

Kool Keith Releases New Single “Bright Eyes” with Logistic Records

Logistic Records Announces New Album From Kool Keith, "Keith's Salon," is Out June 4th. His First Single "Bright Eyes" is Available Now. Written with a libidinal urgency that has come to characterize Kool Keith’s legendary lyricism, Keith’s Salon explores our current obsessions with luxury, beauty, and notoriety. But rather than fetishize the beautiful dum-dums who walk red carpets in black Prada gowns, Kool Keith’s most recent studio album shifts our attention to the work and workers that underpin our fantasies of American excess and the good life. As such, the album is also a timely meditation, during quarantine, on the economic precarity many of us now find ourselves in. Having teamed up with Triple Parked, the production duo of avant-techno maven Bruno Pronsato and Benjamin Jay Keith’s Salon moves between halcyon sonics and atonal warlord dystopia, while keeping beats minimal for Kool Keith to spread extra ketchup on the hamburger. An album at once topical and futuristic, lush and bizarre, Keith’s Salon is about the business of making people beautiful. It’s time to work. The album (vinyl, CD, digital) is set for release on June 4, 2021 on Logistic Records, with three singles dropping prior to the launch date.
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