Mr. Nogatco (aka Kool Keith)

Kool Keith’s Dr. Octagonecologyst was a ground-breaking album that exposed Keith — and hip-hop — to a whole new fan-base that included ravers and indie rock hipsters, in the process helping to usher in a new era for hip-hop. Eight years later and Octagon is back, but it’s doubtful either of the albums (the other being The Return of Dr. Octagon) parading as a return of the good rap doctor will have anywhere near the impact of his debut. For this other, less obvious return as Dr Octagon, Kool Keith turns to the minds behind MF Doom’s Viktor Vaughn sequel, Venomous Villain. With that album’s glitch-hop aesthetic, IZ-REAL and his Insomniac Music crew proved they are fully capable of supplying spacey, futuristic beats, and they don’t disappoint with Nogatco Rd (read it backwards!). As Mr. Nogatco, Keith continues his surreal, stream of consciousness raps that are distinguished from his numerous other alter egos only by the heavy dominance of sci-fi subject matter. Keith relies a little too much on what must surely be freestyles, unless he’s just being lazy, which is understandable given his recent prolific output. When Keith puts the effort in, as he does on the autobiographical "Alpha Omega (The Beginning)” and the sexual "Black 37,” this collaboration succeeds, but all told, the backbone of Nogatco Rd is really the production.