4. Mr. Ratt (Skit)

While others live on overladen production, Dr. Dooom keeps it minimal and survives on the strenght of his outstanding rhymes. And while others rest on their laurels, Dr Dooom buries them faster than a squirrel a nutmeg. And right to the beginning, with "No Chorus", other Emcees have to put their tail between their legs and run, as they hear "what the fuck was in your mind when you rapped on that track? / who possessed you to do that? / who programmed - that shit sound wack / unplug your mic / you motherfuckers rap under a bunch of fuckin hype / programmed by the company, makin somethin cheap / vocals sound like a nigga with no dough and a promo; / makin asses out of yourselves, tryin to rap solo / suck my dick when you see me; avoid because you wanna be me" and later in the track "Leave Me Alone", that is actually a track that one should quote whole, but here some excerpts: "A&R been tryin to figure me out for years / tryin to re-duplicate me but they can't so they hate me / while white boys run the head of black music with a Japanese assistant / what does a Chinese kid know about the rap game? That's a shame", and he continues with "with an alternative hippie kid from the record label watchin your back / talkin about, ‚Mariah Carey's funky‘ / makin the average group buckdance like a barrel full of monkies" and "Ignorin your phone calls from broke labels / who try to put out underground MC's / tryin to get me to rap on a wack jazz track for one G / how dare you try to insult me? / I got 40 grand for three minutes to write a song with Prodigy". And also the videos get what was coming to them, when he rhymes: "and plus this video treatment sucks / the fish lens effects, the lens to the camera only cost a hundred bucks". But Dr Dooom has all reason to say this all, since "experience, Next Plateau, Mercury, Wild Pitch, EMI, Capitol, DreamWorks / never got dropped / put my lyrics away and stopped / too many people with hands in my projects".

Kool Keith was unbelievably successful with Dr. Octagon, and this album should enjoy the same success, because it's at least as good. Maybe back then, the production was more of a surprise than it is now, but The Diesel Truckers (Kool Keith and Kutmaster Kurt) deliver deep, psychedelic Beats, which can be seen in direct tradition to Octagon, "Big Time" and "Sex Styles". These are soundsceneries, which confuse the R'n'B-ear with strange sounds and sonic effects. But this is part of a constant further development of this style of music. Something we too often have to miss, these days.

Kool Keith always took hip hop to a next level, has influenced uncountable rappers and producers and he has left his mark on hip hop several times. But he seldom if not never, has received the deserving acknowledgement. One can understand, that he's mad because of that. And while others suffer trying to do a comback, since 1986, Kool Keith has never left hip hop, but constantly succeeded. And he does again with Dr. Dooom.