Interview With Kool Keith

[DudeAsInCool]

Cold Chillin' With Kool Keith

An interview ...

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7/2001

Easily one of the most talented, hard-working artists in the music business, rapper/musician/producer Kool Keith is undeniably also one of the most innovative and unique. Never one to fall in with the norm, Kool Keith has always marched to the beat of his own drum. During his prolific career, he has amassed a discography unmatched in the rap world; a discography so extensive very few are sure exactly how much material he's actually put out. Almost as extensive as his track record is his stable of personas, alter egos that run the gamut from extraterrestrial to ghetto to just plain weird. His newest persona, Black Elvis, debuted on Black Elvis/ Lost in Space, an album that showcased naked beats and Keith's first go-round as sole producer. Black Elvis... was also Keith's most commercially successful album to date. Now with the release of his newest album, Spankmaster, there's no persona, just Keith. And his freaky vibes.

As an original member of the Bronx's legendary Ultramagnetic MCs, Keith, despite his unusual antics, had gained mad respect in the underground hip-hop scene. After releasing numerous joints with Ultramagnetic MCs, Ultra (a duo consisting of Keith and Tim Dog from the Ultramagnetic MCs), working with producers such as Kutmasta Kurt and Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, and appearing on a yet-to-be-figured-out number of other projects, Keith finally gained national recognition with the Dr. Octagon persona (a crazed gynecologist from the year 3000 who travels back in time to 1996), a project that had paired him with DJ Q-Bert. The album, Dr. Octagonecologyst, was based in science fiction and unlike anything anyone had ever heard. However, on the heels of his growing popularity and commercial viability, Dr. Octagon was killed by Dr. Dooom, another persona, in an effort to squelch major label woes.

In light of Keith's track record and rumors of mental instability, the prospect of interviewing him was exciting. After all, Keith is that rare thing in the rap world - a rapper's rapper. He is also a self-proclaimed freak to the inth degree and is notorious for his highly sexual lyrics and exploits. I didn't know what to expect. However, once I caught up with him, backstage and fresh off the House of Blues stage (earlier that day he'd been featured at the Warped Tour),

I had the pleasure of vibing with a hospitable and engagingly funny personality. True, he is different, but he is hardly the raving lunatic some interviewers have painted him to be. Check out what the Spankmaster had to say about his latest offering, accusations of misogyny, the Internet and the music industry in general.

How is Spankmaster different from previous albums?

All my albums are made different. I think Spankmaster is one of the albums I took into diversity of sound... Spankmaster doesn't sound like Dr.Octagon and Octagon don't sound like Spankmaster don't sound like [black] Elvis. I think it's one of the most progressive projects I did, specifically it differentiated in the way of giving you a different type of sound, I did different programs, especially the drum sounds plus the whole cadence was different. I think I rhymed it on more bouncy type of cymbal beats in a Kool Keith way with a lot of different tempos. I didn't rhyme on one and two beats, I rhymed on more like a lot of bass cymbals and the whole album was more like I did an album in my head. A strip club album.

Strip club? Kind of a more techno feel, you mean?

Well, its basically a strip club album basically like the whole kind of... programmed differently without sound, futuristically made, kind of like the next level stuff for myself. Instead of me rapping on just the 1 - 2 hip-hop beats... something totally different. Instead of me doing something with a predictable artist or if I was working with something normal like a hip-hop album. I just did something more different.

What drives the need to be even more "different"? Is it all work or does it come from a personal subconscious

growth?

I've done so many hip-hop albums already I got tired of just hip-hop. I think a lot of kids that are into hip-hop are not knowing that hip-hop got to move on. The beats change, I mean you got a lot of artists out there advancing new sound, new technology, new beats everything sounding very futuristic, so I feel it would have been boring for me to do another hip-hop record. I can't do another hip-hop album right now I feel like... I'm not trying to do a R&B album, I'm not trying to do a crossover album, I just feel like I need to do a totally different album than just your average hip-hop stuff.

So, if Spankmaster isn't a hip-hop album what is it?

It's hard to explain. I think it's Kool Keith next type stuff. I think this stuff I work on... I mean it's just advanced. I mean I'd say it has the elements of techno, it has the street bottom, it has the elements of a strip club, it has the elements of some hard shit, but it's different. I sing my own choruses. I think it's the kind of album people wouldn't expect me to do.

Is it done with a persona in mind or is it just you?

I did it in texture. I planned that album when I made it... the tracks I picked out, the synchronization, the arrangements of all my

tracks I did that way, you know what I'm saying?

Ok... What do you say to people who accuse you of hating women?

In what way? A bad way a loving way? I don't really say I dislike women. I write the most sexiest records out. I think I write

more exotic records. I think I write more outspoken than the average rapper. I think I'm not scared to say anything I want. You have girls that sing about guys ain't paying their bills and men are this and men are that and I write about women who want to go out for free, they don't want to pay for the dinner, they try to get over, they wanna leave... I write a lot of songs about my impressions from a man's point of view. If you want to say you got to take a woman out to a fancy restaurant, I write songs about hey I'm not taking you to a fancy restaurant, I wanna take you to McDonald's. I think people hate the kind of humorous way of me saying that. I'm not a glamorous guy so I'm not gonna write about living a life of champagne -

...bling bling...

All the singers are singing I wanna take you to the Bahamas and drink pina coladas. I be saying stuff that's kind of more real. I wanna go make some peanut butter and jelly. I'll write a song about girl why don't you grab a peanut butter sandwich. I think people get mad because I make more direct records. I'm not against women. I'm not against men. I just write about me telling my side of how I would say something. Like sometimes you ain't got to go out. I mean the world is a place where it feels like a woman has to go out everywhere in society, you have to buy her and cook her a meal and stuff.

You feel it should be more 50 -50.

Not even that, I'm just saying why can't we have a slice of pizza? Like how come I can’t be rated for me buying a slice? It's not that I'm cheap, how come we can’t go to Subway? I just don't feel like I need to add more to the glamorous life.

So you're not a romantic. It's basically take it or leave it?

I think I speak more for a person who doesn't have all the big cars. I have that type of life. I can go to a strip club or I can

spend money on a girl. I can make money from my shows. I can make money from my records, floss and buy jewelry and stuff.

I think I speak for the guy who is just s a regular guy who says yo I don't wanna go to an expensive restaurant. Really he has to go because society makes him go cause he has to say I have to impress this woman. I feel like hey why don't we go to Winchell's and get a donut and some hot chocolate. You know? What's the matter with that? Why should I pain't a big picture for no reason?

I feel that that's a big part of me. I've always been a direct guy. I think I write the truth, that's what I think. I don't wanna write stuff that's not me. I don't wanna tell you I can buy you 20 cars, 8 diamond rings, a refrigerator full of Krystal and Belvedere.

That's not me. I wouldn't feel good writing that. For my sexual point of me making records I think it has a direct thing towards women. I think guys would make a record like "I wanna hold you caress you and kiss you." I make a record like Sex-style. Just very direct to the point. Men sing a lot of songs that are very censored. (sings) I wanna hold you and touch your heart and give you my life -

Hey, have you been listening to the radio lately? There's some pretty explicit stuff out there right now!

You mentioned that you can’t make another "hip-hop" album. Do you feel that hip-hop is limited? What are your views on the rap industry?

Everybody's slow right now, there's nothing happening musically, everybody's all on cable television and being manipulated by all the television right now, what's on cable telling people what to listen to and stuff. It's a shame that 90% of the people are fooled, everybody's absorbing all that shit. There's nothing you can do about it, everybody's so hard-headed and stealth with their selection. I think it's in chaos right now. There's a lot of old program directors still in music so we lost it right there. we need a young culture to be on a big station like hot 97, Power or the Beat to tell people let's program some future records. Let's add this to the play list. So we're stuck right now basically. Stagnation. Everybody's still in the 70s and 80s musically, still making remakes. When the millennium came everyone rushed to make futuristic albums at the last minute. But it was too late. I had BEEN making futuristic records way before a lot of the groups that came out, but now everybody is running to make their

albums sound new, but it sounds too made up. It wasn't natural. Like when you listen to some of the stuff I did way before the millennium came. I'd been making futuristic records -

Dr. Octagon, yeah...

- so it was like when the ball dropped everybody panicked and started going into the studio just trying to make something weird like anything. It's very stagnant.

Agreed. How do feel about, you know, hip-hop bands?

You mean the punk rock stuff?

Nah, like hip-hop bands. Do you see it going in a direction where there are like more instruments, like what the

Roots have been doing for years?

I don't know... I never got into that era of the urban soul stuff. I didn't see rap come that way. I seen rap come from a street pole and lamps in the street. So when I seen it get into that culture that fucked me up. It's cool. It offers diversity but I didn't like it because it took rap into a different process with that soulful stuff. I mean like even with like Arrested Development it made rap look more... antique. Country.

It was more experimental, no?

I couldn't adapt to it. I know a lot of people who collect Erykah Badu, they collect Jill Scott, they listen to Macy Gray, they listen to all those ethnic groups... hey, what's up?

{Two guys walk up}

Guys: Yo, good show man, that was very nice.

Keith: Thanks. (exchanges pounds and turns back to me) That stuff didn't turn me on. I just felt like it was taking me out, that whole era, that part of music. It was more like... complaining to me. The Black movement, I didn't see Rap in that phase with the dashiki. You know they had the whole thing back in the day when A Tribe Called Quest, you know... what was that movement called...

Zulu Nation...

That era of the tribal effect. I just couldn't get into it. I mean I know my African roots and stuff but I just didn't see rap like that. I thought of rap I thought of Grand Master Flash and I thought of about what they went through. I didn't think of rap with that type of south feel and that look and the hay and all that. So a lot of those groups I didn't get into. I was always on the future

type of stuff.

So like in an ideal world, to project in ten years, in your ideal world where would you like to see rap, where do you think its going?

We're so far behind now, I'd like to see it go to the future, I'll tell you that. The companies that sign these groups, you got on one hand everybody complaining and the other hand the materialistic stuff, but anything real like the future stuff , nobody, it's like they're late on that.

What is "future rap"? What does it look like, smell like?

Future sounds, new keyboards sounds, new technology, new drums just a whole new concept of music, you just put it on your headphones. I think the Neptunes are pretty future, Timbaland is future, something you can put a CD in and feel competitive. You could listen to a CD and feel that took a little bit of art to do.

Like Stankonia perhaps?

I didn't get into Stankonia. Once again, I don't listen to anything in that Black movement range.

Ok. Who do you listen to? Who inspires you? Who do you listen to right now and be like "damn that shit is dope?"

I listen to Esham (one of his artists). But I'm more into production right now. I'm listening to more beats right now for production. I haven't heard anybody that really twiddled my ears. I listen to certain people make beats. I open my mind. I listen ti everybody's music but I'm still hearing stagnation. Like I'll get open on somebody's project like they will start their album off with 4 good beats, but they'll make a mistake. They ll put a remake here in the middle of the album, two remakes and that turns me off right there. It's like everybody does that so it's hard to get into somebody's album. I listen to Timbaland. I think Missy Elliot is pretty creative, I mean at least trying to take it to the future. They got future beats. I think the Neptunes got beats. But still at that particular level of commercialism I listen to those projects I still hear some stagnation in a lot of the stuff. I mean my records are very different. I listen for ideas from different people. Not to copy, I just listen to see what's out there that I could make different from. I don't use it like the industry does.

Do you get inspiration from music outside of hip-hop?

I listen to drum 'n bass. That's about it. That's the only futuristic thing out there. Really. The industry is so stagnated. I'm getting ready to work on some singers.

What do you think about the hip-hop summit and the current political atmosphere surrounding the hip-hop industry?

I don't follow that part of the music industry. I'm totally out of that scene. People pop up with a lot of stuff, seen such and such in this magazine and that magazine, was I there. I don't really participate. I'm very alienated. As I get older, I 've shied away from a lot of convention. I've just been making my records.

How do you bridge the gap between the commercial money making machine and the global community that is being affected by hip-hop?

A lot of people want something for nothing. You can’t get mad at the commercial people cause they buy records. When you see a guy at tower records who buys 20 cds he's a commercial guy this is a regular. At least he's buying something. Look at the average kid who doesn't buy records complain, "Ah, I didn't like that album, I didn't like the beats on that project," you now you can’t satisfy em, "I didn't like the album cover." He's not buying his favorite artists record. It doesn't help either. So it's like the underground world no longer exists economically cause they're not giving money back to their supporting artists. They want everything free, dub cassettes, cds, there's no contribution.

How do you feel about the role of the Internet in changing the music industry's business model?

I didn't buy my computer yet. I heard the Internet is very powerful.

You gotta get a computer so you can check out my website.

I've been a George Washington type of guy. I still got my pen, my paper while everybody has 2 way pagers. I don't have one, I threw mine away. I just feel like technology, it doesn't impress me.

What! I thought you were futuristic?

I'm futuristic as far as fashion, clothing, home life. I think a lot of the high technology is distracting. You got 2 way pagers going off, cellular phones going off. It's a certain kind of technology I don't need. It's spending money. They want you to buy something new and make you spend your money again. I don't try to keep up with all that technology. They'll make a two way pager then they put a tv on it next year.

What would you, Kool Keith, like to say to the millions of hip-hop Internet heads out there?

Don't be too persuaded by the media, television and marketing. Open your mind without the manipulation of the media telling you what to buy. I buy records without the radio telling me to go buy 'em. MTV. Open your mind to other things, just be creative and original. Leave the 70s and the 80s alone. And the 90s.

Ifè Oshun – RapAbout.com

[jipper]

nice article man, i fucking love kool keith for basically the same reasons why everyone else does..Its kinda strange to read the kinda music he likes and then listening to one of his albums its like...were the fuck did he get his inspiration from, you know. I cant wait to listen to some of his new stuff, eventho its not going to be more rap orientated like the dr dooom album.

[DudeAsInCool]

I like arttists that think out of the box - this guy is the real deal.