22 thoughts on “No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Kool Keith – Shine On, You Crazy Diamond”

  1. This article really put a smile on my face.
    Keith is that dude and deserving of way more accolades than he gets. Sadly, he’s one of those guys who will probably only be recognized for the genius he is after he’s gone.
    Put him against ANY mc from that era and his sprawling track record puts them all to shame.
    No.1 MC in the world!

  2. Numba won always, even when he is making trash or sucking on stage live, the man will always be – numba won. “Pebbles, produced by Babyface?! No comment.”

  3. All these years and I never got into him. I liked the Poppa Large song and that’s about it.

  4. I dispute Robbie’s “hardest working man in rap” description of Kool Keith. Esham, Moka Only, Too$hort or E40 can all easily match Keith on quantity of output and MegaRan/Random beats him on quality of prolific output.

    Kool Keith is the Lee scratch Perry of rap. Everything between Matthew and DR Dooom2 is garbage. Everything else is good-to-genius. For an obscure Keith gem, I recommend “Idea of a masterpiece” by him and Japan’s 54/71.

  5. Ooh! Nearly forgot. K-Rino’s output rate makes Kool Keith look like the Harper Lee of rap by comparison. Kool Keith still rules tho.

  6. Kool Keith is my hip hop hero; Critical beatdown will always be, for me, the greatest album ever made. I preorder every one of his albums hoping that the next will be finally the one he makes something good again, something that stands up there with Ultra and Dr Oc. Sadly, every time I am left disappointed.

    The sad truth is he hasn’t made anything good in 15 years (the odd hidden gem aside). The beats are usually dire and his current flow is just, well, shit and uninteresting. Yeah, I know he’s gone that way on purpose, I know he sees it as innovating and I know he doesn’t want to go backwards.

    Maybe I’m just an old fucker stuck in the good old days; maybe the world moved on and I never did; maybe Keith set the bar too high early on and can never reach those dizzy heights again. I dunno, I’ll keep buying his shit as I will always support my music hero, someone that informed so much of my teenage years, hoping he’ll drop another bomb one day.

  7. Honestly even if his track list just stopped at critical beatdown He’d still be a legend.

    So is the latest one with all the features any good?

  8. Anyone see that video freestyle he did recently with mc serch and I think dinco d , worst shit ever – made me cringe ,

  9. Oneam: The Godfather Don track is good. Anyone who thinks that E40 is better than Keith is wack. But that being said the only true,masterpiece is critical beatdown. But that is better than any E40 or To Short album

  10. @dino: imo, the project polaroid album and the nogatco rd. cd were nice, especially pp. bettter than most of the stuff he released since the og doc dooom lp, definitely on par with if not better than the l’orange and ray west collabos.

  11. I gotta dispute the “nothing good between Matthew to Dr. Dooom 2” claim.

    Masters of Illusion (very overlooked)
    Pimp to Eat (Managed to get Ice T of all people to step his game up for that one)
    Diesel Truckers (ahead of it’s time)
    Spankmaster
    Sex Style Unreleased archives
    Nogatco Rd. (If you like the Octagon stuff)

    All fun albums that came out between those two mentioned.

    P.S Moka Only is garbage on overdrive and you should be embarrassed to bring him up. (I’ll forgive you though, you’re probably just a child liking “muh videogaem nostalgia” Megarandumb.)

  12. @KoolMaxPower: Yes Project Polaroid is decent. Mr Nogatco rD however mostly stinks and like the Ray West album, it’s a botch of outtakes and soundchecks badly cut&pasted together. There in lies the problem with the Kool Keith legacy = too many bootleg releases of dubious provenance and of horrible quality. For every “First come first served” there’s 3 “Total orgasm” and for every Dr Octagonechologist” there’s a dozen Clayborne Family/Commissioner2/Undatakerz trash albums.

    @Pete Concrete: I never said E40 or Too$hort were BETTER than Kool Keith; simply that they can match/surpass KK’s quantity of output. E40 has taken to releasing 3-4 albums at a time and Moka only is releasing 12 albums this year alone.

  13. @GeorgeBurns:

    Masters of Illusion is decent but utterly meh and instantly forgettable.
    Pimp To eat had a few good tracks buttoo much filler.
    Spankmaster is garbage.
    Sexstyle unreleased: first 3 or so tracks were strong but the rest garbage – and it’s from the late 90s anyway.
    Nogatco Rd: see above.

  15. I’ll stand by the E-40 better than KK. Maybe I’ll listen to Critical Beatdown vs any of his releases to see the hype.

  16. I just cant get with kool keith, besides critical beatdown. The 4 horsemen had great production, but them lyrics are too far out there to make any sense.

    Too short is too hot. He sounds like an easy e from texas. his self produced beats and following is like no other, living legend, 4sure.

  18. Keith is my all-time favourite MC. He may not have made too many projects since Analog Brothers that I’d want to listen to but he has more great albums than most and trailblazed his way through those. More style and flow than most. Funniest rapper there will ever be.

  19. kool keith is in the bay next weekend, and I would go as I am only an hour away. but base ticket prices start at $50 and go up to $250 to see him with mac mall and get “exclusive access to competing chefs and endless food and drink.” color me suspicious

  21. “Kleptomaniac, my rhyme is psycho
    A Ricky Ricardo, a Guy Lombardo
    Sporting a rag top, an El Dorado…”

    Nuff said!

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