Everything you need to know about Kool Keith (aka Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Dr. Gerbik, Dr. Ultra, Big Willie Smith, Black Elvis, Keith Korg, Sinister 6000, Rhythm X, Keith Matthew Thornton) can be summed up by the following interview excerpt from the Critical Beatdown [Remastered]
Back then T La Rock, Just Ice, us, LL [Cool J], everybody was using the big words. You know, 'Construction!' 'Destruction!' 'Corruption!' Those were the words to rhyme with back in the day. Everybody was still using '...ation'. 'Concentration!' You know, like KRS, 'Dedication! Frustration! Imitation!' We were the first guys to go more into words that wasn't '...ation', but they were still big words. You know, 'Circulatory', 'Attitude'. We took it to that level. I was just having fun. We were reading a lot of UFO books, satellite books, space books. Documentary stuff. We took words out of magazines. Popular Mechanics - I would read that. I was reading a lot of other stuff. Me and Ced would just read more books that had big words. And we would watch a lot of programs that were elevated. Like Star Trek.
Kool Keith - "Get Off My Elevator"
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I love how Keith confirms what you've always thought: he was never actually reading all those "UFO books, satellite books, space books" -- he was simply scouring them for "big words." What a brilliant approach.
I also love how you can totally hear him yelling the -ation words in the interview. Have Ansari put a beat up under just that and you've got a song.