Dr. Octagonecologyst - Dr. Octagon (1996)

I can confidently say that that Dr. Octagonecolgyst is the best album about a time-traveling, extraterrestrial, surgeon/gynecologist who sleeps with his nurses and patients and may also be undead that you will ever hear.  Dr. Octagon is the alter-ego of Bronx rapper, Kool Keith, who first made a name for himself in the 80′s with seminal underground group, Ultramagnetic MCs.  1996′s Dr. Octagonecologyst is Kool Keith’s first solo album.

As well as being the solo debut of Kool Keith, Dr. Octagonecolgyst is the breakthrough album of Bay Area beat maker, Dan, the Automator, of Deltron 3030 and Gorillaz fame. Three time world DJ Champion, DJ Qbert lends his talents to several of the tracks, as well.  The album is credited with being instrumental in the revival of turntablism in the mid 90s.  Most of the beats are predominantly synth, giving the album a very spacey, futuristic ambiance.  Many of the samples are ripped from pornographic movies; appropriate given Dr. Octagon’s propensity for having sex with his patients and nurses.

Like I mentioned earlier, Dr. Octagonecologyst has one of the more… interesting concepts that you will encounter in a hip-hop album.  It’s an album that may require multiple listens, as the lyrics are very abstract and full of non-sequiters.  As it were, the album tells the tale of Dr. Octagon, the intergalactic discount surgeon of questionable credentials.  He’ll perform just about any procedure that you need him to, such as “relocating saliva glands” and treating “chimpanzee acne,” and he’ll do it for cheap… as long as you’re not bothered by horses running around the hospital or the mountains of corpses that are the result of all his botched procedures.  Dr. Octagon also likes to pretend he’s a woman and practice gynecology in order to get laid.  Whether or not Dr. Octagon is even human is debatable, as his only known relative, an uncle named Mr. Gerbik, is apparently a 208 year-old half shark-alligator half man with “skin like razor blades.”

Dr. Octagonecologyst is as important an album as it is a bizarre one.  Perhaps more than any other album, it can be credited with reviving underground hip-hop in the 90s.  G-Funk and east coast mafioso were dominating the charts at the time and the underground was stuck in a rut trying to follow suit.  Dr. Octagonecologyst reintroduced innovation to hip-hop.  In a time when everybody was trying to deal drugs and be hard, Kool Keith stood up and said “No, I’d rather be an intergalactic surgeon.”

Best Tracks: 3000, Earth People, Blue Flowers, I’m Destructive, halfsharkhalfalligatorhalfman

Overall: 94/100