Newfound Appreciation For Kool Keith

Back around 2002-03 i used to read the Source and XXL mags alot and i used to see this man's LP promos inside all the time. And the way it looked and LP title was kinda crazy and to me very corny. I was like who is Kool Keith? Why his LP covers look that crazy? And why does he have a Elvis toupe glued on his head? I was saying to myself this man is out there....way out there!! But this was before i had a chance to study up on my hip-hop knowledge and reading the manuscripts, and now in 2011 i wanna say i was really mistaken by this guy. Let the journey begin.

When i started on my path to Hip-Hop 101 i was listening to whole lot of old mixtapes from the late 80's and 90's. And a group stood out among the others that i thought had some great music and some thought into what they were doing. One of those groups was Ultramagnetic MC's, there style was really different and their beats were really tough. So i decided to study up more on them, i bought their Critical Beatdown LP and was blown away by it. The artist that blew me away was Kool Keith, his whole style and way of rhymin was just different to me. Biz Markie is different.....ODB is different......but Kool Keith is another kind of different. I was saying to myself this couldnt be the same guy with those crazy LP promos i seen years earlier.

Then on those 90's mixtapes there were 2 Ultramagnetic joints that i heard that had me amped, they were "Raise It Up" & "Poppa Large"! On these 2 joints Kool Keith went all the way in, like i said i just love the way he rhymes. He just says what he feels and its a steady flow and sometimes unsteady. So now im like ok Kool Keith got some skills, im definetly open on him and my Stretch & Bobbito journey havent began yet. So.......

Went i went on my personal S&B mission a few years ago i then realized that Kool Keith is a legitmate dope MC! He had a demo joint called "Time Is Now" when he just destroys the track over a dope hard beat. He did classic joints in a group called the Cenobites with him & Godfather Don, and the track "Kick A Dope Verse" was just classic with a rare rhyme from Bobbito! Then he had another dope joint called "Wanna Be A Star", when i 1st heard this joint a couple years ago i must have replayed this joint like 10x it was that ill!!! Then not to mention the many times he came up to S&B show and dropped really clevar freestyles.

And now over the past few years im still gathering joints Kool Keith done that i think was dope. So the lesson is dont judge a book by its cover. I thought Keith was wack, I thought Keith was corny, I thought Keith was a phony. But u all should know that Kool Keith is a dope MC who should be thought more as one of hip-hop's best mainstrean & undaground!! Dont let that Elvis glued on toupe fool u people!!