Customer Reviews
Seminal stuff - By: Snarf, 11 Jun 2006 
What an album. For something releasedin 1996 this sounds miles ahead of its time, & still does. Kool Keith raps as his Dr.Octagon persona, adding a medical twist to his usual diet of porn & insanity lyrics. Acclaimed as his best album, his seemingly nonsensical battle rapping is as great & original as ever, with his speedy but watertight flow & sick, cryptic, twisted rhymes ranging from pop culture references, dark & nasty porn/horror imagery & out-and-out weirdness. What really shines on this album is the production however. Automator's trademark futuristic sci-fi style is here, plus the kind of dark, menacing horror samples kinda like KK's other long time beatmaker Kutmasta Kurt. As with most Automator stuff there's nothing repetetive on here, just unique, varied, unpredictable genius that as dark & disturbing as it is sonically impressive, with beats meaty enough to satisfy the most hardcore rap fans. Plus with great cuts from THE best scratch DJ Q-Bert, this is a completely timeless must have album from the darker, weirder end of hip-hop's spectrum.
Best Album Ever! - By: , 08 Oct 2004 I've read the other reviews with interest, because this album really is either love it or hate it. My mates listen to it (DJ Shadow fans) & think i'm mad to rate it so highly.
I first heard of Dr Octogon on a James Lavelle album called Cram Live 2, which is also worth a mention. Blue Flowers was on, so I tracked down this album. I recon i've listened to it about 10,000 times, & for those who thought it was pants, well you haven't a clue. The lyrics border on amazing, if you actually listen to the words, it is possibly incredible what he speaks. I think perhaps someone should look inside his head!
But anyway, i've now got every Dr Octogon, Kool Keith, Dan the Automator & all the others that feature this chap. Buy it!
See abstract rap in anyway u want but i see it as INGENIOUS - By: , 01 Feb 2004 It is very difficult to put across how i feel about this album. I guess ill have to put it on the scale of rap originality. On which it is 25 out of 10. But originality doesnt make it good. It could be an original piece of excrement. But what makes it good is its meticulous concoction of hellish production, mellifluos cuts & the indelible, indefatigable, totally indescrible rhymes of Kool Keith. His lyrics are unknown to the hiphop culture. His flow is not continuos or nursery ryhme like. He is not a foolish gangsta rapper oblivious to his duties as an artist. He is a word contorter, he warps the english language into incredulous clauses. He talks about playing astronauts tough like the ukelele. He is HalfSharkAlligatorHalfman. He is Dr octagon.
His apprenticein crime Dan the Automator destroys the ethics of producing & builds them up again. DJ Q-berts slices the traks with magical, intrevenous fingers to produce magnificent cuts. I also like this album because Dr octagon has a erotic side to him. He puts his testorone driven urges to paperin delicious sentences. "Girl Let Me Touch You" is one of the best songs on the album because of this.
Dr Octagon has many sides to him; he can insult lesser emcees likein "Real Raw", he can create the master gene likein "No Awareness", he can change into halfsharkalligatorhalfman as in" Halfsharkalligatorhalfman" or he can simply have funin "Dr octagon" & "Wild & Crazy".
I think thats how he sees rap, as fun & it is. It can be anything any artist good enuf wants it to be. Dr octagon to me is an embellishment of 3 musical malvelolences. Kool Keith is the gothic yet comical skull, Dan the Automator is the white gloves that Keith uses to probe & morph songs into twisted melodies. And Qbert is the slicing Stethoscope bringin the beautiful heartbeat of the track that is the DJ.
Please buy it & liberate your mind. Close off from the world enjoy.
This world is a disease ridden, impoverished quagmar & Dr Octagon is simply providing the medicine.
Intriguing but bog-standard hip hop - By: , 04 Jan 2004 
Despite this being praised by the media & hip hop fans everywhere, I ain't falling for it. Yes, it was completely different to anything else out at the time but sadly, that's all it is, different. I can say that there some pretty good moments here like 'Waiting List', 'Real Raw', 'Earth People' & 'Blue Flowers'. But I pity anyone who actually likes unlistenable garbage like 'No Awareness'. I mean, anyone could make a song like this by babbling utter nonsense that doesn't even rhyme over some tacky, effortless beat. "Dr Octagon"in summary, original & experimental it is. A spectacular & timeless album it is NOT!
Over-rated... - By: , 01 Dec 2002 This album isn't terrible, though it certainly isn't a classic & doesn't deserve the props that it has got. Dan The Automater's yawn-tastic 'dark' beats bring nothing to the imagination & definately don't bring the best out of Kool Keith.
Sir Menelik, who I feel showed himself as one of the most progressive rappers ever on his Scaramanga debut, rhymes terribly on this, really poor & it's this feel of not fulfilling true potentialin so many areas that makes this album fall short.
