A lot of this is thanks to its author, Kool Keith, who was a founding member of the weirdly awesome Ultramagnetic MCs and spent some time institutionalised in the Bellevue Hospital Center in the early 90s. That history might give you an idea of the personality that shows through in Dr Dooom 2 (Dr Dooom of course being one of several alter-egos held by Keith) – it’s a bit unhinged and a little uneasy, and you feel like you’re staring a cobra in the face for the majority of the time.

 

The album was born of a feud involving a group of producers who in 2006 coopted one of Keith’s other alter-egos (Dr. Octagon), much to Keith’s venomous, venomous anger. The track ‘RIP Dr. Octagon’ makes it clear that Octagon is dead and was in fact killed by Dr. Dooom himself (“I stabbed him over seventeen times!”). Other targets on Dooom’s hit list are American Idol judge Simon Cowell (“Simon! I’m talking to you! …You ain’t no mother fucking body! Fuck American Idol and Simon and his whack ass!” on ‘Simon’) and all the general pretenders (on ‘The God of Rap’).

 

Keith’s unpredictable personality keeps the album’s heart monitor bleeping, but there does seem to be some post-production missing and the beats just aren’t particularly interesting enough to make this an essential. Nevertheless, it’s kinda fun and runs rings around a lot of the factory-line hip-hop pumped out today.