Album review: 'Tashan Dorrsett,' by Kool Keith
Patrick Varine
Kool Keith is definitely the hip-hop Lon Chaney. He's the man of a thousand faces. His latest persona is "Tashan Dorrsett," where Keith claims to be bringing fans the view of a "regular street dude." But it's hard to be regular when you're the weirdest rapper on the planet.
Kool Keith is definitely the hip-hop Lon Chaney. He's the man of a thousand faces. He's been Dr. Octagon, Black Elvis, a Diesel Trucker, Mr. Nogatco and, most recently, returned for an excellent, spooky disc as Dr. Dooom.
His latest persona is "Tashan Dorrsett," where Keith claims to be bringing fans the view of a "regular street dude."
Here's the problem: Kool Keith is, like, the weirdest rapper there is, and it's hard to pretend you're a regular guy when you're spitting out lines like "You're just a Marbury/New York Knickin'/With a little bit of light hittin'/Got you uptown sniffin' Saturday night/Got a little Saturday hype/You sound like a loud gripe/A fat girl who can't lose weight on the mic."
DJ Junkaz Lou provides a solid bedrock of consistently interesting beats, from the synth-and-guitar "La Chacha" to the Eastern vocal chops and tabla-driven beat of "Indian," but even at his best, "Tashan Dorrsett" pales in comparison to Dr. Dooom 2.
Since he's purportedly just being a regular guy on this disc, the question must be asked: Is this the real Kool Keith?
If so, he may want to stick to the Bizarro-world-superhero stuff.
Listen to samples from "Tashan Dorrsett" at Amazon.com.
Sussex Countian