One of the best solo efforts by the Ultramagnetic MC Kool Keith is an album that is partly a collection of dirty stories, ala Blowfly or Dolemite, and partly a metaphorical comment on hip hop, with the two aspects intersecting in a way that reveals Keith's artistry, much as
Dr. Octagonecologyst wasn't entirely an album about an intergalactic gynecologyst from the future, and
Dr Dooom: First Come, First Served wasn't entirely an album about a serial killer living in a condemned apartment eating Flintstones vitamins with his pet rats. Beneath all that other stuff, Kool Keith is doing what most rappers do: boasting about their capability on the mic. He's just doing it in a way that, for the most part, is not as straightforward as Lil Wayne's claims of being the greatest rapper alive. For the most part, that kind of *** is delivered third person and left field, with some straight detours like "I'm Still The Best".
On the opening track, "Sex Style", Keith declares that all other rappers are swinging from his nutsack, but does it thusly: "Niggas suck my dick, they dogs drink my piss; you want freestyle? That's right, my style is free, niggas suck my dick and they girls drink my pee". The other rappers are transsexual, and Keith is the funky heterosexual. "Plastic World" takes aim at the horrorcore rappers that Keith says "bit" his style: "All I saw was little Kool Keiths on my tour". The sexual metaphors Keith uses to take aim at other rappers range from watersports to sex changes, incest and bestiality, although calling rappers who think they're hardcore "Little Girls" wouldn't be out of place on a mainstream rap album.
The music fits the mood of a surreal horror movie rather than give off an atmosphere of eroticism, and this makes the set even weirder and more unique. The off-putting synthesizers and Moog sounds are part of Keith's attempt to put his foot down as the real source of the
Dr. Octagon musical style and not that album's credited producer, Dan the Automator, who is nowhere to be found on
Sex Style. Here, KutMasta Kurt is the predominately credited producer, but Keith has said that the reason that this album, as well as other Funky Ass releases like
First Come, First Served, have a musical connection to
Dr. Octagon is not because some producer is imitating the sound of that album, it's because that's
his musical style. Keith has emphasized that he's a musician, not just a rapper, which some people might forget after hearing the pop-oriented
Return of Dr. Octagon formed with little input from Keith.
"Pornocore" thus fits the songs featured here, because this isn't a club rap album in the vein of 2 Live Crew or Lil Jon. The level of artistry and creativity on
Sex Style makes it a unique work of a weird, ***ed up dude, while being totally incomparable to anything else in not just music, but any art form.
