Journal Entry 10: Kool Keith album covers

I am not a big fan of rap music, but will occasionally partake of "underground hip hop." One of my favorite artists is a fellow named Kool Keith. He is a crazy guy who has been making records since the 80s. The first group he was involved with were the Ultramagnetic MCs. Since then he has created over 50 different aliases and released a bunch of records. Sometimes his lyrics are a little over the top inappropriate, but he raps about living in space a lot which is pretty cool. I am going to look at three different covers for three of his different aliases. Starting with his first solo release under the Dr. Octagon alias, entitled Dr. Octagonecologyst. Next up is his release under the Black Elvis alias entitled Black Elvis/Lost in Space. And third will be one of his newer albums released under the Dr Dooom (yes, there are three Os), entitled Dr. Dooom 2.

Dr. Octagon is a time traveling alien, who as the name implies is a doctor. He was first introduced in the album Dr. Octagonecologyst which was released in 1996. Kool Keith's albums often feature very simply typography, instead focusing on the art work. This cover only has Dr. Octagon's name, neglecting the album title. The title can be found on the side of the CD. Dr. Octagon is written in a red serif typeface, that for the most part stands out against the background. Since Dr. was placed over his black lab coat, it has the most emphasis. The typeface that was used is somewhat distressed. I don't think this was intentional, but to me it looks like it was printed using old and worn metal type or with too much ink. The red color is important because it ties into the blood stained lab coat.

The next album is a 1999 release called Black Elvis/Lost in Space. This album is unique because part of the album is about traveling through space, and the other part is told from Black Elvis's perspective. The lyrics on this album have futuristic/intergalactic undertones and the cover conveys these ideas well. I like the use of green and white. It is quite surprising that the white outlined letters show up as well as they do, with such thin strokes. Contrasting the large, fancy, futuristic type with the smaller sans serif is nice. If the album title was done in the same style as his name it would be overdone. I can see the little symbols that run vertically down the right side of the composition being used as the basis for a symbol font. They are very simple symbols with a lot of character, and as with the letters, show up very well for having such thin stroke widths.

The final album cover I will look at is the second Dr. Dooom release called Dr. Dooom 2. There was some controversy with an album that was semi-legally released by a company that Keith had a legal falling out with, and this is a response to that. As with Dr. Octagonecologyst, this album features an illustration with simple typography. The illustration has a cool watercolor effect, that is somewhat transparent. This is mostly confined to the green area that creates Dr. Dooom's portrait. There is some "hidden" type contained in this area. The bloody hand lettered type is pretty nice. Dr. Dooom is probably not the first doctor that anyone would like to see, he has a reputation for being a bit of a butcher, and that is why the text is bloody. The skull over Dr. Dooom's name bothers me. I think it would look a lot bette if that whole corner was left as white space, but the skull is tied in with the back cover, which I will also include. It contains some typography in the illustration, in the form of a tombstone with Dr. Octagon's name on it, and a grape juice box. I am disappointed with the layout of the track names and stuff. I think it could have been vastly improved. It is not tied in with the illustration in anyway, and feels like an aforethought.