Kool Keith, Dan The Automator & QBert Revive Dr. Octagon With A New Album & Single (Audio)

This past weekend, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) revealed that he and Talib Kweli are reuniting for a sophomore Black Star album. Meanwhile, another late ’90s Hip-Hop squad finally debuts new music with its founding lineup. Dr. Octagon returns with Kool Keith, Dan The Automator, and DJ QBert.

Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation is the name of the upcoming April album from the trio. Today (February 15), Heads get the first single from the album, and its eerieness and unsettling tone are what one would expect from the Dr. Octagonecologyst creators. “Octagon Octagon” features Automator’s Deltron 3030 collaborator Del The Funky Homosapien and is truly, as Keith raps, “Octagon surgery for people who need an Octagon face” in “a world going in Octagon circles.” The track uses word association for the centralized theme of octagon and QBert’s scratches to close out the song are akin to what Heads have heard from the champion turntablist over the past few decades.

Kool Keith, QBert & Dan The Automator Will Perform Dr. Octagon Live For The First Time

The trio briefly toured last year. Before revealing that another album was on the way, Keith told Ambrosia For Heads that the trio’s first album, Dr. Octagonecologyst, shaped his career. “That album got me in tax trouble,” he began with a laugh. “But naw, it means a lot to give the fans what they been waiting for [after] so long. Some people were teenagers when [Dr. Octagonecologyst] dropped. Now, some of them are 40 and over.” This marks the proper comeback for the group. In 2006, Keith released The Return Of Dr. Octagon without Dan and QBert.

Keith’s extraterrestrial alter-ego was born at a career crossroads. In 1996, he along with QBert and Automator created essentially an audible movie with Dr. Octagonecologyst, starring Keith as a bloodthirsty alien doctor and his two cohorts as the producers of a distorted, supernatural LP that would receive critical acclaim and accumulate Keith a whole new fan-base. What could have been a brief stop between Ultramagnetic MC’s, Cenubites, and “Black Elvis” became a benchmark that fans lauded.

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View the tracklist for Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation below. It’s due out on April 6 via Bulk Recordings.

01. “Octagon Octagon” featuring Del The Funky Homosapien
02. “Polka Dots”
03. “Black Hole Son”
04. “Power Of The World”
05. “Operation Zero”
06. “Bear Witness IV”
07. “Area 54 (IG2)”
08. “Flying Waterbed (IG4)”
09. “3030 Meets The Doc Pt.1″
10. “Karma Sutra”
11. “Hollywood Tailswinging”

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#BonusBeat: Late last year, QBert put on a dazzling freestyle turntablism display while on The Wake Up Show:

He also discussed the Invisibl Scratch Piklz’ comeback.