Kool Keith w/9th Prince, Dana Coppa and DJ Madhatter

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Kool Keith/Facebook

After his heavily hyped show at the Riverwest Public House last summer was shut down by police after just three songs—apparently the venue was over capacity—Kool Keith promised that he’d be back in Milwaukee, and he’s a man of his word. He remains one of the oddest and most influential figures in hip-hop: Years before Lil Wayne made lunatic rhymes fashionable, Keith was rapping in dense, manic and utterly off-the-wall imagery, first as the engine behind the golden-age Bronx rap crew the Ultramagnetic MC’s then as the demented mind behind Dr. Octagon, his gynecologist-in-space epic with producer Dan the Automator. Keith has bounced between myriad personas since that career-defining project, among them Black Elvis, Dr. Dooom, Reverand Tom, Mr. Nogatco and Tashan Dorrsett. He’s not much for quality control, but even his shakiest albums occasionally recapture the bizarre spark that made Dr. Octagon such an instant underground phenomenon.