Credit: Kool Keith

Kool Keith is a man of many personas. Over the years, he’s gone by Dr Octagon, Dr Dooom, Black Elvis, Dr Ultra, Crazy Lou, and plenty of other nicknames. He’s established himself as one of the most unique personalities in hip-hop, making his name as a solo artist and as a member of the Ultramagnetic MCs.

The 61-year-old is an inspiration to many of rap’s biggest names. During the early ’90s, a rumour spread about the New York City rapper being admitted to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric issues. Instead of anyone plucking the information out of thin air, it was actually Keith himself who was responsible for the word spreading.

As it turns out, it wasn’t true at all. Keith told a lie after being aggravated from a lack of food and being hounded with questions from reporters. “They always said I went crazy!” he told David Ma in an interview. “Here’s the straight story: I did a press day when I was signed with Mercury. And all they gave us was water, which I was drinking all day long. I was so tired of doing press and hungry since all I had was water for hours and hours. “

It was 1992, and the Ultramagnetic MCs were about to release their second album, Funk Your Head Up, at the time. “All these journalists came in for press day for Ultramag’s Funk Your Head Up,” he explained. “We had about 50 interviews to do for the entire day! And everyone kept asking the same question over and over: ‘When did you do this and when did you do that? What made you Kool Keith?‘ It became very repetitious.”

Keith got so fed up of responding with the same old thing that he joked about spending time in a hospital in Manhattan, just to get a kick out of Ced-Gee. He has fond memories of the interaction. “I was tired and was messing around with Ced just to make him laugh,” he said. “I told this one reporter that I went crazy and was sent to Bellevue Mental Hospital. I told him I tried to eat my own hand and that they had to stop me! Ced was holding his stomach because he was laughing so hard — so I thought the dude would know it was a joke!”

As it turns out, he didn’t think it was a joke at all. The journalist ran a story for an overseas magazine that claimed he spent time in a ward, which took on a life of its own. Keith liked the sound of the story, so he kept up the lie. “It was a European dude, and years later, I pick up and read about how mentally crazy I was,” he recalled. “This European cat’s magazine was referenced in the article saying I was a ‘former mental patient’ and stuff. So I thought, ‘Wow, this would be great press!’ And the publicists were like, ‘This would be great press!’ So I just took it and ran with it.”

On his Dr Octagonecologyst album as Dr Octagon in 1996, Keith included a song called ‘General Hospital’. The track bizarrely finds a doctor diagnosing someone with cirrhosis of the eye, which isn’t a real thing. Then, to make things even more confusing, a horse enters the emergency room. It’s this type of humour that makes Keith the iconic rapper he is today.