Kool Keith exploring yet another alter ego over an entire solo LP sounds good enough on paper. And his explanation of this persona is intriguing as well: "Tashan Dorrsett is the reality person from New York City with an image of being real and regular, dealing with daily life situations." But the energy just isn't there. The lifeless intro -- which has
Keith repeating "Tashan Dorrsett" over and over again along with every geographical location he can think of -- is enough to let you know what you're in for here. Produced entirely by French beatmaker
DJ Junkaz Lou (except for a trio of remixes at the end of the album),
Tashan Dorrsett doesn't do much to make good on the proposed concept. Instead, we're left with
Keith's usual scatological obsessions; the verb "defecate" appears in every song and Tashan is characterized as "the urine lurker" who carries Ajax with him wherever he goes. And while
DJ Junkaz Lou's production tends to be rather static, at least half of the beats here are serviceable as
KutMasta Kurt or
Dan the Automator surrogates. Still,
Keith fails to bring life to clunkers like "Booty Clap" and "New Shhhiiit." There are occasional glimmers of the brilliant over the top rants heard on Sex Style and Dr. Dooom when
Keith goes into his signature chewing-out rap wannabes on "The Real Beginner" and the space-age quiet storm cut "Glamour Life," but the
Ultramag alum's imagination never runs too wild when lambasting studio gangstas ("Good mama's boys that act wild show up to the Bill Cosby show/They take a sponsorship from Magnavox"). Even the ad-libs lack the madcap braggadocio that occasionally makes a
Kool Keith snoozer worthwhile. It's disappointing when considering that the "daily life situations" approach would seem to have potential (just think of the absurdity of
Keith rhyming hard about taking out the trash or waiting in line at the deli) if he actually attempted to execute it. But who knows --
Keith's definition of "daily life situations" may very well be a steady dose of enemas, golden showers, and random defecations beside Mayor Bloomberg. ~ Matt Rinaldi