Once upon a time, way back in 1996, Kool Keith developed an alter ego named Dr. Octagon, a hypersexual doctor from outer space. He then got together with producer Dan the Automator and turntablist DJ Q-Bert to record the classic album Dr. Octagonecologyst. Over the years, it’s been regarded of something of a cult classic. Despite it’s popularity amongst hip hop fans, we’ve never gotten a proper follow up to the album. There have been some false starts, label disputes, references, and multiple murders at the hands of Dr. Doom, but no official second album until now. After twenty-two years, though, the patience of fans is finally being rewarded as the trio of Kool Keith, Dan the Automator, and DJ Q-Bert have finally reunited to deliver the official Dr. Octagon album we’ve all been pining for with Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horriplation.

As the album opens with “Octagon Octagon,” everything immediately feels familiar as Kool Keith begins in a terrible-yet-charming high-pitched voice as he pretends to be a newsie declaring that Dr. Octagon mania is in full bloom, before switching over to Octagon’s voice, as he spells out all the ways in which you buy into the Octagon franchise, with also helping to spread the mythology that Octagon has been locked away in a mental institute. This is all set to wonderful orchestral sci-fi beat with choral samples and brilliant scratching from Q-Bert. The chemistry just feels right from there on out. Maybe it’s not a mind-blowing album, but it is a really good album that’s just the right combination of weird and accessible. It feels like the album we were supposed to get in 1998, but it doesn’t feel dated – it just sounds like a really good hip hop album with one of the all-time great producers and one of the all-time great turntablists working with one of the most unique personalities in hip hop history. You really can’t go wrong. You get some space for Q-Bert to shine on “Bear Witness IV,” where he absolutely destroys it on the ones and twos. You get the franchise crossover when Del The Funky Homosapien shows up for the Dr. Octagon/Deltron 3030 track that we all needed. You get plenty of rhymes about science fiction and sex, filtered through Kool Keith’s truly absurd sense of humor, and you get great beats from start to finish that flows perfectly from one song to the next.

If you’re listening to this album without any frame of reference, you might not get why this album is a big deal. I think you’ll still understand that it’s really good, but it might not sound and weird and crazy as the first album sounded back in 1996. Maybe it’s missing that one standout moment. All that said, this is still a really good album from three incredibly talented and creative individuals with great chemistry together that makes Moosebumps sound fun and familiar the first time you listen to it.