It’s a constant delight for fans of older hip-hop artists when one of them drops an album; so for fans of Ultramagnetic MC Kool Keith, he’s back with another album in 2023, the follow-up to 1999’s Black Elvis/Lost in Space, Black Elvis 2. Unlike its predecessor, it isn’t overtly complex with the dimensions of its rhyme schemes and production, opting for less spacial pizzaz for more of a refined sound that allows the essence of 90s Kool Keith to return and make listeners feel rejuvenated with some modern nostalgia. That nostalgia gets doubled when you hear the first song, produced by L’Orange, who he worked with to deliver a personal favorite, 2015’s Time? Astonishing!; though L’Orange isn’t the primary producer, his presence in the intro brings a centrifuge of subtle boom-bap notes mixed with these extensive creative technic avenues. It’s a constant that transfers from producer to producer as others like Marc Live (Kool Keith’s cousin), Tracy Marrow, and Kool Keith himself weave these intricate beats that offer a better worldview of the conceptual album. It may not be some opus, as it stumbles due to weak pacing and constructs for songs, and it forgets to keep a steady progression from start to finish.

Kool Keith bringing back his Black Elvis persona may not hold much significance because having different personas is a cornerstone for Keith, so it becomes a welcoming return for this one. Over the years, Keith has been consistently quirky, clever, and astute, shifting personas like with the seminal Dr. Octogon or Dr. Dooom. Sometimes his innovative creativity can hold Keith as the ambition gets too high for his good, like with Tashan Dorsett, which has never held the limelight through many spins. However, he’s been riding a high for most of his career, consistently bringing listeners back to hear what creative twist he’s going about this time, like the albums where he embraced a more technopathy approach – Demolition Crash and Computer Technology. Though science and technology have been a topic of interest for many of Keith’s albums, albums like Black Elvis 2 and its predecessor feel more constrained, giving you the best of both, grounding the music in reality while living in the future with futurism coating all of its sensibilities. It makes Black Elvis a smoother listen, especially as Kool Keith’s storytelling skills maintain a concentrated peak of excellence that he can shift between metaphors and allusions while keeping the content focused.

You hear it with tracks like “Black Pressley,” “All Marvel,” “First Copy,” and “Space Mountain,” where the production takes you to exponential highs where you get that perfect balance between both factions: beats and lyrics. It’s more so with the first two as it goes into the depths of Kool Keith’s mind and delivers these fantastic bars that create parallels with the metaphors they relay, like with “All Marvel,” where Keith uses Marvel heroes, their powers, and situations they’d use it to reflect aspects of his flexes. With “Black Pressley,” Kool Keith uses sports teams to craft these fantastical bars – varying angles get built with characterizations striving to elevate one’s understanding of his directional purpose. Like his constant focus on tech, Black Elvis is a cyborg of the future, one of three, as he’d put it on “First Copy,” keeping his world grounded with current references like Planet Fitness being used to diss someone who isn’t built like him. When it comes to Kool Keith’s lyricism, there is an understanding that one can retain doubt, as his output doesn’t always reach the level of greatness 90s Kool Keith had sonically, especially with the album First Come, First Served.

If there is anything to doubt, it’s the range in percussion patterns; as the drums become less engaging, the more you hear the surrounding elements feel more enshrined in the limelight, like the claps and high-hats blending with high-pitch instruments like the subtle triangle notes on “The Formula,” featuring Marc Live & Ice-T, both frequent collaborators of Kool Keith. “Space Mountain” is more futuristic with the amplification given to its atmosphere, continuing to offer a spacey feeling without becoming overdone. “Machinary” beautifully juxtaposes the title with the production by going for a minimalist approach, allowing the technical skills of Kool Keith, Raadar-Van, and Marc Live. “E-L-V-I-S” also has some futurism within its beat, continuing to alleviate the world. Unfortunately, “E-L-V-I-S” stays straight and narrow, never taking the sound anywhere enjoyable like the former ones mentioned or “Clifton’s Revenge,” where the bleak coating on the percussion greatly complements Keith’s flow, making any listener eager to stop and listen from start to finish.

Though there are minor missteps with the music, primarily in the production and some featured verses within the unique constructs of the songs, Kool Keith keeps Black Elvis 2 as composed as possible. As it begins to make a turn at the midway point, the pacing starts to suffer. It begins to trot slower, making you feel like there is more to go, though it’s only seven more tracks. For an album that runs at 50 minutes, and 15 Tracks, it feels longer, slightly more chorish than not; yet, it’s here where you hear similar parallels to the first, where it begins to stagger as it continues. Most of it is significant, but often the interconnectivity isn’t strong enough where a mild beat like that of “E-L-V-I-S” can feel placated as Keith’s vocals take command, controlling the direction of its thematic notes within the writing.

It’s hard to recommend this album as it is unique to the typical flair in the mainstream. It’s entrenched in its concept, never losing sight of what it wants to accomplish. But it does more than what I expected and then some. It is something for those old heads who miss the hard-hitting flows that never flip on a dime to bring some weak melodic flows and shift the meaning on a whim. If you’re ambitious and curious, give it a spin, but you won’t be missing much if you gloss over it for some of the more mainstream rap like Gunna or Young Thug.