''Word O.K.'' is an album by

Kool A.D. Victor Vazquez (born November 16, 1983), also known by his stage name Kool A.D., is an American rapper, record producer, author, and artist. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Vazquez is best known for being a member of the New ...

, released March 20, 2014. The album features guest appearances from Sir DZL, Ladybug "Santos Vieira" Mecca of

Digable Planets Digable Planets () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987. The trio is composed of rappers Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving. The group is notable for their contributions to the subgenre ...

, Toro Y Moi, Talib Kweli, Boots Riley of

The Coup The Coup is an American hip hop band from Oakland, California. Their music is an amalgamation of influences, including funk, punk, hip hop, and soul. Frontman Boots Riley's revolutionarily-charged lyrics rank The Coup as a renowned political ...

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire Hugh Anthony Allison (born 1986), better known by his stage name Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire (often censored as Mr. MFN eXquire or simply eXquire), is an American rapper. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he debuted with the release of his first mixtape, ...

Videos

Kool A.D. has stated that ''Word O.K.'' is a visual album, like

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

's ''

''. The video for the song "Open Letter," directed by Nick Knight, who had previously directed

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

's "

Bound 2 "Bound 2" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, featured as the final track from his sixth studio album, ''Yeezus'' (2013). It was produced by West and Che Pope, with additional production being handled by Eric Danchick, Noah Goldstein, No I ...

" accompanied the release of the album. The videos for "Tight" and "I'm on a Plane" were released later that year on April 21, and May, 9, respectively. On May 28, Kool A.D. released the video to "Word," an animated video in which Kool A.D. imagines himself as a weed-smoking cartoon dog.

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

described the video, which Kool A.D. co-directed (along with Teddy O'Connor), as "hysterically perverse in that ''

Fritz The Cat ''Fritz the Cat'' is a comic strip created by Robert Crumb. Set in a "supercity" of anthropomorphic animals, it focused on Fritz, a feline con artist who frequently went on wild adventures that sometimes involved sexual escapades. Crumb began d ...

'' sort of way". ''

Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...

'' magazine described the video as "a three-and-a-half minute, highly NSFW animated short that feels like an acid-fueled journey through a dystopian corporate carnival. It pans smoothly from Bart Simpson wearing a McDonald's tee and smoking a joint to a sexualized, anthropomorphized rabbit doing the same. Yin-yangs, peace signs, and other pop symbols breathe in and out of cartoon orifices." On June 9, 2014, Kool A.D. released the video for the title track, "Word O.K.", which was also directed by Nick Knight.

Critical reception

''Word O.K.'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Consequence of Sound called it "more focused of an effort, featuring tighter, doubly succinct examples of Kool’s genre-leaping hijinks". ''

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

'' praised the album, noting that "Kool A.D. hasn’t lost his dry sense of humor and ability to charmingly fit words into places they shouldn’t really fit."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

named it the 9th best album of the year in his ballot for the

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

Videos

Critical reception

Track listing

References

External links