Kool A.D. facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kool A.D.
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Kool A.D. performing at Governors Ball in New York City in 2011
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Victor Vazquez |
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| Born | November 16, 1983 San Francisco Bay Area, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Hip hop |
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| Years active | 2005–present |
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Victor Vazquez (born November 16, 1983), known by his stage name Kool A.D., is an American rapper, music producer, writer, and artist. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.
Kool A.D. is most famous for being part of the New York rap group Das Racist. He was also a member of the bands Boy Crisis and Party Animal. Besides his group work, Vazquez has released many solo music projects, including mixtapes. Mother Jones magazine once said his work helps us think differently about society and culture.
Early Life and Education
Victor Vazquez has a mixed background, with Afro-Cuban and Italian roots. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay area of California. For high school, he went to the Alameda Community Learning Center in Alameda.
Later, he attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. There, he earned a degree in English. While at Wesleyan, Vazquez played drums for a band called La Spanka. He also started the group Boy Crisis. It was at Wesleyan that he met Himanshu Suri, who would later become his bandmate in Das Racist. He also met Andrew VanWyngarden from the band MGMT.
Music Career
Boy Crisis: The Early Band
In 2005, while still a student at Wesleyan University, Vazquez formed the group Boy Crisis. He started as the drummer for the band. Later, he became the lead singer. In 2008, Boy Crisis signed a record deal with B-Unique Records. However, the record company never released their album.
Das Racist: Internet Fame
During his second year of college, Vazquez was a resident advisor for Himanshu Suri. After college, Vazquez often returned to Wesleyan to practice with a Boy Crisis bandmate. During these visits, he became good friends with Suri. After Suri graduated, they both moved to New York City and shared an apartment.
Vazquez and Suri then formed the rap group Das Racist. Their friend Ashok "Dapwell" Kondabolu joined them as their hype man. Das Racist first became popular online in 2008 with their song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell".
They quickly became known in the underground rap scene. Their 2010 mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man, were very successful. Critics praised both, and Sit Down, Man was even called "Best New Music" by Pitchfork. These mixtapes led to tours across North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2011, they released their first studio album, Relax. In mid-2012, Das Racist signed a deal with Sony/Megaforce Records. However, Vazquez left the group before they could release their first album with Sony.
Party Animal: Hardcore Sounds
Party Animal is a hardcore band where Vazquez plays the drums. The band includes Vazquez, Loren Moter, and Malosi. All of them were part of New Earth Creeps, a band Vazquez started in high school.
In 2011, Party Animal played at the Northside Festival in Brooklyn, New York. In early 2012, Dapwell from Das Racist mentioned that Vazquez was working on new music with Party Animal. Their first album, also called Party Animal, came out online on February 28, 2013. The band then toured the U.S. in March and April of that year. In July 2015, Party Animal released their second album, Avant Garbage. They also released a music video for their song "Saving All My Money (Just to Buy a Gun)" in September 2016.
Solo Music Projects
On January 3, 2012, Vazquez released his first solo mixtape, The Palm Wine Drinkard. This mixtape featured R&B songs and other experimental music styles. Critics had mixed opinions about it. In April 2012, Vazquez released his second solo mixtape, 51, which received good reviews.
In 2012, Vazquez announced he was working on three new albums. Two of them, 19 and 63, were released together as a double-album on February 7, 2013. Like 51, these albums were named after bus lines in the Bay Area. These albums included collaborations with many artists like Pictureplane, Young L, and Fat Tony. They even featured a beat that Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys originally made for Das Racist.
Vice magazine said that 19 and 63 helped Vazquez move beyond being known only as "Dude in Das Racist." Pitchfork also praised the mixtapes, calling them "organically avant-garde," meaning they were naturally creative and unusual.
Vazquez and Kassa Overall released a mixtape together as Kool & Kass called Peaceful Solutions on April 30, 2013. In December 2013, Vazquez released the mixtape Not O.K.. This mixtape contained songs that didn't make it onto his next album, Word O.K., which was released in 2014. Not O.K. featured guest artists like Sir DZL and Ladybug "Santos Vieira" Mecca.
In November 2015, Kool A.D. released a 100-song mixtape titled O.K.. This mixtape was meant to be a soundtrack for his upcoming novel, also titled O.K., A Novel. The year 2016 was very busy for Kool A.D., with seven new mixtapes released in the first nine months. These included two 100-track mixtapes, Zig Zag Zig and Peyote Karaoke.
Other Creative Work
Visual Art
Kool A.D. is also a visual artist. In 2006, while working at 826 Valencia, he drew the cover for Dave Eggers's book Some Things You Should Know About Captain Rick. He has also published his own comic book called The Continuing Adventures of Boy With a Fish for a Head.
In 2009, The New Yorker cartoonist Farley Katz made fun of Das Racist's song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell." Vazquez challenged Katz to a "cartoon-off." Katz accepted, and they each drew three cartoons: a day in the life of a rapper, a day in the life of a cartoonist, and a futuristic world without racism. Vazquez submitted the same drawing of a lazy person for the first two. For the third, he drew a person in a Ku Klux Klan hood asking, "What, too soon?" Rob Harvilla of the Village Voice said Vazquez "destroyed" Katz, and many agreed that Vazquez won the contest.
Vazquez also creates drawings and sells them online, often on Instagram and Twitter. He mainly uses Sharpie pens on paper. His artwork has been shown in galleries in New York City and Oakland, California.
Writing
In February 2013, a small book of his writings called Joke Book was published by Spencer Madsen of Sorry House. People praised the book as a funny and thoughtful look at modern society. It sold out quickly and needed a second printing three months later.
From July 2015 to February 2016, Kool A.D. wrote a column for Vice magazine. The column was called "Yeah Baby" and was about parenting.
In November 2016, Kool A.D. released a novel titled O.K., A Novel. He had first written a much longer, experimental version with many different viewpoints and unusual elements like lists and fake ads. But he decided to rewrite the novel completely.
Personal Life
In early 2014, Victor Vazquez married Saba Moeel. She is a fashion designer and musician known by her stage name Cult Days. Vazquez had known her since he was 15 years old. They now have a child, whom Vazquez wrote about in his column for Vice magazine.
Discography
Mixtapes
- Electric Kool A.D. Acid Test (2006)
- Zoot Fantastic (2009)
- Dipset Trance Party (2010)
- Dum Shiny (2011)
- Dummo (2011)
- Hyphy Ballads (2011)
- Ah Luh Mee Duh (2011) – beat tape
- Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (2011) – beat tape
- Nite Lite (2011)
- Hide Your Love Away (2011)
- Crack Beauty (2011) – beat tape
- The Palm Wine Drinkard (2012)
- 51 (2012)
- 63 (2013)
- 19 (2013)
- Not O.K. (2013)
- Word O.K. (2014)
- O.K. (2015)
- All Love (2016) – EP
- Real Talk (2016) – EP
- Kool A.D. Is Dead (2016)
- Gods of Tomorrow (2016)
- Zig Zag Zig (2016)
- Official (2016)
- Peyote Karaoke (2016)
- Have a Nice Dream (2016)
- Paradiza Inifiniti (2016)
- The Natural (2016)
- Sky Ladder (2017)
- Aztec Yoga (2017)
- No Longer at Ease (2018)
- Per L'Universo (2018)
- Art (2018)
- Critique of Judgement (2018)
- Melancholy Behind Glass (2018)
- Nada Mane (2018)
- La Regle Du Jeu (2018)
- Delusions (2018)
- Beyond the Lovers Paradox into the Perfect Lovers' Infinity (2018)
- Spanish Castle Music (2019)
- Pain, No Pain (2019)
- Ahora Y Siempre (2019)
- The Pacifist Game (2020)
- Notebook of a Return to a Native Land (2020)
- Pax Magnifica (2020)
- Phenomenology of the Spirit (2020)
- Ask the Dust (2020)
- Naturally (2020)
- Who Cares (2020)
- Death 2 Amerikkka (2020)
- Anarchy (2020)
- Finesse Brut (2020)
- Capitalism is an Embarrassment (2020)
- Peace 2 tha Godz (2021)
- Metal Ox Thuggin (2021)
- Automatic Flowers (2021)
- Bells (2021)
- Death to the Fascist Insect (2021)
- Roccoco (2021)
- Theoretical Soup (2021)
- Actual Soup (2021)
- Dubs (2021)
- Life's Great I'm Stoked (2021)
- Y'all Ain't Deserve This Beautiful Art (2021)
- One Hundred Dollar Soup (2021)
- Sit Down Mane (2021)
- Thuggin Hard (2021)
- Shut Up Foo (2021)
- Stone Soup (2021)
- Hip Hop Charm Set (2021)
- Agitprop (2021)
- Art Sux (2021)
- Japanese Cartoons (2021)
- The Raw (2021)
- Man of Letters (2022)
- Water Tiger Soup (2022)
- Good Luck Soup (2022)
- Bicycle Day (2022)
- Art Trappin (2022)
- Art Trippin (2022)
- Servant of the People (2022)
- Lillies of the Filed (2022)
- Kill John Wayne (2022)
- Underground Rap (2022)
- Vision Mistica (2022)
- Smoke Signals (2022)
- Pheasant Season (2023)
- Syncretic Faith (2023)
- Fair Use (2023)
- Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2023)
- Sho Ya Rite (2023)
- Nag Champa (2023)
- In Time (2024)
- Soul Rebel (2024)
- IDF Drizzy (2024)
- Love & Hip Hop (2024)
With Party Animal
- Party Animal (2013)
- Avant Garbage (2015)
With Boy Crisis
- Tulipomania (2009)
With Kassa Overall
- Peaceful Solutions (2013) (as Kool & Kass)
- Coke Boys 5 (2014) (as Kool & Kass Are... Peaceful Solutions)
- Barter 7 (2015) (as Peaceful Solutions)
With New Earth Creeps
- The Urge to Kill (2003)
- Overwhelming Hunger (2006)
Guest appearances
- Lakutis – "I'm Better than Everybody" from I'm in the Forest (2011)
- Sole – "Coke Rap" from Nuclear Winter Volume 2: Death Panel (2011)
- Action Bronson – "Arts & Leisure" from Blue Chips (2012)
- Supreme Cuts & Haleek Maul – "Testify" from Chrome Lips (2012)
- Heems – "Kate Boosh" from Nehru Jackets (2012)
- Angel Haze – "Jungle Fever" from Reservation (2012)
- Mishka & Rad Reef – "Hyperbolic Chamber Music" (2012)
- Toothpaste – "Daytona 900" from 1996 (2012)
- Hot Sugar – "Leverage" from Midi Murder (2012)
- Los Feo Faces – "50 Estate Affair" from City of Mammon (2013)
- Knifefight – "Pop Your Bubble" from Knifefight (2013)
- Hot Sugar – "*In & Out*" and "Future Primitive Art School" from Made Man (2013)
- Tecla – "Mayo on the Side" from Bruja (2013)
- Maffew Ragazino – "Jackson Pollock" from Brownsville's Jesus (2014)
- Open Mike Eagle – "Informations" from Dark Comedy (2014)
- King Sterlz – "Holy Sound" from Royalty (2014)
- Milo – "In Gaol" from A Toothpaste Suburb (2014)
- A Tribe Called Red – "All Day" (2015)
- The Shoes – "Der Kreisel" from Broken Bag Mix (2015)
- Creature – "Warhol's Wig" from Torn Together (2015)
- Toro y Moi – "2 Late", "That Night", and "Real Love" from Samantha (2015)
- Lushlife – "This Ecstatic Cult (Zilla Rocca Remix)" from My Idols Are Dead + My Enemies Are in Power (2017)
- Ambrose Akinmusire – Origami Harvest (2018)
- TQX – "Log Off and Live", "Text Me Back", and "Useless Generation" from Global Intimacy (2018)
- Freddy Crook - “Championship Blunts ft. Kool A.D. & okaytesla” from Lakeshore Monarch (2021)
