“R.I.P Dr. Octagon” is a track based on the aftermath of how Keith felt the name and project was handled after he fell out with Dan The Automator and later, a follow-up album entitled “The Return Of Dr. Octagon” which was produced entirely without Keith’s involvement.

To add a little backstory to what happened with Dr. Octagon, numerous stories are explained that the project was originally started between Keith and Kutmasta Kurt and Sir Melenik in around 1994, DTA caught wind of the project as he let Kurt and Keith use his studio, inserted himself into the project and the after the release of Octagon he cut Keith was cut with royalties, not to mention effectively removing Kutmasta Kurt and Sir Melenik on the project. Further negativity would sour the project although it was a critically acclaimed album by the press. As they were supposed to perform as a “band” in 1997 for Lollapalooza Keith mysteriously disappeared (it was explained he was contracted for work in Europe, which explains why he appears on Prodigy’s Fat of the land album) and Dan was ready to replace him with J-Live and Sadat X.

the performance never happened, which led most people to believe the partnership between Keith and Automator had come to a close and with this, Keith would kill the character off as the introductory track on his first Dr Dooom album.

fast forward to 2002, Thornton announced The Resurrection of Dr. Octagon, a proposed sequel to Dr. Octagonecologyst that would reintroduce the character. Los Angeles-based producer Fanatik J was chosen to create the music for the album. Thornton himself took part in the production of early material for the project, playing bass, guitar, and keyboards on many of the tracks. As production on the album was underway, Thornton had a falling out with Fanatik J over contract rights. Thornton referred to Fanatik J as “greedy” and stated that “He went out of his level of producer’s ranking. Maybe he thought he was an overnight Quincy Jones, that he was the Automator.”] Fanatik J later engaged in a legal battle with CMH over contractual terms that did not give him input on remixes.

Following Fanatik J’s disputes with the label, CMH contacted San Francisco-based producer John Lindland and Melbourne-based producers Simon Walbrook and Ben Green to produce material for the album. This would lead to this track’s premise. Keith although in later years distanced himself from the Octagon name and projects did later use the Octagon name for a collaboration with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which later led to reconciling with Dan The Automator to do a successful follow-up to the Dr Octagon album, with it proclaiming to be the “real” second album.