Outkast - Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (iTunes Version)
To call OutKast's follow-up to their 2000 masterpiece Stankonia the most eagerly awaited hip-hop album of the new millennium may be hyperbole, but not by much. In its kaleidoscopic, deep-fried amalgam of Dirty South, dirty funk, techno, and psychedelia, Stankonia was fearlessly exploratory and giddy with possibilities. It was hard to imagine where the duo was going to go next, but one possibility that few entertained was that Big Boi and Andre 3000 would split apart, each recording an album on his own and then releasing the pair as the fifth OutKast album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in the fall of 2003. Although both albums have their own distinct character, the effect is kind of like if the Beatles issued The White Album as one LP of Lennon tunes, the other of McCartney songs — the individual records may be more coherent, but the illusion that the group can do anything is tarnished. By isolating themselves from each other, Big Boi and Andre 3000 diminish the idea of OutKast slightly, since the focus is on the individuals, not the group. Which, of course, is part of the point of releasing solo albums under the group name — it's to prove that the two can exist under the umbrella of the OutKast aesthetic while standing as individuals. Thing is, while it would have been a wild, bracing listen to hear these 39 songs mixed up, alternating between Boi and Dre cuts, the two albums do prove that the music can be solo in execution but remain OutKast records through and through. Both records are visionary, imaginative listens, providing some of the best music of 2003, regardless of genre. If conventional wisdom, based on their public personas and previous music, held that Big Boi's record, Speakerboxxx, would be the more conventional of the two and Andre 3000's The Love Below the more experimental, that doesn't turn out to be quite true. From the moment Speakerboxxx kicks into gear with "GhettoMusick" and its relentless blend of old-school 808s and breakneck breakbeats, it's clear that Boi is ignoring boundaries, and the rest of his album follows suit. It's grounded firmly within hip-hop, but the beats bend against the grain and the arrangements are overflowing with ideas and thrilling, unpredictable juxtapositions, such as how "Bowtie" swings like big-band jazz filtered through George Clinton, how "The Way You Move" offsets its hard-driving verses with seductive choruses, or how "The Rooster" cheerfully rides a threatening minor-key mariachi groove, salted by slippery horns and loose-limbed wah-wah guitars. It's a hell of a ride, reclaiming the adventurous spirit of the golden age and pushing it into a new era.
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Music, R&B/Soul, Rock, Dirty South, Alternative Rap, Contemporary R&B, Hip-Hop
Released: Dec 10, 2002
℗ 2003 Arista Records, Inc.
Tracklist:
01 Intro
02 GhettoMusick (Club Mix) [Explicit]
03 Unhappy [Explicit]
04 Bowtie (feat. Jazze Phá & Sleepy Brown) [Explicit]
05 The Way You Move (feat. Sleepy Brown) [Club Mix] [Explicit]
06 The Rooster
07 Bust (feat. Killer Mike) [Explicit]
08 War
09 Church
10 Bamboo (Interlude)
11 Tomb of the Boom (feat. Big Gipp, Konkrete & Ludacris)
12 E-Mac (Interlude) [Explicit]
13 Knowing
14 Flip Flop Rock (feat. Jay-Z & Killer Mike)
15 Interlude [Explicit]
16 Reset (feat. Cee-Lo & Khujo Goodie)
17 D-Boi (Interlude) [Explicit]
18 Last Call (feat. Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, Mello & Slimm Calhoun) [Explicit]
19 Bowtie (Postlude)
01 The Love Below (Intro)
02 Love Hater
03 God (Interlude)
04 Happy Valentine's Day
05 Spread [Explicit]
06 Where Are My Panties
07 Prototype
08 She Lives In My Lap (feat. Rosario Dawson)
09 Hey Ya! (Radio Mix/Club Mix)
10 Roses
11 Good Day, Good Sir
12 Behold a Lady
13 Pink & Blue
14 Love In War
15 She's Alive
16 Dracula's Wedding (feat. Kelis)
17 The Letter
18 My Favorite Things
19 Take Off Your Cool (feat. Norah Jones)
20 Vibrate [Explicit]
21 A Life In the Day of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete)
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