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Outkast Speakerboxx

Outkast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

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by Mike Diver
Take two bottles into the shower? Sure, why not? I’m an old-fashioned guy. After all, that two-in-one nonsense makes my head all itchy. It burns, it burns

Yet the two-in-one approach is exactly what Atlanta’s finest sons Outkast have gone for on their fantastical double-album, ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’. Whilst most double-albums render the listener comatose halfway through the first side (see: 'Sign O’ The Times', 'Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'), this one is more likely to have you bopping up against whatever female crosses your path (should you be a hot-blooded male that is, as rappers Big Boi and André 3000 clearly are). It’s just too damn funky for its own good, and the stupendous ‘Hey Ya!’ is just the tip of the cool-as-iceberg. Example one: Big Boi’s positively dirrty ‘Bowtie’, as crisp as the finest wine. Example two: André’s sleazy ‘Spread’ (“Don’t want to move too fast but can’t resist your sexy ass”). Example three: the ‘Stankonia’-style party anthem, and album opener, ‘Ghetto Musick’. Basically, there’s too much hot shit here for you NOT to own this.

Yes, it’s essentially two solo records, but if you can name me just one rapper that made a more complete record in 2003 than either of these two Southern boys' efforts, I’ll call you a liar. Big Boi wants to make you party and André wants to take you to bed – what better combination could there ever be? Break up in the future they may, but even individually they’ll forever be cooler than cool.

  • Outkast 9 / 10

Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

>>if you can name me just one rapper that made a more complete record in 2003 than either of these two Southern boys' efforts, I’ll call you a liar<<

Okay, call me a liar (several times over): Brother Ali, Sole, Aesop Rock, Buck 65, Diverse...

Don't get me wrong, Outkast are good and the album(s) have some mindblowing moments - "Hey Ya!", "She Lives In My Lap" and "Ghettomusick" all spring to mind. But as a whole I'd say it's way overrated. There's just so much filler.

I think it's great that they're getting this critical recognition at long last - they deserve it. But there's no way this is the best hip-hop record of the year. Still give it probably 4/5 though.

Re: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

I thought Sole's record was a better hip hop album. And Non Prophets.
But they weren't as funk-ay.

Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

At last it got a review! It's very good, and I actually think that the skits etc. are among the best bits... but as a piece of music, as opposed to music hall, I don't know if it breaks the same ice as Buck 65. Certainly it's not epoch-making, like Sign 'O' The Times (So I guess we'll disagree on that one). The one thing that really struck me when I give this record is how BIG budget it is. Everything about it is lavish, and it certainly entertains me, but doesn't really challenge. Though his record is just the tip of the UK iceberg, and I believe there's a fuckload of talent lying as yet unheard by the likes of us, I would say Dizzee Rascal's record is better than Outkast's. At a corporate level, US hiphop rules the roost, but in a sense, championing Outkast as the best rappers is about as adventurous as championing Coldplay as the best band.

Re: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

I guess you have a good point there regarding the championing of Outkast. It is damn good though.

See that Hey Ya! has gone back up the charts again, to number 9? Weird...

Re: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

I disagree. I think Outkast are pushing the hip=hop boat (even if it is with millions of dollars behind them). What they're doing is fresh, exciting and innovative. Yes it's still within the framework of bling bling to a certain degree (tho thankfully without the gangsta bullshit), but they're fucking with it. Consider the first single which has no rapping in it and has a really weird retro-futuristic vibe; this is pretty unique from the usual hip hop dirge. Also the fact that you have them and Missy and Timbaland and Neptunes pushing things in the mainstream and the likes of Anticon and Buck 65 et al pushing it underground shows what a healthy state hip hop is in (if you take out all the shit of course). This defo represents a much needed contrast to the Coldplay shit which is safe and easy and palatable to accountants everywhere...

Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

The Roots are AMAZING yet nobody mentions them.

to me, they're the only hip hop act to really push the boundries....

Re: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

The Roots? Are...are you serious?

*Years* ago they were pushing the boundaries. These days they sound more like what they are - a plain, simple funk-hop group, albeit a good one.

And *everyone* mentions them...they've been the rock zines' token hip-hop act for as long as I can remember.

Re: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Spot on dude:

http://www.drownedinsound.com/boards/thread/24720

Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

F***ing hate it, i borrowed it from the library once to see what all the fuss was about, it's just a rude, crude and totally vulgar piece of crap!

Re: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

How come your digging out such old articles??

Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Isn't that inane shite 'HEY YA' STILL in the charts?If the 'WORLD' wants to let us know they f*** to this album, then purlease keep it to yourselves,you might think we're interested but we're not! simple as that.