Review
As much as the double-disc set has become a marker of hip-hop self-indulgence, it’s fitting that Outkast follow up their breakthrough moment — 2000’s Stankonia — with damned near 40 tracks of crunked-out, genre-expanding, mind-rattling, body-shocking madness. Atlanta duo Big Boi and André 3000 have always been a circus unto themselves. Now they’ve realized 80 minutes aren’t enough for their three-ring big top.
Speakerboxxx, Big Boi’s half of this two-album statement, is all aural sex — triple-time rhythms do the nasty with a Patti Labelle sample (“Ghetto Musick”), big-band drums bang out horny horns (“Bowtie”) and practically every sound known to man partakes in an orgy on “Flip Flop Rock.” “Drip, drip, drop — there goes an eargasm,” raps Big Boi like a space-age pimp.
If Speakerboxxx bends hip-hop to its limits, André 3000’s The Love Below leaves limitations behind. Although he rhymes on “Happy Valentine’s Day” and the diary-like “A Life in the Day of Benjamin André,” you’d be hard-pressed to call this a hip-hop record.
Instead, it’s like a brazen remix project: Imagine vocals by Prince and Little Richard placed over lounge music and filtered through bass-heavy funk. The first single, “Hey Ya!”, is an ass-shaking jam session influenced by everything from Ike Turner’s soul revivals to Devo’s New Wave pop.
André’s deeply personal disc suggests a complex love story: a jester exposing the melancholy thoughts below his Technicolor wigs, an MC enamored with sound more than words. “Words only fucked it up more,” André claims. “Now, if I’m losing you, tell me, then I’ll double back.”
There’s no need to double back. This ’boxxx holds an explosion of creativity that couldn’t have been contained in just one LP. Outkast have made insanity the norm.
Speakerboxxx, Big Boi’s half of this two-album statement, is all aural sex — triple-time rhythms do the nasty with a Patti Labelle sample (“Ghetto Musick”), big-band drums bang out horny horns (“Bowtie”) and practically every sound known to man partakes in an orgy on “Flip Flop Rock.” “Drip, drip, drop — there goes an eargasm,” raps Big Boi like a space-age pimp.
If Speakerboxxx bends hip-hop to its limits, André 3000’s The Love Below leaves limitations behind. Although he rhymes on “Happy Valentine’s Day” and the diary-like “A Life in the Day of Benjamin André,” you’d be hard-pressed to call this a hip-hop record.
Instead, it’s like a brazen remix project: Imagine vocals by Prince and Little Richard placed over lounge music and filtered through bass-heavy funk. The first single, “Hey Ya!”, is an ass-shaking jam session influenced by everything from Ike Turner’s soul revivals to Devo’s New Wave pop.
André’s deeply personal disc suggests a complex love story: a jester exposing the melancholy thoughts below his Technicolor wigs, an MC enamored with sound more than words. “Words only fucked it up more,” André claims. “Now, if I’m losing you, tell me, then I’ll double back.”
There’s no need to double back. This ’boxxx holds an explosion of creativity that couldn’t have been contained in just one LP. Outkast have made insanity the norm.
