Review Summary: Outkast: Expanding Hip Hop
Quite simply, this double album by Outkast is Hip-Hops Everest, a great mountain of an album towering above all, taking in a wide range of genres, sub-genres and damn eccentricites. Both albums have their characteristics, Big Boi's aggressive hip hop could be countered by the jazz of Andre 3000's side. To get immediate acclaim in the 2000's is damn hard, there is no time for critical reflection, context and the acceptance that albums of 20 years+ ago get but Outkast might just have managed it.
So Speakerboxxx, the less eccentric of the two seems to have its highlights in those songs that do go away from foundation Hip-Hop. One of these is the excellent 'Bowtie', a clear influence from Funkadelic and in particular George Clinton here (Later to Appear on Sir Lucious Left Foot), the horns are excellent, they will you to dance until you do, taking you on a journey of pure Funk, sure theres a little rap squeezed in there but its not in your face and it doesn't overtake. This leads me onto 'Church', seemingily the birth of some sort of strange Gospel/Hip Hop genre, no gangstas and guns, simple Religious - based fun. That doesn't mean you can't be taken in my opening number, GhettoMusik, a agressive electronic Hip Hop number with a clever sample from Patti Labelle's 'Love, Need and Want You' when Big Boi tells us he's 'feeling good, feeling great' and no wonder, he is creating damn brilliant hip hop. So overall, its brilliant without needing to be overally eccentric but when it does verge that way it seems to be at its best.
Andre 3000's album is the better of the two, eccentric, jazzy and at points psychedelic. One of these psychedelic numbers is the disturbing 'Spread' as Andre pleads with a girl to, as the title suggests to 'Spread'. Big hits 'Hey Ya!' and 'Roses' are equally good without needing to be disturbing, they are just very good and fun pop. The interludes are the better of the two albums, stretching from the worrying morning after effect of 'Where Are My Panties' to the satirical look at the stereotypical English party in 'Good Day, Good Sir'. 'Dracula's Wedding' is the most eccentric of an eccentric album. Who knows what the man was on when writing this but it tells the story of Dracula as he gets married to a woman he is scared of. These tracks are balanced by the personally harrowing 'She's Alive', Dre writing from personal experience of a single parent. The final track is also extremely personal, Andre recalls his life (Incomplete refering to the fact his life is not over) overtop of an out of place, eery track which then ends with Dre talking about his life with the white noise engulfing his words. Is he looking back at an older age?
The two albums are superb, there is no way around it. Big Boi stretches boundaries with Hip Hop, I believe this side is better than Sir Lucious Left Foot, its as if he repeats much on this disc within that album and as for Andre's side, well its eccentric but its bloody brilliant at the same time. This is some of the best hip hop I've ever heard and you can almost not class it as that, its Pop/Jazz/ Funk all mixed into what might later be called 'The White Album of Hip Hop',similar to the fact that both albums are long but truly exceptional recordings.
