Speakerboxxx takes up where Stankonia left off ... The Love Below isn't really hip hop at all. Its sound and lyrics owe a huge debt to, inevitably, George Clinton.
Cruising smoothly into pole position for album of the year, Outkast's Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below is a landmark hip-hop release, fit to be set alongside the likes of 3 Feet High & Rising, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and The Marshall Mathers LP - the kind of album that changes the game completely, that renders its competitors suddenly obsolete and old-hat.
Packaged together, they make a twofer whose ambition flies so far beyond that of anyone doing rap right now (or pop, or rock, or R&B), awards shows may need to create a special category for it.
Both albums are sublime. Taken together they're hip-hop's Sign o' the Times or The White Album: a career-defining masterpiece of breathtaking ambition.
The Love Below is more consistent than Speakerboxxx. Still, as was probably intended, the double-album is greater than the sum of its parts, and this kind of expertly crafted pop and deftly executed funk rarely happen at the same time—not since Stankonia, at least.
The Love Below ... comprises the most sublime pop music heard on record this year.
Big Boi's Speakerboxxx coolly upstages its counterpart: Although it, too, provides the world with one earthshaking single, it differs from The Love Below in that it also manages to maintain a consistent level of brilliance and emotional complexity.
This album just doesn’t keep you mesmerized from start to finish like Stankonia did; you have to search for the best tracks. But, if this had been cut down to one disc of the best material, if Andre’s songs had Big Boi’s rapping, if Big Boi’s songs had Andre’s off the wall sounds, if all that had happened, it could very well have been that elusive defining rap album.
This is one of the most polarizing albums of all time. Particularly on Andre's end. You either have people saying this is a masterpiece, or people saying this sucks, mainly because of Andre's part, "The Love Below". I am on the side of those who think this is amazing. On both albums. It slaps. I'm gonna split this into two different reviews, because it's so, so different, yet so amazing on both sides. There's a reason this is the best-selling hip-hop album of all-time. It's not just ... read more
EDIT: THANK YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH FOR 1,000 FOLLOWERS!!!!! π₯°π₯° MWAH MWAH XOXOXO π ITS A BLESSING TO BE HERE AMONG SUCH GENEROUS FUNNY ELOQUENT CULTURED SILLY PEOPLE !!!! AAAAAH ITS OVERWHELMING THANK UUU ππ
heyyyyyyy!!! ummm this is my 3,000th rating π ive never been good at communicating my emotions or like, summing up the totality of an experience, so iii'll try to make it brief. i love music, i love this website, finding AOTY in 2019 a month after leaving rym has ... read more
OUTKAST DISCOGRAPHY DEEP DIVE #5
So, here we are! The obligatory double album of every mainstream act ever. They said multiple times that they are not breaking up and that they didn't make this, because they were going to different places with their music, but I can't accept that answer. These two albums are completely different in style which I think is the indication that André wanted to do a more pop sound, while Big Boi wanted to make a regular hip hop record. Well, whatever their ... read more
The closest we'll get to an andre solo album and it remains one of the best pieces of art to come out of hip hop
Apparently, it's a controversial take, but this is my favourite Outkast album. Both sections hold different parts of the essence of what made Outkast such a once-in-a-generation band. The feeling of going from the confident and hopeful Speakerboxxx to the deep and introspective Love Below is just such a fantastic juxtaposition and really brings to light the respective headspaces that Big Boy and Andre were at while making their final album as Outkast. While the separation between the artists' ... read more
1 | Intro 1:29 | 81 |
2 | GhettoMusick 3:56 | 92 |
3 | Unhappy 3:19 | 88 |
4 | Bowtie 3:56 feat. Sleepy Brown, Jazze Pha | 85 |
5 | The Way You Move 3:54 feat. Sleepy Brown | 91 |
6 | The Rooster 3:57 | 83 |
7 | Bust 3:08 feat. Killer Mike | 85 |
8 | War 2:43 | 83 |
9 | Church 3:27 | 84 |
10 | Bamboo (Interlude) 2:09 | 70 |
11 | Tomb of the Boom 4:46 | 76 |
12 | E-Mac (Interlude) 0:24 | 66 |
13 | Knowing 3:31 | 82 |
14 | Flip Flop Rock 4:35 feat. Killer Mike, JAY-Z | 90 |
15 | Interlude 1:15 | 68 |
16 | Reset 4:35 feat. Khujo Goodie, Cee-Lo Green | 89 |
17 | D-Boi (Interlude) 0:40 | 66 |
18 | Last Call 3:57 | 85 |
19 | Bowtie (Postlude) 0:35 | 71 |
1 | The Love Below (Intro) 1:27 | 87 |
2 | Love Hater 2:49 | 89 |
3 | God (Interlude) 2:20 | 84 |
4 | Happy Valentine's Day 5:23 | 88 |
5 | Spread 3:51 | 89 |
6 | Where Are My Panties 1:54 | 78 |
7 | Prototype 5:26 | 88 |
8 | She Lives in My Lap 4:27 feat. Rosario Dawson | 89 |
9 | Hey Ya! 3:55 | 98 |
10 | Roses 6:09 | 96 |
11 | Good Day, Good Sir 1:24 | 74 |
12 | Behold a Lady 4:37 | 73 |
13 | Pink & Blue 5:04 | 80 |
14 | Love In War 3:25 | 78 |
15 | She's Alive 4:06 | 80 |
16 | Dracula's Wedding 2:32 feat. Kelis | 84 |
17 | The Letter 0:20 | 73 |
18 | My Favorite Things 5:12 | 86 |
19 | Take Off Your Cool 2:38 feat. Norah Jones | 85 |
20 | Vibrate 6:38 | 84 |
21 | A Life In the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete) 4:50 | 90 |