ATLiens

Ahhhhhh….
My long ATLiens review came at last.
For a long while, ATLiens has been one of my my favorite album ever.
The lyrics on this album are so smooth and jazzy complimenting Outkasts double threat duo, Andre 3000 & Big Boi. Of course, the southern 90’s jazz hip hop instrumentals were godly as well which fitted the theme of the album perfectly. The sequencing was also pretty clean, throughout the entire album it was only high points playing into high points.

The intro sets the “Sci-fi” tone for this album perfectly playing perfectly into the actual intro track “Two Dope Boys” which was fun and catchy. The woman's sample over the back that came back quite a few times on this album was another high point. The piano sample over the background sounded something the Wu-Tang Clan may attempt to rap over but can't because they're not Outkast. And Outkast is a rare occasion of “chill lyricism”. Big Boi’s second verse on this song was pretty funny, where he pretends to be in a rap battle with Andre (And basically beat him!), proving he shouldn't be the odd one out of the duo. Andre’s verse in the second half was not as good as Big Boi’s but pretty representative of the ATL which makes a lot of sense. Big Boi finishes off the flow with some quick lines about being in the limelight, while Andre abruptly, OUT OF NOWHERE ends the track, perfectly aligning it for the next title track “ATLiens”. The instrumental is just a different breed. If I could come with a name, I would call it a sci-fi southern 90’s jazz-rap beat. Pretty awesome. This track pretty much wrapped the album as a whole, I would recommend listening to this song way before any other song on this album. The hook is extremely catchy, and Big Boi’s second verse about social issues about race and gender went perfectly with the song being a banger at the time. A true album anthem.

The next track “Wheels of Steel” is theoretically one of the weaker tracks, but still amazing. The organ sample progressively got better as the song went on. The first verses from Andre and Big Boi were a bit serious, but as soon as the chorus came in more energy came in. The next song “Jazzy Belle” had more female vocal samples in the background. Now looking back at Andre's first verse it says a lot about his lonely love life, and Big Boi’s sad second verse went as hard as Andres. The duo's third verse about fame and girls was representative of what the two were going through. The next track “Elevators (Me & You)” is probably my favorite song off of this album. The back and forth flow from Andre and Big Boi is something you can't find today so I value that a lot on this track. The chorus and Andres second verse kept the recurring theme of them moving up in the music industry and the struggles with the family during that time. Andre covers more of that in his third verse as he recites his iconic line “moving up in the world like elevators” which I absolutely love. Not to forget the beat was amazing, the reverb gets me every time. Then we pass on to the song “Ova da Wudz” which talks about Andre’s and Big Boi’s childhood coming up, right after they made a song after getting fame. The industry lines only get better from Andre. The chorus was abrupt but good. The next song “Babylon” was by far the strangest, but one of the best. Andre's verses were a bit “sus” considering he's talking about some funky shit when he was in school but then goes on to rap about gender equality mixing with his love life. And of course, the female vocal samples come back again.

As we get to the back of the album, we fall upon “Wailin” using a very fitting Nas-type beat, for that era of hip hop. Now the duo raps about the flawed education system, they really never run out of ideas sheesh! The chorus has a pretty sad sample over it as well. Big Boi carries the second half of the song until the end. The next track “Mainstream'' goes on to talk about more hard games being played and meddled within the music industry, and we actually get to see Andre get a bit mad. This song was featured to uncredited underground features from rappers T-Mo, and Khujo Goodie. We get another two uncredited features from Big Gipp and Cool Breeze on the track “Doctor Psalm”. We also get some more female vocal samples which really carried the outro of this song. “Millennium” the following track had a massive amount of energy from the duo, with a very fast pace beat but finished with Andre basically snorting. This one talked about their dreams as a kid and how far they came from then to this album. Alright. Time to talk about “E.T. (Extraterrestrial)”. This song makes so much sense now. It's about Andre and Big Boi being seen as aliens or “not human beings” because of their race. Now here's where everything clicks. So ATL(where the duo is from) + aliens(what the duo are viewed as) = ATLiens. Boom. That's when everything on this album clicks and you can see why this may be one of the greatest albums of all time, and why it's my personal favorite. The outdoor double-track song “13th floor/Growing Old” makes me cry sometimes. The intro is about the black community being oppressed, and a guy talking about us needing a Black president. I'm so glad the duo wasn't killed like Pac, and instead, they can see us improving bit by bit. And they can also play the flute. The coming of age piano sample ends this album perfectly in a sad but almost in a rebirth way.

Now looking back at ATLiens a have an extremely big appreciation for that album. Not everyone gets the whole message that the duo is trying to come through on this album. And remember they were only 21 when they made this. This is for sure my favorite album ever and I recommend please giving it a listen. By the way, I have no correlation with the ATL, I just love this album!