ATLiens

Two words: Consistency rules!

ATLiens is, according to me, together with their debut, Outkast’s most underrated album. When people talk about their favorite Outkast album, it’s mostly Aquemini and Stankonia that gets mentioned. One has the two storytelling cuts (and a bunch of other incredible tracks), while the other has probably the most forward-thinking soundscape in all of Hip Hop history. Those feats do make them hard to beat, however, none of them hold a candle to ATLiens when talking about pure consistency.
From top to bottom, ATLiens doesn’t have one single iffy song. Aquemini has multiple songs preventing it from standing alongside the genre’s finest works, SpottieOttieDopaliscious and Liberation drags, while songs like Y’all Scared and Mamacita simply don’t belong in any best-of-rap lists. Stankonia, while its mistakes might not be as bad as Aquemini’s, has some slight misses too. I’ll Call B4 I Cum is cheesy, I don’t care if the purpose of the song was to be so, and throughout the tracklist I find there’s a small number of decisions I’d have changed in order to make the specific song perfect by the book. This isn’t the case for ATLiens though. Some might argue ATLiens generally plays on a lower level and has fewer proper 10/10’s, however, name me the song worse than a 9/10. I can’t name one, which goes to show the spectacular consistency ATLiens boasts.

That’s not to say, that ATLiens doesn’t reach incredible heights your favorite rapper could only dream of though. The catchy ass title track, both versions of Elevators, Wheelz of Steel… If B.O.B. is Hip Hop on crack, then Wheelz of Steel is Hip Hop on Adderall - the energy, the record-scratching… if anything was the frontrunner for B.O.B, it would’ve been this one.

But where this album *really* strives, now in comparison to their debut, is how much more mature it is, in songwriting mind you. They’d go on to push their sound to be even braver and more experimental on future releases, however, this is where they found their knack for complex, conceptual writing. Jazzy Belle (Jezebel) explains the duo’s concerns about the modern woman’s promiscuity, that’ll probably influence future generations of women for the worse, Elevators (Me & You), and Dre’s second verse in particular, shows how important it is for him that people keep listening - “If you don’t move your feet, then I don’t eat” - tying his own survival to the audience’s attention and hinting at the pressure that comes with success, while 13th Floor/Growing Old, if we’re ignoring the Elevators remix, is an amazing closer which sees Outkast pondering their future and how all good things must come to an end sometime.

Now please understand, I know I’ve been quite nitpicky. Stankonia and Aquemini are both albums I thoroughly enjoy, and both of them can be found within Outkast’s top 3 albums, I’ll definitely further explain my love for those on a future review. However, ATLiens lowkey doesn’t get the love it deserves. It is bound to happen though, that when you have a discography this stacked, some albums get less mentions and play. Only Outkast could have such an insane album get so little talk.

But all in all, this shit is great. It’s more than great. It’s an essential album in their discography, in southern hip-hop, in all of hip-hop. It was also the album that cemented their name into the rap history books, and it was also the album that got them onto the Mount Rushmore of hip-hop acts.
If you enjoyed this album, get ready, it certainly doesn't go down from here.