Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

At first glance, this is probably not the best Outkast album for me to start with, since it's actually two separate albums by the two members that comprise Outkast. Also, it's a double album, which is a tough sell for someone who doesn't particularly like hip hop. First impressions: one thing Speakerboxxx doesn't lack for is ideas. For example, GhettoMusick mixes soul and breakbeats in unpredictable and imaginative ways. Another plus is that there is a mix of samples and live playing, which introduces a layer of complexity and richness that modern hiphop often lacks. I have more praise to offer. The rap on Unhappy is rhythmically complex, which is a nice change, and the subject matter isn't the usual hardcore bullshit. On the next song, Bowtie, Big Boi channels George Clinton. Shocker, I'm actually kind of enjoying this. This doesn't suck. Technically, it's hyper-competent, it's relentlessly creative, and Big Boi stays away from the usual hiphop cliches. And it swings. Truly, I'm shocked. Big Boi takes you on a tour of the dominant styles in R&B over the last 50 years, filtered through a hip hop lens. There's actually very little to criticize here. The wordplay is clever. The singing is good. The arrangements are competent. The production touches are on target. Okay, it's not like I'm going to ever listen to this album from start to finish for my own entertainment, but this is the first modern hip hop album I've heard that doesn't make me want to throw a brick through my speakers. More praise. Big Boi's worldview is wider and deeper than a quarter. He shows some actual curiosity about the world. For this genre, that's huge. And his sense of humor doesn't suck. Another thing that distinguishes Big Boi from someone like say Kanye is that Big Boi actually seems to understand the genres he borrows from whereas Kanye is just kitchen sink sampling and montaging without a clue. Kanye makes my brain cells die. Big Boi actually engages me. Okay, finally, on Tomb of the Boom, guest DJ's Konkrete, Big Gipp, and Ludacris get to the usual hip hop cliches (DJ bragging, gangster tropes, misogyny), but their raps are firmly tongue in cheek. They know how ridiculous and mindless these tropes are. Good for them! Yet another thing to love about Big Boi -- alone among modern hip hop artists I've heard, there's almost no Prince influence. Prince himself combined and streamlined funk, jazz, pop and rock, eliminating most of the complexities in each genre, which made him commercially successful, but kind of shallow. Since most modern hip hop is overwhelmingly indebted to Prince, it too tends to be shallow. Instead of being influenced by Prince's predigested and dumbed down genre mixing, Big Boi goes back to the source, which goes a long way towards explaining the vitality of his music. Now, there is room for improvement. Big Boi could have brought jazz into the mix. Imagine if he had brought in some hip hop sympathetic jazzbos like Uri Caine, Tim Lefebvre and Zach Danzinger to play on these tracks. That shit I'd listen to for pleasure. Now we get to The Love Below, Andre 3000's disc. Careful what you wish for. The Love Below starts out with some lame-ass quiet storm jazz ballad. Andre 3000 sweetens the pot with a wicked wah wah guitar solo, but the underlying track still sucks donkey dick. I also don't care much for his sense of humor, either. It's smug, ugly and not nearly as clever as he thinks it is. Fortunately, the music improves. Happy Valentine's Day is a decent jam, although it's marred by Andre 3000's crappy rap. Still, it's not a patch on Big Boi's expert appropriation and mixing of various strands of R&B. It's clear where the talent lies in this duo. Sigh. Andre 3000 is eclectic in the way he stitches his tunes together from disparate elements, but unlike Big Boi, he lacks taste. As for his raps, they're technically nothing special, and the content is juvenile and distasteful. God, this is going to be a chore to sit through. I feel my brain cells dying. Alright, I give up. How to rate? Big Boi's disc is damned good, so 4.5. Andre 3000's sucks, so 1. I'll split the difference.

OuKast is an undeniable hip-hop power duo. So, of course, they chose to release a double solo album to follow up Stankonia, arguably their biggest release ever. Weird decision but one that paid off. Both Speakerboxxx and The Love Below are stuffed with bangers and clearly demonstrate what each member brings to the mix to make OutKast so damn good. Neither album feels like an OutKast album but they both feel like distillations of an OutKast album and I unashamedly love 'em both.

Speakerboxxx is packed with great guests, awesome beats that still sound fresh, and Big Boi throwing his all into it. It's a 5/5. The Love Below is interesting and the one word I keep coming back to is "indulgent". It's a low 3. Pretty long project overall, but pretty worth it. Favorite tracks (Speakerboxxx): "The Rooster", "GhettoMusick", "The Way You Move", "Church" // Favorite tracks (The Love Below): "Roses", "My Favorite Things", "A Life in the Day of Benjamin Andre"

Takes a tusk to the expectations of a hip hop album. A few tracks I can miss, but on the whole a great listening experience, and a modern classic

Ah rap albums and the super fucking longness of them. What a huge waste of time. This could have been a trim 45 minutes and been pretty good. Instead we get an over 2 hour bloated monster. So many shitty skits. Some songs are listenable so this avoids 1 star but just. 1.5/5

An hour and a half of Outkast is about 2 hours too much Outkast. Much like Kanye, these guys are not geniuses, and people need to stop throwing that word around like it means something.

This one takes me back to high school, I had it on repeat for a minute there. I always preferred The Love Below to Speakerboxxx, and that's still the case, but there were some songs I appreciated this time that I didn't appreciate at the time - Bowtie sticks out in that regard. It is definitely an indulgent double album - did they need to include their version of My Favorite Things? No, but I am glad they did. There's some fat they could have cut, but very few duds. It makes me happy that the hits that took over the world - especially Hey Ya - emerged from this much larger showcase of excellent songs.

It’s overstuffed and definitely bloated, but the sheer creativity and ideas explored really rivals The White Album. While I think I prefer Speakerboxxx, both “albums” have so many rich ideas and interesting sounds.

One of the craziest, most timeless yet also dated, efforts in the history of pop music. The beginning of a new era for Big Boi and southern hip-hop and the end of an era for the mythical Andre 3000 who has become something of a hip-hop Brian Wilson. There are some good Prince comparisons to be made but 3K's music is a murky haze of influences and in this strange and unsettling sound, I think we find the likes of Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar and so many more. Big Boi's side is more or less what you expect if you're familiar with the Kast but that doesn't make it less immaculate. In both Big Boi and Andre's side, exist entire worlds, summations of everything they've witnessed thus far in their life as artists and while not every track is gonna hit you on the level of Hey Ya! or The Way You Move, I'd say it's well worth the ride.

very bad, black music lost its way a long time ago

What is there to say? Possibly the best hip hop duo of all time making independent concept albums that sold/came out at the same time. I grew up on this shit and every song is a banger, which is saying something considering the length. Although this album did foretell the Outkast split that still saddens me today.

Great double album where each half is equally strong. Style and theme is consistent within each side, with very few weak tracks despite the length. 9/10, pretty good

a modern classic! Both sides are so strong. I wish andre would have released more solo music. Big Boi's solo albums after this are also really strong. I feel like "hey ya" is the only track people know from here and the radio sadly ruined that song for a lot of people. I have very fond memories of dancing with two of my best college girlfriends to this album.

Holy shit a 2 hour double album. well strap in I guess. Unhappy is a mix of busy melody, groove, and a really interesting rape flow structure. The Way You Move is on this album? This is great. Church is a really cool, odd sounding song. Speakerboxx, great rap album. The Love Below is much more expiramental and I don't know where to latch on to it. The guy shouting ICE COLD on Where Are My Panties is my hero. Prototype slaps. Hey Ya kicks so much booooootaayy and then is followed up by Roses. She's Alive is a poignant song. A blistering backbeat on My Favorite Things adds a pretty awesome dimension to the song.

This is one of the most creative and unique albums in all of hip hop. A sprawling 2 CD set that essentially functions as two separate solo albums packaged together. I feel like it was a brilliant way to reconcile the age old problem of artists wanting to go in separate directions. I was a huge fan of Stankonia and Aquemini in college and was elated when this was released. I must admit I have listened to the Andre 3000 disc many more times over the years but Big Boi's disc is completely solid as well, and much more akin to their previous output. It's just that The Love Below is such a strange genre bending cocktail that I find it completely irresistible. Reminds me somewhat of Sign o the Times era Prince in many ways but goofier with and more lighthearted (for the most part). I feel like both Big Boi and Andre 3000 were both being completely true to themselves here and I love seeing things from their unique perspectives. For being iconoclasts of a sort, it's amazing how casual and natural it all comes across. I only wish they would make more music together again, but this album would be hard to top.

Big Boi and Andre 3000 are so uniquely talented that it was inevitable that they'd eventually go their own ways. It's lucky for us that they decided to collaborate on each other's solo albums and put them out together. The two sides stand completely on their own, but somehow still form a cohesive unit. Best track: Hey Ya!

This album is insane i honsestly didnt think love below could be better than speakerboxx and now i honestly cant decide which i like better! So amazing!

Fire

It's so hard to rate this album. It's just so good. So so good. So perfect

What an incredible achievement. It's ridiculous that I Like the Way You Move isn't sampled from some soul hit of the 60s/70s, how the hell did they come up with that. Top 5 hooks of all time. Not to mention the bass line, goddamn that would destroy a circa 2009 subwoofer. How can you not love a Ludacris feature - "I'm with some nasty hoes, eating pistachios". Matter of fact the calibre of feature artists across the record demonstrates the status they held and continue to hold on the genre. Jay Z/ Killer Mike, Cee Lo (who is likely the most often featured artist in this whole list, the man was everywhere doing everything), even Lil Jon gets his 15 seconds of OH YAYAS. And all that before we even reach Andre's half of the album. Genius move with the swing jazz intro, signals the shift to his side perfectly. His call and response conversation with lady God interlude is hilarious - "Head don't count right? Aw thanks God." Big Boi might be technically better but Andre 3000 tells a waaayy better story. Where's my panties intro into Prototype is out of this world (Tame Impala's cover of Prototype has to be mentioned here also). He's actually a very sensitive individual talking on some pretty personal topics, but still maintaining an outrageous sense of humour about it all. I love that it wasnt ended with some bring back double track but instead closes on a real unsettling reflection on the mysteries of Erykah Badu.

We gotta do this in multiple sittings. This is way too much good music, way too much, packed with too many insanely good songs, that I'm gonna need a little siesta in between side 1 and side 2. Remember when I said that there is only one truly great double album– Songs In The Key of Life– and every other album is merely good in spite of its double-ness? Well, my friends, this is a DOUBLE CD. Which is a truly disgusting amount of music. We are witnessing a level of workaholism and love of the game at near unprecedented levels. This is an un-repeatable event. I can't imagine an artist today releasing such a large album that has almost NO filler. Most artists just don't have that kind of focus on the concept these days. Let alone have two creative savants in one group. Speakerboxxx: You can't deny it. This is… amazing! There are so many hit records I don't know where to start. And records that weren’t hits but should have been. There are tons of features that feel fun, complementary and chummy. There's a kind of through-line about relationship trouble, growing up together and maturing and changing, positivity amidst life's bigger problems. But man. Tons of just dumb fun. This is hip hop royalty. It doesn't get a lot better than this. At their most fun, relatable, but also hard-working and shooting high. The Love Below: I don’t think I’ve even gotten this far into the album before. Sorry Andre. I imagine I’m not alone. I usually would put this on at the gym, starting with track 1 (I’m such an album boy lol), and leg day isn’t exactly a 2 hour affair for me. Anyway. Tracks 1 and 2 just broke my brain. Why did I never get this far? Has anyone done ANYTHING even remotely like this before? This is just silly. These people are savants. So scary. If this was released today, in 2024 it would be groundbreaking today. The totally effortless use of swing/bebop, new age, jazz, then back to those quantized fucked up grooves over which Andre just floats like it’s no big deal, like he’s not even trying. We are in uncharted territory, Andre is unlocked. Blown away. Blown away. To say nothing of Hey Ya... (!) Yes, its insane runtime is just gonna turn people off, it’s a fact. That’s a shame. But what else can they do? Honestly they probably made 5 times this much music, just cut it down to 2 measly hours. This is the most impressive hip hop I’ve heard in a long time. Probably should have been 2 separate albums. Ah, now I’m doubting myself. Maybe it’s perfect just the way it is. Speakerboxxx: 4.5/5 The Love Below: 6/5 Combined: at LEAST 5/5

Plus j'en apprends sur Jim Morrison, plus je consacre mon temps libre à effectuer de nouvelles recherches sur lui à la bibliothèque de l'université. Après avoir lu entre autre qu'il n'était pas mort en 1971, qu'il était à l'origine de l'accident mortel de Claude François ainsi que de l'explosion nucléaire de Tchernobyl, je viens de tomber sur un document d'archive confidentiel totalement ahurissant. Nous sommes le samedi 11 novembre 1989 à Berlin. La ville est divisée entre Est et Ouest par un mur de plusieurs kilomètres dont les environs sont surveillés par des gardes-frontières. Ce jour-là, le mur est aussi imposant que d'habitude et n'a jamais paru aussi infranchissable. La plupart des scientifiques s'accordent sur le fait qu'il semble assez solide pour résister pendant encore plusieurs siècles. L'un des gardes-frontières remarque toutefois au matin une légère fissure de quelques millimètres de longueur. Il se dit alors qu'il faudrait la reboucher avec du plâtre mais n'a pas les outils adéquats à disposition. Il appelle donc un professionnel du bâtiment. Quelques minutes plus tard, un homme se présente au pied du mur vêtu d'une salopette bleu ciel et d'un crayon à papier derrière l'oreille (vous aurez reconnu Jim Morrison). Le garde l'accompagne à l'endroit de la fissure et lui dit de ne pas hésiter à venir le trouver s'il avait la moindre question. Une fois seul, Jim dépose sa boîte à outil sur le sol, se saisit d'un clou, le tord dans tous les sens, l'enfonce dans la fissure et lui donne quelques coups de marteau. Il se saisit ensuite d'une prise électrique et l'encastre dans le trou qu'il vient de former. Sa mission terminée, il se relève, prend sa boîte à outils et quitte les lieux. À peine une dizaine de minutes plus tard, les gardes entendent un bruit de craquements. Celui-ci s'intensifie jusqu'à ce que, contre toute attente, le mur s'écroule sur toute sa longueur dans un bruit assourdissant. L'Allemagne de l'Est et l'Allemagne de l'Ouest venait d'être réunifiées à la surprise générale, avec pour conséquence l'effondrement de la RDA puis du bloc de l'est.

Doppelalben sind mir immer ein kleines bisschen zu ambitioniert. Ich meine: Was gibt mir die Gewissheit, dass die Hörer mit ihrer beschränkten Aufmerksamkeitsspanne am Ball bleiben? Ich will mich doch an ein Album zurückerinnern und es in wenigen Sätzen beschreiben können. Nerv3000. Klar, sind einige Hits auch drauf und einige gute Features, aber alles in allem habe ich nach diesem längeren Musikprogramm nicht das Gefühl, als würde ich meinen Kindern irgendwann einem anderen Song als Hey Ya! erzählen müssen.

===< PART 1/2: SPEAKERBOXXX >=== It's hard to not feel bad for the Garfunkels of the world. You know what I mean: the second bananas. The other half of the duo that just don't get no respect — or at least not as much as the guy up front. Of course there's Art Garfunkel, but there's also John Oates, Kyle Gass, Meg White, Luigi Mario, TV's Frank... And lots more I can't even think of right now. They're people whose impact and importance to the group isn't to be undervalued, don't get me wrong. It's just that it's hard to escape shadows as large as the ones they live in. Big Boi is another such person who finds himself in this situation, and it's not hard to see why. Like, Andre 3000 is just... Out there. So much wilder in the stuff he releases. I mean, goodness, just the other year he released an instrumental flute album and everyone went nuts over it. Simply, his stuff is just generally more interesting than Big Boi's, who I've always viewed as the more "traditional rapper" of the group. The guy who brings Andre's energy down to a more reasonable level. An important role, naturally, but not one that's gonna get many eyes on you. So when Big Boi and Andre 3000 dropped their debut solo albums on the same day, I don't think it was a surprise that Big Boi's went pretty overshadowed. His didn't have a pop hit like "Hey Ya!" or "Roses", after all. But, still, let's put that aside and take this thing seriously. On his own, what did Big Boi create? As it turns out: I think calling Big Boi the "traditional rapper of the group" kind of undersells him a little. I don't believe that assessment is entirely wrong; it's certainly way more straight hip hop than I imagine Andre's would be. But this album, if nothing else, makes it clear to me that Big Boi is not just the "grounding factor" of OutKast. At every turn on this album, there's always something interesting going on. The hooks, the beats, the flows, the lyrics... No song sounds too similar to each other, and they're all a blast. All these groovy, funky-ass tunes... Seriously, I can't think of a track here I can say I didn't like. Not all of it blew me away, but more than a fair share of it did, particularly "The Rooster", "War" and "Church". Like, damn. This is some good-ass shit. And it was actually between "The Rooster" and "War" that I realized: this doesn't sound too terribly off from an OutKast record. Some of the odder edges that a true OutKast album would have aren't here, yeah, but a lot of the time I didn't think any of this would sound out of place on one, even with Andre largely being absent. On an initial listen, I'm really feeling a 5 here. Sure, I imagine on subsequent listens, as I get more familiar with it, I'll think I was being too generous and that I shoulda given it a 4, but I'unno, I'm just really impressed here. Without a doubt, it proves my line of thought that Big Boi is just as important to the duo as his partner. Which, I probably didn't really **need** proof of this, and I could've just always assumed this from the beginning, but... Yeah. It's just nice to have proof anyway. And what fine proof it is, goodness. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ( * ) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ===< PART 1/2: THE LOVE BELOW >=== If there's any reason I feel like I keep coming back to OutKast, it's Andre 3000. For some reason, I've always subconsciously attributed everything I like about the group's music to him. To the point where, honestly, in my mind Big Boi can kinda come off like a feature on his own group's songs. Just take "B.O.B." for instance. Andre's verse is masterful, front to back. Flow, energy, wordplay... Mmm, it's so good. Compared to Big Boi's verse, which, like, still has a lot of the flow, but I also consider, like... Kind of weaker overall? Y'know? And I can't even remember what Big Boi did on "Ms. Jackson", to bring up another hit from the same album. And it doesn't help that I also attribute the beats to Andre, too, even if I'm sure someone else actually produced them (as I'm writing this I don't feel like looking it up). Y'know, in short: Andre's the pop maverick; the auteur. And Big Boi's also there. Like, I don't wanna completely undermine him; I get what he adds to the duo. He's the grounding factor that keeps Andre from going fully off the rails. I mean, goodness, you leave him to his own devices for long enough and eventually he'll put out an instrumental flute album after years of nothing. But that's **compelling**, y'know? That's the kinda stuff that really grabs my attention. So, an album that's strictly Andre 3000 should be right up my alley, right? He dropped his solo debut on the same day as Big Boi, and of course Andre's was the bigger hit. It had "Hey Ya!" after all, with all of its wackadoo pop stylings. A pretty depressing song masked as one of the grooviest things of the summer — "Y'all don't wanna hear, you jus' wanna dance" and so on. But I've actually never heard the album in full before now. Like, as much as I like "Hey Ya!" and the stuff he did with OutKast, I guess I was just never enough of a fan to actually wanna check it out in full. Of course, though, that changes today. Let's see what Andre put together when left entirely to his own devices. As it turns out: Prince. I saw a review mentioning that this album sounds a lot like Prince and... I don't think it's 100% accurate (it goes back and forth a bit if I could hear him play it or not), but, yeah, I think that's the quickest way to put it. The album is all of these excursions into psychedelia, progressive soul, jazz, funk... Sometimes multiple at the same time. Sometimes it's smooth, sometimes it's sensual, sometimes it's dance-y, sometimes it's beautiful... It's fascinating. Every new track that comes on is like, "What's he gonna do next?" (I know **I** wasn't expecting a breakbeat take on "My Favorite Things".) It's a selection of songs and sounds where if you're not down to follow Andre wherever he wants to go, you're probably not gonna have a good time. Especially with how some of these run on maybe a bit more than they should? But, hey, I'm happy to let the beat ride sometimes if I'm enjoying myself. And believe me: I was. Y'know, going into this album, I had the thought I'd come out the other side thinking Andre 3000 was a self-indulgent jerk. It seems like having him knocked down a peg would have been a natural arc ending given what I was coming into this with. I mean, I try not to think too highly of "auteurs" these days... But no, no. If anything, my preconceptions are reaffirmed. I don't think I'd go so far as to call him an out-and-out "genius," but damn, if he don't make some good and interesting shit. It's an absolute 5 from me. Downright ice cold music — y'feel me, right? Right? Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright alright alri— ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ( * ) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ===< EPILOGUE >=== Of all of the reviews I'm gonna write for this website, I can't imagine any of them are going to be harder than this one. Which, yeah, it's largely my fault for taking the angle I did: writing reviews of both halves of the album as if they weren't released together and I hadn't heard the other. That's for sure way more work than I really **needed** to put in. Besides, I can just imagine someone going through these reviews and thinking to themselves, "Both of these reviews bring up and repeat points between each other. Like, why did you even bother if they both weren't going to be more different?" And I'm not gonna act like I'm a master writer who pulled this off flawlessly, but simply put: I'm interested in how those points change depending on the perspective they're viewed from. On the one, you got Big Boi and SPEAKERBOXXX as "the other guy in the group"; and on the other, you have Andre 3000 and THE LOVE BELOW as "the maverick auteur." I took this album as a chance for me to hear what each member brings to the duo by listening to what they made when largely separated from each other. On that front, for sure I succeeded. I've a much greater appreciation now for what Big Boi brings to the table, and... Well, jeez, I might actually check out Andre 3000's flute album, let's put it like that. As for if I succeeded in writing good reviews of each album... That's up for you to decide. Either way, the whole album package gets a 5, honestly. I can completely see how, like... These two maybe didn't need to be released together like this? But in pairing them up, it leads to such an engaging and iconic two hours of music that I can't even really complain. I don't think I'd really say it's a better album than STANKONIA — but then, that's an OutKast album. This release is a Big Boi album and an Andre 3000 album. And on that front, as showcases of what they can do... Goodness, I can't imagine it getting better than this.

Speakerboxxx: Some absolutely killer beats and raps from Big Boi and company. 4.5 bumped up to 5. The Love Below: An examination of love and how it can screw with the rest of our emotions almost every time that just so happens to be peak. Solid 5 Stars. Overall, while it is over 2 hours, that time just seems to fly on by while listening, and that's the best compliment you can give for a double album. Solid 5 Stars.

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below I had this when it came out, there was a lot of critical acclaim for it, but I struggled to really get into it, aside from the big singles like I Like the Way You Move, Hey Ya! And Roses. I think that’s because It felt very dense with too much going on, particularly The Love Below. Listening now though I can really appreciate it - it still is very dense and there still is a lot going on, but I can see now it's that over the topness that makes it great. I love the feeling that on Andre 3000s disc, he’s just splurged out everything, thrown all his influences and ideas at it, and while it may not always work, the ambition and willingness to go all out is very compelling. That’s no to diminish Speakerboxx though. On the surface it may be more conventional and less schizophrenic than The Love Below, but it’s an excellently constructed, subtly subversive and brilliant sounding record. Lots of recognisable hip hop elements; breakbeats, soul and jazz etc, but imaginatively and kaleidoscopically cut up and put back together to make it a great, energetic fun listen. There are gems of songs and moments scattered throughout, with some great, interesting instrumentation on The Love Below in Particular, the synth line on GhettoMusick, the New Orleans horns and guitar on Bowtie, the cartoonish The Rooster, the vaguely ominous Bust, War, Tomb of the Boom, the organic feel of Knowing, Killer Mike’s cameo on Flip Flop Rock with its skittery percussion, Reste, Last Call, the jazzy Love Hater, Happy Valentine’s Day, the slow jam-ish Prototype She Lives in My Lap, Hey Ya, Roses, the early 80s sparseness of Pink & Blue, the fuzzing synth on Dracula’s Wedding, the country blues-ish of Take Off Your Coat. Great stuff. 135 mins is long, but Speakerboxxx is actually ‘only’ 55 mins or so and doesn’t feel that lengthy, whereas Andre’s is nearly 80 mins, which is essentially a double album itself. And while The Love Below can feel long, it doesn’t feel self indulgent, more like there’s a sense of urgency and an explosion of ideas. And while they aren’t always successful there’s always the feeling that something interesting or a great idea is just around the corner. And that sense I think is what stops the length becoming too much of an issue. Purely musically Speakerboxxx on it’s own is probably a 5 and The Love Below is closer to 4, but the widescreen, open armed, ambition and Beatles-eque sense of imagination and self expression and why not-ness is exciting and intoxicating for me, just about making it a 5 overall. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Playlist submission: GhettoMusick

Day 147 of "1001 Albums...", and I thought it would be a good idea to write reviews of the albums I've listened to. //// "Speakerboxxx / The Love Below" by OutKast this album is unique: it's presented as a double album, half of which is an Andre 3000 album and the other half is a Big Boi album. This album reveals both members and their skills separately: on one side is the chill Speakerboxxx by Big Boi (southern hip-hop), on the other side is the experimental and combining styles of different genres The Love Below by Andre. Both parts of the album are unique in their own way, and both are good in their own way. overall rating: 9.5/10 (Speakerboxxx: 10/10; The Love Below: 7.5/10)

A soft wail let out when this came up. I bought it on release, was put off by its length and the realisation that “Hey Ya!” was an outlier, and never thought of it again before it hit our page on Thursday. Sgt Pepper and Fear of a Black Planet are separated by the same number of years that have passed since Speakerboxxx/The Love Below dropped, but I still mentally file this under “contemporary”. “Hey Ya!” is an outlier, but one surrounded by outliers, and while I could only afford a single playthrough, I’m convinced of its abundant diversity and coherence. That the two solo albums cohere surprised me: a strain of rubbery, synthetic funk and surrealism binds them. Both halves are too long, maybe part of the point: this is excess about excess, and often a lot of fun. The old chapeau’s aloft for its ambition and, like the previous week’s Haircut 100 LP, bold vibes carry this beyond its low yield of bangers. I might listen to this again one day. Perhaps after I get round to reading “À la recherche du temps perdu”.

I first listened to this double album a few months ago. Going into it, I thought that I would prefer Andre 3000's album over Big Boi's. I was wrong about that. The smoother groove of Big Boi's tracks sat better with me, although there are a couple of tracks from Andre 3000 that are absolutely top notch and hard to beat. I guess I just found the tracks on The Love Below that I didn't enjoy to be much more unappealing than any of the tracks on Speakerboxxx.

I absolutely love how unpredictable Speakerboxxx is. The sound and style changes at the drop of a hat and its very fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Love Below however had elements that I really liked but my biggest issue with it are the lyrics. Cheesy, misogynistic, and cheap. The interludes are kind of stupid too. My thought is that Speakerboxxx is probably a 5/5 and The Love Below is probably a 3/5. I think they could have taken most of Speakerboxxx and then a few of the best from The Love Below to make a shorter double LP instead of a 2 hour long double LP.

It's got some high points (mostly Speakerboxxx) and some low points (mostly The Love Below, but hey, it has Hey Ya on it too!), but overall I think it's a good showcase of both of their skills.

Aside from the long runtime, which can be a downside, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below hits some incredible highs, even if there are a few lows. The lyricism is on point, as you’d expect from OutKast, and the R&B elements are especially well done. The album covers some strong, engaging themes, making it an interesting listen overall.

Speakerboxxx > The Love Below, although The Love Below is more interesting. Good but long. I do wish they had blended the two better into a single album (cut out the skits for one). It’s a big reason why, IMO, “Roses” is the best song here, although “Hey Ya” still effin slaps. Truly OutKast’s White Album.

Depuis quelques jours, le nombre de like sur mes reviews a drastiquement diminué, ce qui me vaut de ne toujours pas accéder au tant convoité classement des 10 meilleurs critiques du site. Je me place donc en grève, en attendant une évolution de la situation.

holds up

Speakerboxxx was awesome but the love below was just ok

Speakerboxx > The Love Below

This was a funny one, I enjoyed the first album more. Although the Andre 3000 side had more familiar tracks on it overall was a little experimental for me. Didn't enjoy the jazz tracks or the norah jones stuff. Pleasantly surprised by the big boi side. Killer mike and Jay z were good too

Really fricking long album. Some good stuff, some less-good, some funny skits.

There is some great stuff on here , instance 'Hey Ya!', one of the all time great pop songs, but there is also some execrable crap, e.g 'Where are my panties', 'Roses'. A curate's egg

No. 217/1001 Intro NR Ghetto Musick 3/5 Unhappy 4/5 Bowtie 5/5 The Way You Move 5/5 The Rooster 4/5 Bust 3/5 War 3/5 Church 4/5 Bamboo 2/5 Tomb of the Boom 3/5 E-Mac NR Knowing 3/5 Flip Flop Rock 3/5 Interlude 2/5 Reset 4/5 D-Boi NR Last CALL 2/5 Bowtie NR The Love Below 4/5 Love Hater 3/5 God 3/5 Happy Valentine's Day 3/5 Spread 2/5 Where Are My Panties 2/5 Prototype 4/5 She Lives In My Lap 3/5 Hey Ya! 5/5 Roses 5/5 Good Day, Good Sir NR Behold A Lady 3/5 Pink & Blue 3/5 Love In War 3/5 She's Alive 2/5 Dracula's Wedding 3/5 The Letter NR My Favorite Things 2/5 Take Off Your Cool 3/5 Vibrate 3/5 A Life In The Day of Benjamin Andre 3/5 Average: 3,24 Really interesting listen. Some incredible songs, but ultimatly I think some songs could have been cut to make a better album.

It's a shame that these albums are paired together, because Speakerboxxx is a 5, while The Love Below is a 1. It took me a second to adjust to Speakerboxxx, but I was grooving and vibing to every track. There wasn't any 1 particular song that stood out, but rather the entire album was well-constructed, well-thought-out, masterfully executed, and each feature was used to elevate Big Boi, rather than take the spotlight for themselves. The Love Below did a similar thing with its features, the issue is there's not a whole lot that's great to highlight and elevate. The album is overly repetitious and also quite a bit over sexualized. There's a time and place for that kind of musical content, but the first half of the album goes too far for me, and it ends up being a really bad first impression that never really improves. I did like what they did with My Favorite Things. That was very good. Favorite Song(s): Unhappy, Reset / Hey Ya, My Favorite Things

3000 has one of the sexiest rap voices, so it's funny how little it features on his sexy album. I figure he knows his singing doesn't compare, which is why his super sexy talking voice gets a good run out. Funny also how the most lauded side of this double is the least well-realised. But if The Love Below can yield multi-gazillion sales while featuring endurance tests like Vibrate and MF Doomish scratch tracks like A Day in the Life... I won't vociferate about the superiority of Speakerboxxx too much. Weirder, funnier and more focused, Big Boi thrives by plunging himself into a white hot talent pool of collaborators, challenging them to stretch the sonic possibilities of Housequake. Result is in an electric bounce so ebulliently synthetic it's positively alien. After checking the credits, one reason 3000's side doesn't sustain as well as Big Boi's triumph of collective creativity might have something to do with insularity - his is the only name listed.

Speakerboxxx 4 stars, Love Below 2 stars. 3 average.

I find it almost universally true that a double album would have been much better as a single one, but this isn't really a double album, it's two solo projects that have been released together because of management decisions, so giving it a single rating seems odd as there is, unsurprisingly, no real link between the albums. Speakerboxxx is by far the more consistent of the two albums, and the only one I'd bother listening to again. GhettoMusik I already knew, and liked, from the b-side of Hey Ya! but I also particularly liked Bust and Flip Flop Rock, both featuring Killer Mike. The Love Below is a mixed bag of mostly rather self indulgent songs but featuring one of the true great pop songs in Hey Ya, the only song I'd go out of my way to listen to again. Both albums suffer from the common hip hop inclusion of skits and interludes that don't really add anything other than becoming more annoying the more the album is replayed. There's also a clear degree of grating misogyny, also something that is a frequent feature in, but hardly exclusive to, hip hop. Speakerboxxx 3*, consistently decent with a couple of good songs. The Love Below 3*, mostly 2* songs with Hey Ya! being a 5* banger giving it an extra mark. It's tempting to give the whole thing 2* because listening to it all in one go make it worse than the sum of its parts.

Wow it really is two completely separate albums. They are both good, I actually like big boobs more traditional hip-hop/rap album. Clearly andre 3000 is trying something different,but you can clearly see in hindsight he was going to make a flute album. It was coming. Not that there is anything wrong with that album but it seems the more "pop" the more bored he sounds. It's a wild album.

I get that it has "Hey Ya" on it, but a single does not an album make. This is the worst Outkast album other than Idlewild. But the worst Outkast album is better than most other groups' best albums. Speakerboxxx is a better than average straight ahead rap album. The Love Below is a bit of a mess. You can never go wrong listening to Outkast but this album is as close to being wrong as listening to Outkast gets. I would be remiss not to mention that “Tomb of Boom” has two of my all time favorite rap lyrics: “I prefer my liquor dark and a mean white slut.” I hear ya, Supa Nate. Also, “Y'all driving Subarus, stuck in your cubicles; I'm stuck in the air with weed crumbs under my cuticles.” Oh Luda, I don’t care how many cheesy action and Christmas movies you do, you will always be cool to me.

This is annoying. I put off listening to this album for over a week because of the length. Speakerboxxx is excellent. I really enjoyed it, and it's a four-star album for me. The Love Below is less to my taste, and by the time I was two-hours into a constant stream of OutKast I was pretty sick of it.

The good bits are enjoyable but there is SO MUCH stuff on here it's hard to keep any attention focused. Way too many "interludes" as was the interminable style at the time. The Love Below is a bit more varied, Speakerboxxx is better average quality. Stick to the singles probably

This was a pretty good listen and there are several great tracks. I have to admit it was very very long and I lost patience at times, but did enjoy it overall. I prefer Speakerboxx over The Love Below. It was more diverse and progressive than I was originally expecting. Favorite tracks: GhettoMusick, Bowtie, The Way You Move, Bust, Flip Flop Rock, Reset, Last Call, Love Hater, Prototype, Hey Ya, Dracula's Wedding, My Favorite Things.

LONG album. Speakerboxxx is the superior part, but in general this is a below-average OutKast offering. 3.5/5

This album is solid, but it's also 2 albums in one, meaning runtime is 2hrs 15mins, so it overstays its welcome a bit for sure. So there are 2 members of Outkast: Andre 3000 and Big Boi. The first album, Speakerboxxx, was written and produced by Big Boi. It's standard hip hop. Solid. The second album, The Love Below, was written and produced by Andre 3000. It's more R&B oriented hip hop with lots of skits about love and banging. So if it was just Speakerboxxx, it'd have been a solid record, but the second half pulls it down for sure. Favourite songs: Roses, Hey Ya!, Flip Flop Rock, Last Call, Knowing, The Way You Move, Tomb of the Boom, Bowtie, GhettoMusick Least favourite songs: Bamboo, E-Mac, Interlude, D-Boi, Bowtie (Postlude), God, Where Are My Panties, "Good Day, Good Sir", The Letter (fuck skits), She's Alive 3/5

A lot of hits but also a lot of skips

The circumcision has already begun! Like all double albums it’s too long and there’s plenty of skippers. Speakerboxxx is the superior of the two albums but even it’s completely front loaded. “Hey Ya” might be the catchiest song ever made and I’ll always love “Roses” for giving us a radio hit that ends with the word Bitch like 100 times. But overall just listen to the singles and “Dracula’s Wedding” and you’ll have a better time Stupid ass bitch

More like 1002 albums you must hear before you die Regarding ”Speakerboxxx”: Totally fine southern rap album. Good tunes abound. Regarding ”The Love Below”: This half is a bit trickier. I remember really loving André’s eclectic genre fusion experiments, but for all their inventiveness a lot of them end up being somewhat aimless. Of course there are the great hits like ”Hey Ya!” and ”Roses”, but not all the 21 tracks achieve their (artistic) success. The album finishes strongly with the intriguing ”A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)”, showing off that when André wants to rap, he does so with inimitable individuality and skill. Overall, one of the 2 hour+ long albums with the least obtrusive feeling lengths, which could be thanks to the neat seperation in the middle. Still, listening to it makes me think of how it could’ve been realised even better

Inspired by pirate NES multicarts. I think I liked the first half better, but they're both not my thing. Not bad tho, there are some nice songs like My Favorite Things

Too long, monotonous, mundane, not very enjoyable.

This thoroughly blows. What an overly long and disjointed mess. The story of it being two albums helps make sense of it but it doesn't excuse the terrible call to slam then together. This runs way too long and ruins any chance to find something in individual songs.

The world knows this is two solo albums fused together in an effort to boost sales and not piss off hip-hop heads, so you have to take the sum of each part. To Big Boi: A good but never great first solo effort. He’s always been a great rapper with great classic tastes, but often those tastes feel derivative, not expansive, and that is very much the case here. It has its moments, but even at its height — “The Way You Move” — it’s never exceptional. Worse, Big Boi shines in comparison to other rappers, which is why he’s shined post-Outkast on his features, not in his solo albums, where there’s just…too much of him. The biggest issue is that this sounds distinctly 2003/2004 with its cluttered, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink production style, which doesn’t help its case when it wasn’t particularly unique even for its time. It’s also way too long, which is, again, clutter. It’s never horrible, but it’s never special, either, except in how dated/annoying it can be stylistically. 3/5 To André: Doing everything can certainly prove a point, but that doesn’t mean you *should* have done everything, because sometimes it can distract from the point entirely. There are soooo many ideas here that I would adore with some hard editing, and/or even the balanced addition of a Big Boi verse. I know this has been compared to Prince a lot, but even at his most ambitious, Prince stuck to a style, and that’s The Love Below’s biggest issue – it has no singular vision. (Ironic, given that Speakerboxxx’s main issue is that it has too narrow of a sonic vision.) It goes from R&B to rap to jazz like an undiagnosed kid in a candy store. And the lyrics are equally childish, especially from a Top 5 Dead or Alive Rapper who’s known first and foremost for his pen game. I can’t rate it too poorly because it does include “Roses” and “Hey Ya!,” but even a couple all-timer songs aren’t herculean enough to save this mess, even with the midpoint boost from some fine but not good neo soul tracks that still suffer from André’s excessive horniness. Speakerboxxx may be monotonous, but The Love Below is a chore, and that’s a greater offense. Some think this messy sort of chaos means the album was ahead of its time, which it isn’t, it’s extremely dated, but ignoring that, it feels like an artist burning out in real time, and time has kinda proven that narrative true. The man literally became a jazz flutist, which is cool, but maybe that’s the direction of someone who’s done all he can do in the pop realm. Based solely off of The Love Below, it seems like all he could do was “Roses” and “Hey Ya!” Which is still better than most of us can do, but I don’t need the rest of the mess to get to the diamonds. In conclusion: if a sample of Aaliyah’s “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number” makes me want to listen to THAT R. Kelly apologist song instead of your song just so I can be listening to Aaliyah instead of you, then you’re doing something wrong. But hey, cool jazz cover of “My Favorite Things.” 1.5/5 OutKast has always been greater than the sum of its parts. I get how this ended up on this list based off sheer popularity, but it’s bad representation. Still, the sum of the parts here result in the same feeling the whole gives me – a couple great singles from two people who can’t work with or without each other, making one feel numb and the other feel manic, making me feel respectively apathetic and exhausted.

Viel zu lang Teilweise echt anstrengend. 2 für hey ya

Too long. Far too much filler, not sure how it got nominated for six Grammys

Speakerboxx very solid, love below very bad outside of Hey Ya and Roses

Unlistenable

Bangers only

Great lyrics and music.

Excellent one of my favourites

Saweeeet! Listen to this many more times.

Rating: 10/10 Best songs: all

(Dec 4) Speakerboxx HL: “GhettoMusick”, “Unhappy”, “The Way You Move”, “The Rooster”, “Bust”, “Flip Flop Rock” (Dec 5) The Love Below HL: “Spread”, “Hey Ya”, “Roses”, “Love in War”, ”My Favorite Things”, “Take Off Your Cool” Once again, I hear a double album that I’m not sure I’d give 5 stars to each individual disc, but I would to them combined (Mellon Collie, Songs in the Key of Life). Can’t say how this project compares to “real” OutKast albums, since this is the only full-length one I’ve heard so far, but it’s a great introduction to both member’s talents & musical influences.

One of the few albums my partner owned that I didn't when we moved in together, which is pretty surprising, since I am the hip hop head out of the two of us! A great album, which is possibly too long, but I can't say what (except the weird instrumental version of 'my favourite things') could be cut. Two "solo" albums, releases as a double, could be a way forward for bands on the verge of breaking up! Big boi's album is straight up ATL hip hop, and brilliant, but it's Andre 3000's convincing impressions of Prince, but southern, that really stands out. Wonderful, weird, interesting and engaging, I loved it!!

Un tres bon album, la 2eme partie est pleine de classique et exp. J’ai bien aime mon ecoute mais c’est difficle les double album. Quand meme je recommande grandment pour kes fans du genre . 5

This album has everything you could want from an outkast album. It’s extremely long but extremely worth it

Such an ambitious, awesome, and FUN album

A nostalgic album for me

This is just an absolute joy. Happy memories from nearly 20 (fuck!) years ago and shaking it like a Polaroid picture. Two albums full of bangers, corkers and crackers, including one of the best songs of the century in Hey Ya

flawless. non-stop bops. long, and some real gems get lost between the bangers. obvs the singles are iconic, but some of the interim tracks are just as excellent.

Speakerboxxx is the more consistently great half of the two but there's still a lot to love about The Love Below.

so good it’s criminal

I'm a white, boomer male. I've found hip-hop and modern R'n'B to be boring, with R'n'B also being insipid. So a two hour album should be a chore. Not a chance! This sprawling epic is one of the best albums I've ever heard. Big Boi sticks to his genre but the addition of all these collaborators adds variety to what are superior songs. Then we get Andre who starts with jazz! Just as it starts getting a bit too much he throws in that stupendous version of My Favourite Things (huge nod to John Coltrane) and a very cool guest appearance by Norah Jones. Outstanding!

incredible stuff, the singles on here changed my life back in the day

This is an absolute classic for a reason. Front to back bangers so unique for a double album. Features some of the decades most iconic and replayable tracks.

a very cool album very interesting 🥸 enjoyed the second half

Classic hip hop album

Really long but great. I definitely liked The Love Below more. Lots of variation and genre blending. The jazz stuff was really cool and unexpected.

A friend of mine had this album when it came out, and I’d hear a lot of it when hanging around his place, but hadn’t ever listened to it attentively from beginning to end. I don’t know that I was really aware that this was a two album set being each more or less a solo album. I love both “The Way You Move” (such a cool vibe) and “Hey Ya” (so much fun). It was a little surprising that The Way You Move is on the higher-energy disc and Hey Ya is on the smoother one. It is easy to see why this album is on this list. There’s a lot going on here and more to get my head around that I can in the 24 hours I have to check this out. Still, I walked away from the listen feeling like it would be worth the effort to explore this more. My initial impression is very positive. I love the variety. I very much enjoyed this ride!

Habe das Album komplett zwei Mal durchgehört. OK, war heute auch ein Umzugstag, da hatte ich viel Zeit, aber 78 Mal OutKast am Stück, wenn das nicht fünf Sterne sind. Oben jetzt groß reinzulesen: krasser Sound für die damalige Zeit, auch die Texte machen ordentlich was her und haben den Test der Zeit bestanden (ist bei Hip Hop ja manchmal schwierig). Der Mix auf dem Album hat mich echt beeindruckt und das es trotz des krassen OutKast Hypes in den frühen 2000ern heute nicht abgenudelt klingt sagt einfach alles. Ich würde auch 6 Sternen geben.

Outkast are great. Sorely missed. Great album

9/10. Stream of consciousness review below, but this was a really enjoyable album. Or two albums. Or whatever it was. Going to start keeping track of the weirdest alcoholic drink to be mentioned in an album, and this is winning so far with Butterscotch Schnapps (in Bowtie), which it sounded like was either being drunk straight, or combined with Bailey's. As someone with poor short term memory, it is really helpful they say Speakerboxxx every 10 minutes or so to remind me what I am listening to, it's like I'm watching Disney Channel. Rhyming "nasty hoes" with "pistachios" was a stroke of genius. Also had the most fun song about church that I have heard. It's weird to see a featured artist whose name I recognize, and weirder still that I only recognize the name because she is the live-action Ahsoka actress. Hey Ya is spectacular, of course, and it surprised me how much slower The Love Below feels in general compared to Speakerboxxx and Hey Ya. Repeating "age ain't nothin but a number" at the start of Pink and Blue got me thinking about that my great aunt flirting with one of my friends at my grad party, which distracted from the rest of the song. Dracula's Wedding is cool though. Would not have thought a 5 minute instrumental cover of My Favorite Things could be that enjoyable.

Classic. Two albums in one. So much creativity. So many genres. So different to everything else that came before. Stand out tracks: The Way You Move, GhettoMusick, Roses, Hey Ya!

ya! and it has Norah on it. perfect.

Holy crap, I remember buying this album just for "Roses" and "Hey Ya!" but good lord, this album really opened my eyes, at a time where in my life where I thought all mainstream music was filled with 'posers & sell-outs' this felt like a breath of fresh air. (Also looking back, this album is totally inappropriate for a 12-13yo child to listen through multiple times, in particular The Love Below's half of the album). I also forgot that this was a DOUBLE album with a full 20 songs on each disc, with a total runtime of over 2 HOURS, it sill absolutely SLAPS. (Although 'Speakerboxx' is, in my opinion, the stronger of the two halves.) Basically this is two entire albums that OutKast just made their own solo albums, completed in distinct styles, however, complement each other well, and with the multitude of feats on both records, all the accolades are well deserved. Best: GhettoMusick; The Way You Move; Happy Valentine's Day; Hey Ya!; Roses Worst: Unhappy; Bamboo (Interlude); Where Are My Panties? (Interlude)

Bangers

This really is 2 albums. I love speakerboxxx. One of my all time favourite hip hop albums. I find the love below a bit more challenging though. I think I have to give 5 stars for the strength of side A and the absolute banging singles from side B.

speakerboxxx 4/5, the love below 5/5. overall 5/5?

Incredible album I’ve listened to for years. Lives up to the reputation after all this time. High points are incredibly high. Outside of interludes, hard to find a song I wouldn’t describe as at least good to great (albeit sometimes weird).

Just fantastic so much good music in one album.

2 hrs and so solid throughout. The range. Loved it

OutKast is always a pleasure. They have a stand-out sound that sets them apart from other artists. I've never been through the whole album, so this was a great recommendation.

This was released a year after J5’s power in numbers. This album!!!! Should have given Power in Numbers 4 stars, because this album—this album is 5 stars. Lyrics, dance, culture, pushing boundaries… it’s got it all.

Joyful, funky and abundant, with a gazillion tracks. This gets 5 stars on the strength of Hey Ya! alone 😊