Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

More rap which is already decidedly not my thing. And it's a 2+ hour album, essentially a double album from two different artists. Part of this project is to experience new music so here we go! I have not liked the first few songs from Speakerboxxx. Like, at all. I don't think there's really anything here for me to connect with... I did recognize the chorus/hook to The Way You Move! But nothing else is really clicking with me. I had to move on after six tracks. Now onto The Love Below. I do know Hey Ya, like every other person that was older than 5 in the early 2000s. I do like Andre 3000's vocals more than Big Boi's at least; but even then, this just doesn't vibe with me at all. Rap appears to be primarily around lyrical content, and I just don't have a lot of connection to these lyrics. Ironically I'm listening to this in the lobby of an autoshop. I'm on Happy Valentine's Day and I hear Hey Ya playing in the background of the lobby right now.

Album #206: OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below ⭐⭐⭐ I think the generator does us a little bit dirty with this album. This isn’t one album. This isn’t even a double album. This is two albums by two separate artists, packaged under one group’s name. This is a Big Boi solo record and an André 3000 solo record. It’s not an OutKast album. And, you know, I think that’s just a record label trick, really. Looking into it, I think they both were keen to have these as solo album entries. So it’s a little bit shit that this is in here in this regard. It’s not designed as a double album. There’s not really a through line between the two. But I’ll start with Speakerboxxx anyway, which I’d probably give four stars. To be honest with you, I wasn’t really enjoying it too much, and then I took a break maybe two-thirds of the way through, and I had about four or five beers and came back a little bit drunk, and I fucking loved it. So maybe I should give the rest of the album a fair shake. I think there are too many interludes on it, but when it’s going, it’s so good. Flip Flop Rock is incredible. Last Call is a great drinking hip-hop tune. And Unhappy is the best tune on the album. Genuinely quite touching and beautiful. It’s quality Southern hip-hop, which is maybe my favourite subgenre of hip-hop. It’s got Goodie Mob on it at one stage, which I love. Absolutely adore Goodie Mob. So yeah, I’d probably give Speakerboxxx four stars for the most part. Next is The Love Below. I’ve become a big fan of Prince through this 1001 album project, so parts of this were really great to me. He’s obviously paying homage to Prince throughout, and he’s arguably hornier than Prince, which is saying a lot! Because nobody loved sex more than Prince. But he may be hornier purely by the merit of allowing vulgar language into the mix. At no point does he ride all the frustrations of the world out on a flight attendant, like Prince did in 1999. I think it’s an inventive album with a lot of positive points. It reminded me a lot of Kendrick Lamar, especially in its jazzy moments. It’s ahead of its time. Bang in the middle, you’ve got two huge pop tracks, with Hey Ya! and Roses. I mean, the former has to be one of the most played songs of all time. But it’s actually such a simple tune, and in the context of the album, you wouldn’t think it would be this blockbuster single. But it just shows the power of a catchy sing-along chorus. All in all, though, The Love Below wasn’t as good as any Prince that I have heard so far. It’s daring for a hip-hop artist at that time to make something like this, so props to him. But it’s a three-star for me. Overall, with the way it was packaged and the time it took to take this as one single album, I’ll give it three stars. Which is a shame, to have slogged through something for a forgettable three-star review, but here we are. Onto the next one.

whatever

Like it, but need deeper

A masterpiece of wide ranging rap and R and B with cool vibes thruout.

Good but aged hiphop. Seriously bloated 'double' album that could of either be halved in length or split into two separate releases. As a double album it has highlights but is flawed due to length. 3 stars if reduced to a single 60 min album could be close to 4.5 stars

Turned out to be hit or miss for me. Was loving the first few tracks, super fun lyrics and instrumentals, cool samples. Then it started to feel like it was going on forever... this album is 134 minutes long. It feels like a costco load, and not in a good way. Some of the songs are bops, others have me checking to see if the album is almost over. Mixed bag.

4.5

Loads of variety. Great funk and some really nice melodies. A bit long but good album.

Not really something I want to listen to.

A timeless classic that makes me miss Outkast!

Boy this was a mixed bag. Everything from rap to jazz to pop. Liked some of it, but not other portions.

2 hours and 15 minutes is an interesting length of an album. I know it's two discs, but still, 40 songs? This doesn't seem like it was made to be listened to back to back because that is quite a time commitment. I don't like Outkast, but when I started this project, I vowed to give everything a real shot, and truly listen to every song on every album presented. This was the hardest one yet. There is no other rating I could give than 1 star because I suffered for this. Are some individual songs ok? Yeah, I guess so even if they aren't for me. But this was relentless.

esperava gostar mais. curti os riscos que eles tomaram com o álbum, com a divisão em dois discos, um pro hip/hop clássico e outro com uma fusão de gêneros maluca com músicas com pegada de jazz/soul e outras propostas bem experimentais. mas achei o álbum lotado demais, 40 músicas (19 pro lado A e 21 pro lado b) e duas horas e dez de álbum foi muita coisa, com 7 dessas 40 músicas sendo interlúdios não contando com duas intros. o que não faltou nesse album são músicas que nao me conectei tanto, mas teve algumas que ja sao minhas favoritas do outkast. curti muito ghettomusic, the way you move, reset, prototype, love hater e she lives in my lap. vou reescutar mas por enquanto é isso.

My favorite hip-hop album(s) - so eclectically great!

60

Interesting and fun, at times gets you dancing and at others just gets you to hum or clap along - definite hits here with "Hey, Ya" and "The Way You Move." Lots of other good stuff in between, BUT it feels sk forced with 2+ hours of music. I found myself listening to a minute or two of each song, rheb skipping ahead. Still, it was a fun listen.

important but this is bare long 😭😭

Alldeles för lång. Men en riktigt bra låt och några hyfsade.

A couple tracks i like but holy crap is this album long as hell

3/5

Hugely entertaining album though 2 + hours is a lot all at once. I like The Love Below more because of its diversity across genres (even a jazz version of "My Favorite Things") and it's Prince homages. But Speakerboxxx is also a lot of fun. Both albums have their share of filler. But there's something to be said for throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Outkast's maximalist White Album. So much to enjoy here, Speakerboxxx is a concise and heavy hitting hip hop album that is as good as Aquemini or Stankonia imo. The Love Below loses me on a few tracks and keeps me from five stars, but that being said, it has maybe the best pop song of the century so far in Hey Ya, and Roses. Also do respect Andre 3000's Prince exploration.

Obviously, a lot of bangers on here. I doubt, however, whether it had to be so goddam long. Actually, I know the answer, and the answer is no.

### Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) Jeez, where the hell to start? This is quite something: two CDs, 40 tracks, 2 hours, 14 minutes and 49 seconds. For comparison: the absurdly megalomaniacal *Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness* by the Smashing Pumpkins only manages 28 tracks, clocking in at 2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds. But that comparison is completely beside the point, as I’ll explain in a moment. Let me start by stressing how important multiple listens are. This wonderful website is called *One Album a Day*, and if you stick with it, you’ll have made it through the entire list in less than three years. But hey, most people also have a job or are studying, so you’re expected to get through an album every evening, have an opinion about it, give it a rating and perhaps even fill in the *listening notes*. That works if you only listen to an album once — or the Circle Jerks four times — but it really isn’t a basis for judging music. This was demonstrated once again by this *double* album. Yes, not because it has two discs — or four LPs — but because it is actually two albums sold together. So yeah, this time a little background research was necessary. What did I find? (For the record: as you know, I’m a complete hip-hop ignoramus and equally much of a 21st-century-music ignoramus.) Outkast is a hip-hop duo consisting of Big Boi (Antwan (yes, really) André (why can they spell that the French way?) Patton) and André 3000 (André Lauren (?) Benjamin), both from Georgia and both a year younger than me. Before this double album, the duo had actually made four albums together, but this time the two gentlemen mainly worked on their own albums. *Speakerboxxx* is Big Boi’s album, so you’ve already figured out that *The Love Below* is André 3000’s. The short version, I believe, is that the two intended to release solo albums, but record company Arista found that commercially unacceptable. So we get two completely different albums in one box. And that’s where the whole multiple-listens thing comes in. My first listen was on an evening when I was probably already tired — I think I had just come home from the office — and *Speakerboxxx* made a decent impression, after which I completely checked out during *The Love Below*. Far too long, boring, musically uninteresting. I gave it a 1. It’s actually completely the other way around. *Speakerboxxx* itself almost seems to consist of two albums as well. For convenience, let’s say Side A mainly contains funky music strongly influenced by [Parliament](http://ivo-habets.nl/132-funkadelic-one-nation-under-a-groove-1978-7-10/), and certainly not unpleasant. Parliament, with the massive backing vocals, not Funkadelic with the guitar accents. You get the former here, but absolutely none of the latter. Side B moves much more towards uninteresting hip-hop, with *Tomb of the Boom* as the absolute low point. That is really fucking awful. Apart from this division within the album, though, it is actually quite a coherent whole. And that is completely different from André 3000’s *The Love Below*. This is an extremely eclectic mixture of all sorts of things thrown together, with a few excellent highlights for the genre and a few rather miserable low points. What the hell is that drum machine doing on speed in *Spread*? And we get another one of those drum machines in the remarkable *My Favorite Things*. Yes, the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, with John Coltrane’s version seemingly taken as the starting point. It’s a kind of Zappa-with-(a-lot-of)-drugs version. Not a low point, incidentally; the track is as bizarre as it is intriguing. No, *She’s Alive* is more of a candidate for that particular honour: the singing is so unbelievably off-key that, in a campy sort of way, it almost becomes funny again. But still: leave it. Two of the album’s big hits are, and this is in itself rather remarkable, genuine highlights. Even I know *Hey Ya!*, and I know it far too well. I had no idea it was by Outkast or André 3000, but it’s one of those songs you’ve been hearing everywhere for twenty-five years. And I can’t deny that it’s an irresistible pop tune, which incidentally seems like a kind of precursor to the even more famous *Happy* by Pharrell Williams, released ten years later. It was a mega-hit. *Roses* was also a big hit, and that too is a perfectly fine song with serious earworm qualities. And apparently I’m not the only one who hears *Roses smell like poo-poo* in the chorus every single time. It’s a popular search query: are the lyrics *poo-poo* or *boo-hoo*? Unfortunately, the less amusing version is the real one. Big Boi also appears on *Roses*, by the way, so I suppose you could argue that this is a genuine Outkast track. Hey, my girlfriend [Norah Jones](http://ivo-habets.nl/78-norah-jones-come-away-with-me-2002-4-10/) also makes an appearance. She sings a little tune on *Roses?* No, not *Roses* — Big Boi is on that one — but on *Take Off Your Cool*. It makes little impression. I consider *The Love Below*, with all its highs and lows, by far the best, or at least most enjoyable, hip-hop album I’ve heard so far. But seriously: is this hip-hop? I find that question difficult to answer for both albums, and as an ignoramus I probably shouldn’t even try. The fact is that the clearest influence on *Speakerboxxx* is Parliament, while on *The Love Below* you apparently hear Prince, according to the external sources, but to my ears there’s even more Curtis Mayfield, and even Isaac Hayes seems to have had a little pee on it somewhere. Moreover, a large part of the music on both albums is played by actual people with actual instruments; the computer content is relatively low. Obviously there is plenty of rapping, but there is also plenty of singing, again on both albums. I’ll leave the pigeonholing to others. I’d almost say it’s simply modern pop — pop from long after the time when I still followed the phenomenon in the sense of charts and music-video programmes on television. That leaves the final verdict. As I said, after multiple listens, including an intensive one with the good headphones, I still can’t get *Speakerboxxx* much beyond a 4, basically consisting once again of a 5 or 6 for the first half and a 2 or 3 for the second half. *The Love Below*, meanwhile, flirts with a 7 but, because of its unevenness, ultimately settles on a 6, even though I have never given a hip-hop album higher than a 5 so far. So yeah, that makes it a 5 for the complete double album. But that somewhat masks the fact that, on the second go-round, I actually listened with quite a bit of pleasure. Still, a higher rating would run into another problem. This album is obviously absurdly long as a whole, and on top of that *The Love Below* alone clocks in at almost 80 minutes. That is insane, and sharper editing would definitely have been possible — and would have helped.

achei meh

Had it's moment in time. Hey Ya was great but it's not on here. Does the job, doesn't wow. Sound is fine for background music, but bass feels thin and the highs get a little harsh past 70% volume.

Really catchy, really cool tunes, often hilarious and at times super sweet. What an interesting eclectic album.

Lastig album om te raten, er staan echt knallers op, maar niet in de getalen dat het een albumduur van 2 uur en 14 minuten acceptabel maakt. Ja, leuk dat het een dubbel album is, maar de tering, dit is veel te lang. Had gemakkelijk een 4 kunnen zijn als het wat korter was geweest.

Idk man. Ik ben groot fan van Outkast, maar dit dubbel album is zo lang als een driedubbelalbum en daarmee zo onvoorstelbaar bloated. Individueel staan er echt waanzinnige tracks op beide delen, maar als geheel is het echt een slog om doorheen te ploegen. Nog even over de twee delen: Big Boi's Speakerboxxx is consistent prima tot goed, The Love Below is bij vlagen waanzinnig, maar heeft ook de meeste dompers.

I had this album when I was much younger and re-listening all these years later, I can appreciate the two sides of this album for the very different sides of the group they bring out. Big Boi goes hard on Speakerboxxx and has tons of features, with incredible bangers like "Ghettomusick" and "Bowtie." Andre 3000 on The Love Below experiments a ton, with several songs barely even featuring rap at all. It's unsurprising in hindsight that his first post-Outkast album was so different from anything he had done before. What a treat this double album has been to reflect on!

It’s no coincidence that, of the 40 songs on here, the best song is the one where each member gets a verse. Nothing else hits the same.

This is Outkast's "White Album": an album where each member recorded songs that reflected more of their taste that was growing increasingly further apart, and then putting them back together as one massive double album. The over 2 hour, 40 track run time of "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" might seem daunting at first, but considering that its essentially just two albums stacked in one, you can easily just listen to the first disc, give it a listen, and then pop in the second disc at a slightly later time and still feel fulfilled. Hell, even listening to both discs back-to-back, them being so radically different from one another massively helps this not feel like such a monotonous chore to get through. Big Boi's "Speakerboxxx" is a Southern hip hop record at its core, still full of the braggadocious and ice cold bars one would expect from a rapper like him, mixed with a heavy dose of funk instrumentation and reflections on god, parenthood, and society at large. The second disc, Andre 3000's "The Love Below", is a different beast entirely however: it bounces from several different genres, from the pop rap of "Spread" to neo-soul/funk/R&B in the vein of Prince on cuts like "Roses" and "Love in War", all the way to the jazz musings like on the opening number "Love Hater" and wild instrumental cover of "My Favorite Things". Plus, this second disc is formatted more in the vein of a concept album, explore a man's sexual escapades and desire to find a woman, but still having his own emotional insecurities holding him back from committing full time to a relationship. This ends up making Big Boi's side feel that much more unbalanced, as while he definitely has some creative highs on this record, like on the tracks "Unhappy" and "Reset" that talk about the struggles he went through in order to achieve this level of success, a lot of the songs end up feeling not fully realized, especially when there are no features to bounce off of. Songs like "Bust" and "War" have good concepts to them, but feel like they end far too abruptly, and are desperate for an extra verse in order to tie them more neatly together. Also, the interludes on Big Boi's side feel much more like filler due to how short and inconsequential they feel for the flow of the album, especially in the latter third when there's an interlude nearly every other song. Speakerboxxx Rating: 6-7/10 The Love Below Rating: 7-8/10

This is one Ive listened to a few years ago for the first time and was really impressed, especially by The Love Below. It always bugged me how in 2019 Big Boi received a national "WHO IS THAT?!?" when he was announced on the SuperBowl Half Time lineup. While any hip hop fan could sing his praises, he really has fallen into the background while Andre 3000 has gained mythical status. This album obviously cemented the split between them and their styles but man.... Speakerboxxx is just unfortunately overshadowed when discussed today. (But Im also going to do the same) Ghetto Musick is so overwhelmingly fun. The Way You Move is amazing. Big Boi really has such an impressive flow on these songs. My real complaint is that the rap features don't feel like they bring a lot to the table - maybe Big Boi is just circling them so consistently? Love Below is so dense with the failings of maintaining relationships as an adult while reflecting on traumas and fears from childhood. Hey Ya! and Roses almost feel out of place sonically with how they come out of nowhere but that sort of reflects his panic. Def need to study the over arching narrative more. Its a 4/5 for me just because its lacking a deep grasp on my soul but this is some damn good music!

This is not an Outkast album. This is two solo albums packaged together and neither are very good on their own. This is situation where you realise that the whole was certainly greater than the sum of it's parts. On top of all that, 2 hours and 14 minutes is far too long.

Este juego debiera llamarse 1002 albums, porque este som 2 en 1. Se nota mucho que cada artista hizo lo suyo. Creo que me gusta en general más el primero, aunque el segundo metió los hits y fue más audaz en la propuesta. En general, igual, se me hizo largo y más un rejunte de ideas originales que algo que lo haga un álbum. 6/10

4.5 if could. Absolutely love this record. Run time is the only knock against

This is clearly very long but it’s spectacular. I think this is the most I’ve ever enjoyed a hip hop album. So much variety in sound the whole way through. Plenty of jazz and R&B. Big big fan. Could ascend to 5

Big Boi's album is more consistent and my speed, Andre's is more experimental and self-indulgent. It's a decent listen and you can trace a lot of music history through theses albums, both borrowing from before and inspiring later work. It's good, but at 2+ hours, it's tough to come back for a full listen (3.5)

I enjoy Andre's stuff. The man make some fun music.

The only reason this isn’t a 1 is because it has two amazing OutKast songs back to back. Hey Ya is one of my GOAT songs in general and I have karaoke-d Roses at a work Christmas party that was more like a college rager. Going through 2 hrs 15 min of a double album for those two songs is a lot like what I imagine it’s like to be on the brink of death by dehydration in the desert only to find a puddle of 1/2 a cup of water, only to head back out into the whipping sands and relentless heat. Flat to low 2.

Has bangers, is bloated

Love that they each get an album to showcase their songs, but Andre's album is too long.

What a fun album from start to finish. Obviously knew a lot of the more popular tracks before starting the journey, but was pleasantly surprised by some new ones. Before listening, I imagined I would enjoy The Love Below over Speakerboxx due to my favorites of the album (Roses and Hey Ya) being on that disc. However, Speakerboxxx, to me, is the better side in terms of consistent quality and enjoyment. The Love Below however seems to have more higher highs (with also lower lows...). Points do of course have to be subtracted due to the unnecessary length. No album in the WORLD needs to be 2 hours and 15 minutes. All in all, a delight to listen to all the way through for the first time

Hat mich positiv überrascht, nachdem die ATLiens etwas underwhelming für mich war. Bisschen lang vielleicht, dafür aber auch überwiegend gute Stücke.

Witziges Konzept für ein Doppelalbum bei einem Duo. Schon abwechslungsreich, aber viel zu lang. Bin aber auf den Geschmack gekommen, laut RYM sind für die Mehrheit die drei Alben davor eher die Klassiker.

As many critic has noted, this album would be as if McCarthy and Lennon didn’t do their usual (and iconic) co-writing credit thing for an album, but instead did a “Beatles” (in-name-only) Double LP with 14 songs each on separate records. In a nutshell (whether it be those two Liverpudlians or these two Hotlantans!): there are real gems on both conjoined solo albums, but man, why seperate the ice cream and the whipped cream into different bowls? 4.5 stars, and just below the last TRUE band/ collab effort, “Stankonia”.

I really think that this double album is let down by The Love Below - I just dont find the songs that compelling. Clearly doing a Prince thing, and it doesnt work for me (obviously apart from Roses / Hey Ya! of course!) Speakerboxxx is a very solid album with a couple of highlights.

It was fine for a genre that's not one of my favorites. There's some enormous hits on here, so it's no wonder it's included. In general, I think I preferred the second half of the set... It was eclectic, which I kinda' like.

As with most double albums, I really wish this weren't a double album. It's one album for each dude; they could have released these 6 months apart and doubled their money, but whatever. I generally liked the first disc better despite the highs on Andre's side. Altogether pretty good and altogether too much. The whole is less than the sum of its parts here. 3.4

*2003. *Hey Ya and Roses are the mainstream hits. *OutKast is always fun and interesting, and I look forward to listening to them. *This is a cool concept - two albums, Big Boi did Speakerboxx (first album) and Andre 3000 did The Love Below (second album). *This took several sessions of listening because it's so long. *I like OutKast in small doses, but this didn't really stand out to me. *May revisit. RATING - 6.5/10

There is a lot of great stuff here, but boy this needed to be edited down a LOT

Love it

Not my jam. Hard to judge much more. Better than some I've heard so - 2

I love OutKast, they’re icons, but this isn’t their best work if you ask me. In fact I think it’s kind of overrated. There’s a lot of filler, especially in The Love Below. Also surprising how that half hasn’t aged as well, it’s extremely horny. Now I’m not gonna deny that during the Stankonia era and this era, OutKast were fucking rock stars, it was great, I wouldn’t change anything about it. Wish they’d continued on for a few more years. But I also think that ATLiens and Aquemini are their strongest work. I’d rank S/TLB in the bottom three of their discography. Of course, some of this stuff is undeniable, I love all of the singles they released, and many of the straight rap tracks on Speakerboxxx in particular are incredible, but overall it’s just so bloated and leans away from their best qualities shown in other albums.

Couldn't pass the 2nd track.

The auto tune “ooOooOh” in “Behold a Lady” will always and forever put me in a stoked mood

This fuckin album... You see I never dived deep into Outcast, even though I knew it was my shit. The speakerboxxx got me a little bored or snoozing, was OK, I heard is a pioneer stuff, I went through it in few days. In the end there were some songs that resonated with me, now I only remember "the way you move", but there's surely more. I'll be coming back to that album. And then the love bellow. This album moved me, surprised me, made me wanna dance, sing and even touched me like no music did in a long long time. I'm pushing 29, but "spread", "valentine day" - these songs changed me. It's an absolute classic. I never knew what I was missing. Loved this album.

Behemoth of an album - mostly perfect but it's LONG

Expansive and experimental.

A gargantuan double record that is the de facto culmination of the Outkast phenomenon. You feel the duo splitting (literally, the concept of the record) and figuratively; Big Boi firmly cementing himself in bombastic ATL hip hop, unafraid to speak on his personal struggles and the state of the world alongside the slick, sexy side of things. Andre 3000 pushes away from hip hop, bringing in the soul/R&B of Prince with an outsider perspective and a preoccupation of every flavor of romance and lust. It is excessive and ambitious and mostly hits.

3/10

I made through an hour of my first rap album. Wasn’t quite as horrible as I thought, but I’m definitely not the right demographic for this genre. A couple good songs and some not so good. I’m giving it 3 stars as kind of a middle ground between what I really think vs what it probably deserves.

The second disc is obviously a dip in quality, but I still really enjoyed it for its classic radio songs and inventive sleeper hits. The first disc is a perfect hip hop album. Can’t believe I didn’t know The Way You Move was by Outkast, a song played a million times in my household as my brother and I played the 2005 Tiger Woods PGA Tour game. 4.5 Hey Yas

Side one (Speakerboxx) was excellent from start to finish, while side two (The Love Below) was extremely uneven with super high highs and low lows. If Outkast had trimmed some of the fat off this album it would be 5 stars. As it stands I will likely listen to tracks from this album regularly for the rest of my life without ever doing another full playthrough again.

I accept than any criticism of this album threatens my status as an Atlanta native. There is a five star album hiding amongst the 2hrs+ worth of songs, but there are enough lows, particularly in the second half, that made getting through the whole thing a bit of a drag. I would give the front half of the album a 4-4.5 stars and the second half a 3.5 excluding Hey Yeah but we’ll round up in the hopes they don’t bar the gates next time I try to go home.

It it was just Big Boi's disc, 4.5/5. But, even though I like Andre better as a rapper, his disc left me disappointed. 3/5

Listens: 1 (plus some hopping around for review writing) Standout Tracks: Bust, Flip Flop Rock (anything with Killer Mike), Last Call This album is sooooo god damn long. The interludes have interludes. The interludes have outros. The outros have intros. Sometimes there's a proper song. WTF. At first, I was kind of excited to listen to an OutKast album, as I don't have a ton of prior experience with them and I have a pretty good relationship with the hip-hop and rap genres. Then I had a visceral reaction to seeing the 2h15m album length. Not a great first impression. How can you realistically review an album this long after only one listen? You can't, sadly. So, as I was listening, the hits start to come. The songs I've heard literally dozens of times at school events, countless bar mitzvahs, at summer camp, in shopping malls, at friends houses, at cookouts and any other place or setting you could imagine. Fucking everywhere. Who doesn't know The Way You Move or Hey Ya!. I don't inherently hate these songs, but they aren't particularly great either. Overall, this is less a hip-hop/rap album and more music designed for being DJ'd or Emcee'd at a club, or a bar mitzvah, along with Usher, Little John and Pharel's major hits. I don't care much for this.

Yeah this is fire. Ahead of its time I’d say

I definitely likes this more than any other rap album I've ever listened to. Not something I'd reach for, but really interesting beats and I like the way both big boy and andre 3000 rap. 3.5 rounded up

Speakerboxx tvåa och love below fyra så vi sätter väl en trea

Can’t believe I haven’t listened before. Banger after banger. Preferred the first side and it’s a little lot for a single listen session but I enjoyed.

Not bad, too long

Say anything you want, this double album isn’t boring. Every track brings something a little new. And what would have been individual album drops compliment and contrast each other very well. This was not a wasted opportunity to stretch their own ideas and talents while still touching base with what made Outkast such a strong duo. When this first came out, apart from the sketches, I connected more with TLB. I still Don’t love the sketches, but 3000’s experimentation still hits. However, I now have a much deeper appreciation for Big Boi’s sound and style. The roots of P-Funk and overall cohesiveness of his side of the album are very strong. This listen might have changed my favorite of the double album. The Way You Move Hey Ya! Roses Draculas Wedding

Needed to listen to more OutKast so this was a good intro

This could have been broken down into two solo albums. It was way too long to keep me engaged and it took a long time to get to the hit songs. “The Love Below” was better than “Speakerboxxx” though.

If I liked hip-hop, I’d probably love this. It sounds a bit more progressive and ‘out there’ compared to the standard fare churned out under this genre’s label. It’s way too bloody long though, and the two ‘sides’ sound like completely different records. Maybe that’s the point? I certainly preferred the second side and I remember Hey Ya! being a single - it’s a highlight here, in a jumbled mess of lowlights.

Much more interesting musically than I anticipated, but the bar was pretty low. Over all just a bit dull.

(Mostly) brilliant but there's just so much of it.

This starts great, really enjoyed the first two thirds of speaker box. It loses its way a bit after that and I find some of love below unlistenable. Shame as I do like outkast on the whole

Outkast's ambitious double album, with one side for each lad, and it does work. Personally I prefer The Love Below (Andre 3000's half), but mainly that's down to the mighty Hey Ya!, the sublime Spread, and the frankly incredible Prototype (if I could marry a song, it would be this one). Outkast peaked here; they couldn't get close with subsequent release - and to be honest, if you're going to peak, you'd be glad it was with a record like this.

Vaca come back

8/10

honestly disk 1 was not good didnt hold up well sorry bout that but disk 2 was actually enjoyable just unfortunate that this didnt hold up to my standard

Clearly two albums, not one. One better than the other. Loved the crooning to ridiculous modern lyrics.

Markan - 4 Sara - 4.5

I can't believe I never sat down with this... It really is an incredible package deal. 4/5

Amazing, so close to a 5 it's only the length which I get it's two albums in 1 but still they're two long albums. As I've gotten older the first half has really grown on me. Brilliant stuff

fav songs: the way you move love hater prototype she lives in my lap hey ya! playful, colorful, bloated 50/100

Does not do it for me

Motceaux kiffés : unhappy bust knowing flip flop rock last call hey ya roses

For an artist I only sort of like through their most popular songs, a 40-track double album feels like a deeply daunting task. Fingers crossed I find something to like in this. "Intro" and "GhettoMusick" instantly blew out my expectations of what I would hear; the reverbed bass beats, echoed vocals and synths were incredibly novel, then the switch into the groovy backing and the 50's style female vocals at the 1:20 mark... then back to more classic rap. That combination of soul and breakbeat is great. Already, this is a hell of a ride. "Unhappy" grew on me as the track progressed. The chorus, especially, is a pretty fun tongue in cheek sorta way to tell you to just get on with your life, the combination of both Brown and Killings voice a match made in heaven too. The jazzy horns and smart word play in "Bowtie" made it a great track, and the vibe switch from more playful in Bowtie to sinister with the deep beats in "The Way You Move" was a great switch, then by the chorus it swings back up. The variation on this one, for a hip hop album, it's absolutely insane. 5 tracks in (though may be too soon to say) and Big Boi has managed to stay away from all of the gross Hip Hop cliches of misogyny and gang-banging, big hats off for that. The instrumental section at the beginning of "The Rooster" had incredible attitude, with it's bass supported by those sharp piano chords and escalating horns. Even on the subject of relationships and children, Big still manages to avoid devolving into the cliches here. The funky as all hell bass shows itself again in "Bust", accompanied by fuzzy guitars and flows that make it feel like a classic hip hop track. This album is really something. Other songs enjoyed on Speakerboxxx: "War", "Knowing", "Flip Flop Rock", "Reset" and "Last Call". Now onto The Love Below, which is Andre 3000's side; I hope it's as enjoyable as Big Boi's album. Some grand piano jazz to start with the Intro and "Love Hater", pianos washing out into some psychedelic guitar breakdown before snapping back to jazz with some... interesting vocals. So far it's enjoyable, almost purely because of how much the vibe of this contrasts to Speakerboxxx. The talking style and repetitive guitar lick made me want "Happy Valentine's Day" to be over as soon as possible; this one felt a little braindead in the lyrics department too. Musically, I was enjoying "Spread", but the lyrics were painfully cringe; always hated overly sexual lyrics that are just on the nose rather than trying to be seductively clever. Was relieved when it ended. "Prototype" with it's funky beats, easy going bass and shrill guitar notes around the 3 minute mark supporting the vocals was a good example of what Andre 3000 is capable of; this style of instrumental suits him most. I feel he's no rapper like Big Boi. Despite it all, it is difficult to overestimate how much of a culturally dominating effect "Hey Ya!" had at the time it was released; 799.9 million views on YouTube at time of writing for the music video. It is deeply catchy and playful, from the lyrics to it's near arcadey notes. Here in the UK at least, I watched it fill dance floors time and time again. Other songs I enjoyed on The Love Below: "Roses", "Love in War", "Dracula's Wedding". Overall, the two distinct styles of Breakbeat/R&B influenced Hip Hop in Speakerboxxx and Jazz/Funk, it was a diverse set of albums. That said, for me, the quality is tilted in favour of Speakerboxxx; it seemed far less self-indulgent than Love Below.

Long . Hey ya okay! Interesting songs def makes me wanna check out their other stuff

yes they were innovative fun and all that but this record has 1 stand out track and that's it

WOW. This reminds me of the first time I saw the Crayola 64-count box. I had the smaller, standard-issue ones, and then one day, this huge box with a sharpener showed up. You could do anything with it, and the spectrum of colors was intense. Shade after shade, hue after hue, it gave you a little of everything.

covers everything from Al Green to PFunk, GFunk to straight Soul. Deadly serious and full of laughs. This takes CD bloat to the extreme - not just a double album but two full (somewhat) bloated albums. There is a bounty of great ideas. There are certainly 15 quality songs here (of the 32 tracks - this excludes the 8 or so skits, intros and interludes) which puts this on par with other classic double albums but I wish there were a few more home runs.

Le pongo un 2 porque Hey Ya es una canción que amo y Roses la recordé al escucharla. Pero el resto no es para mí.

Hiphop / Rap

movie length with only a few bangers 👎

Very cool. OutKast was a huge part of my journey into 90s rap, and once upon a time I went through all their albums. I say that, but I evidently dont remember this one well if I did listen to it. Anyways, this is a really interesting project with some of their top jams included. It’s really neat that they released two solo albums together. It’s a perfect symbol of their relationship, their musical journey, and how they work together — two people expressing their individuality, together. Big Boi clearly is the foundation, deeply rooted in the southern sound. 3K is the one who experiments and takes their basic format to new places. And their other albums are a blend of what’s found here. It’s wild how range-y the love below was — he really tried a lot, and because of it, a lot missed, but he did get two super bangers, Hey Ya being a true generational classic, and roses probably being my personal favorite from them. I hesitate to say the whole thing was dope, because not every song, or even a majority, delivered, but the premise of the project, the features, the experimentation, and three of not only their most popular but songs that are synonymous with a generation, makes this whole thing, to me, very dope, from idea, to agreement, to execution. For a two hour album, it is very listenable, and theres certainly way more to it than three songs. This was cool. Well deserving of this list.

way too long

Speakerboxxx: 3/5 The Love Below: 5/5

Kinda forgettable

Speakerboxxx: Big Boi shows his influence on the hip hop scene with tight flow and funky production. The Love Below: Andre 3000 brings you through the highs and lows of relationships on an album which is as fun as it is bright.

Much better than you would expect from the cover. The second half is a little bit boring but includes the mega hit Hey Ya!.

Not really for me

A behemoth of an album. Essentially two solo albums released together. I really wanna give it 5 stars but it’s just a bit too unwieldy for that (The Love Below could have defo had the fat trimmed a little, although its weirdness is part of its charm - a breakbeat version of My Favourite Things? Yes please!). But this is a great album(s). And shout out having skits that aren’t absolute garbage and are actually funny, and sometimes quite sweet.

Like most of it, but it was a long sit

3.5/5 Very long album. Good rapping/singing with some jazzy stuff thrown in. Favorite Songs: GhettoMusick Bowtie The Way You Move Love Hater Hey Ya! Roses My Favorite Things

So longgggggg. It's not even that, especially, more so that the songs aren't relative in quality to be able to justify the length of the album. I get that it's essentially "two" albums linked together, but that ain't my problem and therefore, 1 star.

Pros: Hey Ya!, some interesting ideas, part two is more engaging Cons: 2 hour long double album, a lot of the songs kinda blend together, a bit boring

I’ve heard worse rap. Still… not for me.

What a fucking journey! This double-album feature takes us through some of the finest hip hop we've yet gotten on the challenge, courtesy of OutKast's two members - Big Boi on Speakerboxxx, and André 3000 on The Love Below. Listening to each half with a slight break in between helped me appreciate each of their strengths, with Speakerboxxx just being a really solidly-executed Southern hip hop album and The Love Below delving full-on into soul and jazz influence, and my enjoyment of them both ultimately rounded out to an overall 9/10.

What a cool experience. A double album that doesn’t overstay its welcome? That’s rare in itself. But mixing together so many different styles and making it all sound good? Just as rare! I didn’t want to stop listening. I also love how many people feature on this album, and how they all shine. I was originally disheartened to see Hey Ya! be so far into the album but I ended up not even needing to hear it to know this was a 5 star.

♪♪ S P E A K E R B O X X X ♪♪ Indisputably, this is an ALL-TIMER album that showcases the best of both OutKast members. I mean it's super ambitious, the release format itself is genius, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I don't know of any other duo who could have pulled it off as well as they did. With that said..... I think I always remember this album for its peaks, and end up encountering quite a few low points whenever I re-listen. Going into this, in my mind The Love Below was the better part because it has the songs I love the most, but I forgot how much steam it loses by the end! I blame the sequencing more than the songs themselves; the energy is just disproportionately high for the first ~90mins of the album. Speakerboxxx ended up being my favorite part on this listen, however I'd say it's the one that sounds the most dated of the two (André's still sounds downright futuristic). Definitely a couple of skips on it. I sound harsh, don't I? I'm nitpicking - this album is FANTASTIC but it's not one I could revisit as much as I'd like for a 5-star. 9/10! Standouts: Intro • GhettoMusick • Bowtie • The Way You Move • Church • Flip Flop Rock • Reset // God (Interlude) • Happy Valentine's Day • Spread • Prototype • Hey Ya! • Pink & Blue • Dracula's Wedding • My Favorite Things

Whoo! What a listen. I think I'm in the minority who prefer Speakerboxxx out of the two. It's such a relentless tour de force and it tries so many different things, all of which are bangin and it makes me want to run through a wall. I don't think The Love Below pairs with it well. It's a bit of a shock to go from one to the other and obviously the length is insane. I think it benefits from a really introspective and careful listen, but I definitely don't enjoy it as much.

Acho que a minha opinião colocaria um alvo enorme nas minhas costas, mas fora as músicas mais famosas isso aqui é extremamente superestimado. São mais de 2h de várias músicas repetitivas, interlúdios demais e pouca coisa realmente interessante sonoramente falando. Óbvio que se tratando de lírica, métrica, flow, é inquestionável as habilidades dos dois, porém música é muito além disso né? Eu conheço um bocado de disco da mesma década que esse que nem sequer estão em listas dos melhores disco, sendo que são muito melhores. Entendo que sempre temos que respeitar os artistas que pavimentaram o gênero, mas as pessoas precisam ser mais sinceras sobre algo tão simples de descrever e parar de ir na onda do que todo mundo fala.

I think a lot of people miss the fact that this is two solo albums put together as one. A Big Boi solo effort then Andre 3000 I love OutKast, but this is a perfect example of why I struggle with double albums. *Speakerboxxx* is easily the stronger half for me—a funky, weird, consistently grooving 7/10 record that proves Big Boi can be every bit as eccentric as André. *The Love Below* is much more hit-or-miss. There are 2 or 3 songs I love, but as a whole it's closer to a 5.5. Put them together and you're asking me to sit through well over two hours of music, which is just too much. There's plenty here that I love, but as one complete album experience it's a 6/10 and 3 stars for me.

if you think i’m gonna care about 2 hours and 15 minutes of essentially the same song……

앨범은 나쁘지 않았다. 근데 내가 좋아하는 힙합 스타일은 아니었다. 그리고 길이가 너무 길어서 듣는데 조금 힘들었지만 평가에 반영될 정도는 아니었다. The album wasn't bad. However, it wasn't the style of hip-hop I prefer. It was also quite long, making it a bit of a chore to listen to, though not enough to significantly affect my assessment.

I definitely enjoyed this and appreciate what they're trying to do here. OutKast's take on hip hop is undoubtedly influential. They also weren't afraid to experiment. GhettoMusick was really cool and unexpected. I found myself enjoying Speakerboxxx more than the second disc. The lyrics really didn't do it for me on the second half. And the skits were a little annoying and add to the bloat. I still came away asking myself if Hey Ya is the most iconic song of the 2000s. Pretty cool album, not sure I'd listen to the whole thing again.

have listened before. the double album scheme is fascinating and a little unfair here: two stylistically incompatible halves that thank god both execute their own thing perfectly. it's kinda bloated, but also contains the most absurd level of pop appeal outkast has ever had; with just a few exceptions all their catchiest shit is on here. if there are misses, they aren't boring. i thought i loved this album but listening to it on the heel of a lot of other shit i loved, it turns out i *really* love this album(s). honorable mentions to the half dozen songs that are gonna be on repeat for a while, but Hey Ya! has been stuck in my head for going on 20 years

Great Album!!

Kjennskap: 70% Sjukt mye sanger. Noen bangers, men ikke i nærheten av Outkasts beste album.

This double album held pretty well against its lengthy 2 hour runtime. Most of it wasn't repetitive so it wasn't super tedious, except near the end of The Love Below. Two back-to-back 5+ minute songs with questionable quality is a bit harsh. Speakerboxxx was definitely the better album of the two, but The Love Below was still great. Favorite Song: Bowtie

Southern hip hop, funk, soul, and psychedelic pop feels like wandering through a huge amusement park where every few minutes someone opens another completely different attraction. There is an impressive amount to discover, from playful rap to funk, soul, jazz, and eccentric pop, but the sheer length and stylistic sprawl feels exhausting. I admire the ambition and variety, yet as a listening experience I found myself enjoying only a.few individual attractions more than the park as a whole.

Enjoyment: 5/10 Replayability: 3/10 Cohesion: 5/10 Flow/Pacing: 4/10 Artistic Merit: 8/10 Weighted Average: 4.85/10 Review: You can feel the disjointed tones between Big Boi and Andre 3000, making this album a 2-for-1 today. Speakerboxxx was much more consistent with that hard, classic rap sound but I liked the funk and psychedilica of The Love Below. Still, the replayability is significantly lower because of both the divide and 2 hr+ runtime. Liked Song(s): The Way You Move, Church, Bamboo (Interlude), The Love Below (Intro), Spread, Hey Ya!, Take Off Your Cool Disliked Song(s): Knowing, She Lives in My Lap, Roses, Pink & Blue, Love In War, Vibrate, A Life In The Day of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete) Recommend? No Heard Before? Partly

Never listened to this record full length. 2 hours again though, damn... I don't really know what I think. Plenty of highlights and ambitious beats/lyrics, but soo much fill aswell alongside the interludes. We go three here, not too much more commentary on this

Interesting that the label thought it would be better to release this as one album when it's clearly two albums. And that just makes it way too long. Even though it wasn't a bad album by any means, I was struggling to get through it. I'm probably a bit harsh here: 2.7

not for me! i feel like you have to be *really* into Andre 3000 to like most of the second half, singles aside

Outkast can demand 2 hours of my time because I know it's going to be worth it. I was actually a little surprised that I enjoyed Speakerboxxx more than The Love Below, even with the one-two punch of Hey Ya and Roses as an advantage. Regardless, both halves had strong concepts and plenty of interesting and fun beat construction (although I think Speakerboxxx really had the most interesting elements). I'll absolutely come back to this album.

Não é a minha cena, mas impressionante como dá para fazer 2h disto

Two songs landed out of two hours

Visste faktiskt inte att det här egentligen är två soloalbum som de slog ihop! Väldans bra dock och med många odödliga klassiker och kul experimenterande men bara lite för långt och otajt för en femma.

Maffigt och mestadels mycket bra.

Långt men varierat med både bangers och bra vibe.

Didn’t realise OutKast was Big Boi and Andre 3000 lol. Not my usual taste but v good sound, amazing production.

"Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" by duo OutKast is one of their consistent hip hop albums. This is a double album with over 2 hours time length. This album also include funk, jazz, and pop genre. This album feel like two separate albums with very separate concepts. This album has a wonderful production and solid hooks with good rapping style. This album has one of the greatest songs of 2000s "Hey Ya!" which is one of their well known songs. There are a lot of tracks I like "GhettoMusick", "The Way You Move", "Flip Flop Rock", "Roses", and "She Lives in My lap". Coming to the downside part, I feel like there are unnecessary interlude tracks in One side of the album. I feel there are a lot of fillers tracks in both sides of the album like, "War", "Tomb of the Boom", "Knowing", "Last call", "Good day, Good Sir", "Behold a Lady", "Love in War" and others. I feel like this album should have been two separate albums rather than making it double album. Overall great album by OutKast but it is their weakest consistent album compared to other albums like "ATliens", "Aquemini" and "Stankonia".

Fun

Never knew OutKast. Great pull. Decadent album. took this as homework and did it over multiple listens / days. I wish it was a bit tighter. While it was a great experience, I probably won't add it to my rotation.

Some really great tracks on this album, but for each one there are 4 or 5 songs that are bad, weird, or forgettable.

Not sure about these double albums. I wouldn’t call this one bloated but it was long. Really catchy stuff. I could have sworn ludicris was in OutKast. I liked it very much actually. The song roses is awesome. Love that track.

Honestly, I’d give it a 4.5/5 if I could. Big Boi does really well in mastering his craft with Speakerboxxx, but André’s just so experimental and so goood on The Love Below. Just listen again. Come on, it’s fantastic.

A couple of classics (Roses, Hey Ya) but a LOT of talky songs. Great cover of My Favorite Things. All over the place.

A duração assusta. Duas horas seguidas de Rap sempre será exaustivo, independente do artista em questão. O gênero em si sempre abraça o maximalismo, a indulgência desregulada, em suas produções e letras, e nesse caso aqui, até no pacote físico da música. Um CD duplo! Que idéia absurda. Por sorte, OutKast possui o talento técnico para fazer a idéia funcionar… Ao menos em partes. Ambos Big Boi e André são talentosos e ótimos em seus respectivos estilos, mas isso não quer dizer que ouvir duas horas seguidas de canções desconexas, repletas de Skits e outras interrupções irritantes seja algo agradável. Ao menos para mim não é. Rap veloz não é meu tipo favorito e é o mais aplicado aqui. A produção do álbum, ao todo, é muito boa, sempre com ornamentações interessantes, e samples variados e muito bem utilizados. Em meio ao caos, existem melodias lindas e versos impressionantes, com batidas viciantes e vivas. Existe também momentos pastelões, sessão da tarde. É o que acontece quando seu disco possui 40 faixas, é inevitável uma quantidade extrema de inconsistência. E por favor, não compare essa bomba aqui com o White Album. Coisa ridícula. A parte de André é marginalmente superior, mais consistente, mas quando você chega naquela parte já é tarde demais para redimir o disco. E sim, o álbum, ele, em sua composição inteira. Não é justo julgar esse álbum como duas entidades diferentes, isso não faz sentido. Não cola. Deveriam de fato ter lançado dois álbuns separados, faria mais sentido. Imagine só, um disco normal de 45-60 minutos, composto inteiramente por canções como Reset e She Lives In My Lap. Podemos sonhar. Mas na realidade, temos um álbum inchado, indulgente, cansativo – ou melhor, exaustivo. 2/5

If it was only The Love Below, that's a 5 and it's a no brainer. It's very fun and inventive, and there's just banger after banger on the entire album. Speakerboxxx is way more fun than I remembered, however it still doesn't warrant a 5. So with heavy heart, 4 out of 5 it is.

These guys know how to rap and how to create music that's interesting, engaging and fun.

As others have said this is two Solo albums put together. In my opinion the albums are best listened to separate (not in one sitting) The Speakerboxx section was really catchy and had some great moments but also a few I didn’t love as much. It’s very 2000’s rap , but it’s done at least extremely well. Cut a few tracks and boom this is even better. The Love Below section is all over the place stylistically. This comes off like a modern day Prince for the time. Basically it’s rap music that thinks it’s too good to be rap. That’s not a diss it’s just this is very mellow more soul/funk based and definitely tel has some jazz elements as well. The fact that “Hey Ya” (the big hit) is even here is surprising. This side of the album is definitely a grower, but is interesting in its Bold choices. Overall I Think “Speakerboxx” is a tad more catchy and classic Hip-Hop with some cool things added. “The Love Below” could creep up if in the mood for that style, that album Is a head scratcher but in a good way 3.5 for both (light 4) the length of this album Is really its downside. For an album Like this it shouldn’t work as good as it does. PS - I usually don’t laugh at skits or jokes in music. I try to take art seriously but the guy screaming “Ice Cold” Got me UPDATE I now really enjoy “The Love Below” it’s the More interesting album probably 4.5 but will round to a 5 because this album has stuck with me

Inte min favorittyp av hip hop och alldeles för långt, känns konstigt att ge en tvåa sett till skiten jag gett tre så får kanske bli en svag trea?

Snäppet mer underhållen av Andre 3000s del, även om det är jämnt skägg. Otroligt charmad av den bisarra versionen av My favorite things. Summan av båda är en stark 4a

Blev tvungen att ta mig igenom. Positiv chock! Trots mastodontlängd är väldigt mycket bra eller åtminstone intressant. Finns några låtar mot slutet som är sinnessjukt dåliga dock.

Oväntat många som har en åsikt när jag frågat om de föredrar Speakerboxxx eller The love below. De flesta håller Love below högre, och visst har den kanske de allra högsta topparna. Speakerboxxx är kanske jämnare. Ruggig kvalitet

the singles off of this album is very misleading (hey ya!, ghettomusick and roses are all incredible; telling of a time in music), but i’m embarrassed to say that i haven’t listened this album through before. the political messaging and love stories are incredible.

This is a pretty cool album. The whole double- album-recorded-separately-and-just-stuck-together thing is kinda weird and just speaks to the cowardice and greed of the recording industry, but what else is new? This didn't need to be a double album. Both work just fine on their own. It's kinda jarring to switch over to the second album. The unit as a whole is so long, I would have just preferred two albums. That said, the content on both albums is pretty solid and wildly different. I was jamming to both, and each has some pretty nice highlights. The Love Below is pretty weird though, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Andre 3000 is a bit high on his own supply, and it shows. Overall I think this is a 3 for me. It edges close to a 4, but I'm not really going to listen to this again.

Album is way tooo long

top 10 most skippable album

Speakerboxx - 2.5/5 The Love Below - 5/5

This is a great release but best treated as separate albums or it’s just far too long a listen. Learned that I prefer OutKast’s fast raps.

This wasn't bad, just exceedingly long.

High 4. A bit long but super nostalgic. Enjoyed Speakerboxx more this time

Album 56/1001. Listened 8/17-8/21/2026. Really struggled with this one. It's not my normal genre, and it took me a full week to give the whole thing a thorough listen. Some catchy tunes but not much I'm going to spin again. (Also this is the second Outkast album in the first 56 albums I've listened to. That's enough slices.)

Best Outkast Album

I never listen to this type of music. I paused due to holidays and did listen though a few tracks per day. But I must say in between there is some soul and jazz which is ok. The second part ‘the love below’ might even be better. It are actually two different solo albums of the two rappers that form ‘OutKast’. Basically I hate gangsta rap and most rap in general with just a few exceptions. But I tried to listen with an open mind and try to put away my prejudice and than you also hear some good soul and jazz hidden in between. The hit song ‘Hey Ya’ is also quite catchy. Still it is a way too long ride with 2 hours of rap music. But I can understand why this is seen as a very high rated album/artist in the genre. As I understand that most of the music is played by live musicians instead of samples increases my interest in this album and also the lyrics have more depth than other rap music. I must say I got a bit intrigued by this album and did some re listening in bits and pieces. Although it will never be my favorite genre. I am positively surprised by the musicality.

I've always wanted to like this more than I do. It falls into that classic trap of double albums: bloated and overlong.

Escucha

Pretty good. Talented artists

Another two hours completely wasted. Why do some artists insist on releasing such bloated albums? If Speakerboxxx/The Love Below had been trimmed to 50 or 60 minutes, I might have given it two stars, as long as they kept “Hey Ya!.” But tracks about how someone’s shit doesn’t stink have got to go.

A 2 hour album that isn't a slog to listen to? Splendid. I was going to take a break halfway through, but I found myself really enjoying it so I just carried on. Don't think there was a single bad song on here.

Forgive me, Big Boi, I was unfamiliar with your game

I liked Speakerboxxx, The Love Below was a bit annoying. Probably won't revisit.

There were some fun songs on this. But at 2+ hours it wore out its welcome long before the end. GhettoMusick was probably my favorite, but I'm not sure now if that's just because it was at the beginning. But I liked the techno vibe.

Songs were good but I didn’t need all the interludes fam

Outkast set out to make a deeply personal record. The only problem was that there are two members who had very different personalities. They intended to make solo albums, but the record label decided that they could make their albums, but they would be released as one record. The result a 2 and a quarter hour Frankenrecord. For me, Big Boi’s Speakerboxx was terrific. It never felt like the album was slowing down and every song was fresh. I didn’t feel the same for Andre3000’s The Love Below. That part seemed to drag on until Hey Ya. It’s still a great album, but after almost 100 minutes, it’s not enough to keep me interested. 4 stars (5 for Speakerboxx, 3.5 for The Love Below)

This was great, but it was so long...

some really good songs in both parts but ultimately too dang long! would it really have been so hard to like release two separate albums or something...

I have mixed feelings about this record. I liked the idea of a double CD, with each artist having a distinct musical universe. However, I found the whole record too long, and I would have preferred it if there were greater coherence between the two discs (or alternatively, if they had been released and considered as separate albums). 3.5/5

Really puts the double in double album! And yet every single track is fire. Funk, jazz, P-funk, old school, great samples, hit after hit. Ohh look a hip hop album that sounds different…that hasn’t happened in 15 years. Love below should have been trimmed down by 3-4 songs but overall doesn’t take away from the creativity and new voice it brought to pop music.

As mentioned not long ago when I reviewed Stankonia, the list has two OutKast records but not their best record. This one is the best known, but arguably least consistent. It is essentially two solo records, one for each member. They intended to release them individually but the label forced one last OutKast record, even though it is decidedly NOT an OutKast record. As for the music, Big Boi for the win, as his Speakerboxx trounces Andre 3000s Love Below in every way. BB is focused and on point, producing a big hit with The Way You Move and a lineup of great album tracks. Meanwhile, Andre gives us an all time single with Hey Ya! and a bunch of weird occasionally entertaining diversions and skits. The next time we would hear from Andre, he made a maddening but interesting (his MO) album of “flute jazz”, so in retrospect, this shouldn't have been a surprise when BB delivered a 4.5 and Dre a 3. Let's call it 4/5

Stankonia was OutKast's Pet Sounds. I refused to elaborate further.

i get why its two albums but there are too many skips...as is its 3-4 stars, could easily have been a 4-5 star single album

Overrated

Both of these albums are definitely a 5 for me.

Alltöf löng

Ógeðslega löng. Fyrri hlutinn gældi við fjórar stjörnur en sá seinni (þó hann innihéldi Hey Ya og Roses) dró hana remmilega niður í þrjár.

This was just ok for me. It was fine, but it's a LOT of tracks and a lot of playing around. I guess it felt a bit like too much of a time commitment to wander through the sprawling creative meanderings of these 2 guys. The Hey Ya! single is undeniable - just a huge mega-hit, and still a great track. Most of the rest of this, while creative and overall 'good', is a bit of a waste of time. Notable exception: Take Off Your Cool (with Norah Jones),

Far and away me least listened to Outkast album, coming in at a whopping 2 hours. It does have "Roses" "The Way You Move" and of corse "Hey Ya!" but it has more interludes and filler than it know what to do with. Ultimately, its biggest sin is the lack of chemistry. Andre and Big Boi were so far apart musically here that the basically both released solo albums here, and I think that's it major issue. That being said, it's still an Outkast album. 7/10

Good, but overlong

Way too big an album to really have a complete opinion in one day.

This album (these albums?) is (are?) a hell of a commitment. 2+ hours of hip-hop is no freaking joke. But sweet Jesus these guys have a never ending ocean of ideas. I was entertained the whole ride, and time and time again I was just completely struck by the next creative revelation here. Not every track is great, which matters a lot more when you're strapped in for this long of a ride, but the ones that are, are. Breakbeats, free jazz, pop, and excellent lyrical flow.

Absolute powerhouse of a hip hop duo

Good but too long, so much filler.

The love below reminded me of Prince in some parts. The jazz remix of favorite things was fun. Speakerboxxx was fun and quick. Lyrics were great throughout. The interludes were funny as well

Bloated. The few good songs sold have been combined into one shorter album. Andre should have gone to therapy rather than released most of his album.

Has some absolute bangers. Speakerboxx is the stronger half. Too many throw away skits, interludes, and outros

I enjoyed some of this. Nice hooks, creative lyrics. Need to listen to this more

Those are really two albums and I liked the first one MUCH MORE than the second. Therefore, an average total score it shall be.

It is absolutely wild that a duo put out a double album that's essentially a solo album from each member but it still feels like a coherent album from the group. It's equally wild that The Love Below has songs about Cupid, Dracula and a take on Abbott and Costello. Also, Andre 3 Stacks is hella horny. Despite the length and some filler, it's still a classic.

That was a long double album. As a lot other reviews have could have easily been cut down. 3.5 stars

it is way too long and I know it's a double album

A real mess of a (double) album, but something of an entertaining one. The second of these albums contains ‘Hey Ya’, known to my generation as a mandatory song for every 6 year old’s birthday party music, and that is a decent representation of the listenable quality to most of the music. It’s pretty fun and energetic. However, even for a double album this really goes on and on, and its determination to feature every single musical style at some point in the albums doesn’t help. Plenty of hits, plenty of misses.

There were quite a few good songs among the forty (?!) tracks on this more than two-hour long (?!), extremely stylistically diverse album, although with this runtime it did take me two sittings to finish. There’s probably enough good ones for a more reasonable length, pretty strong 4 stars album. Unfortunately, when you adopt such a scattergun approach, inevitably there’s going to be quite a lot of filler, including a fair few tracks I really wasn’t keen on. The quality control seemed to be a bit better in Big Boi’s ‘Speakerboxxx’ overall, although Andre 3000’s ‘The Love Below’ maybe had higher highs?

Sorry, but I'm not bothering with a single second of a 2hr 14m running time from an artist that I already know I don't like, and have already awarded a one star rating to prior, courtesy of their other entry in the book.

Ahh OutKast. Probably the second or third most influential hip hop group of all time, after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the Sugarhill Gang. Outkast were masters of blending live instrument playing with samples and thoughtful, complex lyricism and produced some of the most varied, memorable hip hop of all time on their own, and influential to many more contemporaries and artists to come. This album in particular is not their best, nor their most influential, but apparently alongside 2000’s Stankonia, is what the 1001+ albums is giving us to listen to. It’s still chock full of hits- from the eternal commercial and sports game tune of Hey Ya to the wry, shade throwing Roses to starting the album off with GhettoMusick, it suffers not from listenability or variance, but honestly just runtime. Unusual for rap, OutKast constructed their music around the album experience, with a lot of interludes (annoyingly), spoken word or raw audio endings, and crossfading tracks into each over. I think this plays well on this album, but on others it’s not great for just listening to the music. No points off here though, as most of them serve a purpose, at least on the front half. The album is a double, and is essentially a solo album from both Big Boi (Speakerboxxx) and Andre Three Stacks (The Love Below) tied together. Not in any particular thematic, lyrical, or subject matter way, but physically, in the same box. This is a point I will get to shortly. Big Boi’s side is very tight and focused. It’s more rap based, with varied instrumentation, sampling, and beats. He has a ton of features from big artists of the day including Lil Jon, Ludacris, and Jay Z, and most if not all of the songs work pretty well. Not much filler, aside from the interludes. The big single is “I like the way you move”, that, while not my favorite, was a huge pop radio hit. Without Big Boi’s excellent side holding things up, I think The Love Below would have been a major flop. “Roses” and “Hey Ya” appear on this side, and were massive singles, but the rest of it varies between… indulgent… and bad. The only genuinely good song i wasn’t familiar with is the very last one- “a day in the life of Andre Ben (incomplete)” where 3000 finally finds his flow and lets the lyrics fly. What the actual fuck is he doing on “she’s alive”? Andre can sing, is this bad on purpose? wtf is that falsetto? Several of the other songs are just bad 70s funk sex jams that would sound more at home in some exploitation movie from the time. If I were grading them separately: Speakerboxxx ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Love Below ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (mostly buoyed by the big singles)

banger. took me back to my roots.. can't explain it, but this shit was hella black lol. Heard some New Orleans inspiration in there too... really makes me want to dive deeper into genres and sub genres.

was fun bit wayy too many songs for 1 album

Plz don't shake your polaroid pictures

4,5

Too long, not enough bangers

Not really my thing and way too long

Some great stuff in here but way too long and definitely not two albums worth

6/10

After hearing Speakerboxxx, I was so ready to give this album a 5/5. It was so thrilling. Unfortunately, The Love Below was not satisfying, but that almost doesn't matter because of how great Speakerboxxx was. Thus, I only docked one point.

This was a lot of OutKast. Good thing I like OutKast.

Better than most of this genre. Some interesting musical backing

If nothing else, OutKast's albums are fun to listen to. "Speakerboxxx" is a significantly stronger album than "The Love Below". OutKast is at their best when they're rapping, and "The Love Below" has way too much singing and not enough rapping. "Speakerboxxx" also wins out in terms of features and production. The beats on "The Love Below" are fine, but they're not that interesting. I also wish there weren't a million intros/interludes/postludes on this album. My favorite track was "Flip Flop Rock". 3.5 stars.

Two solo albums in one double album. The Love Below is the better album but Speakerbooxx is still good. Lots of great ideas in both albums although the execution falls flat sometimes especially with those awful interludes. All in all, this is a great album.

A bit too long but still has some bangers.

Sensational. Spectacular. It brings the hype every time

loved thissss

Speakerboxxx is an all-time great hip hop album. So many amazing cameos and everything is working. And the there’s The Love Below. I mean the singles are great and Roses might very well be my favorite OutKast song. But the rest is just a mess at times. Some powerful messages in songs immediately followed by some of the horniest things I’ve ever heard. And the music just doesn’t hit like it does on Big Boi’s album. It sucks that we won’t get any more OutKast albums and this is the last one, but you can feel them coming apart at the seams by how disjointed these two albums are. Still, this is an all time classic and definitely worthy of inclusion on the list.

Nop

J'ai préféré la 2e partie de l'album avec Hey ta et des morceaux dans la même vibe, le reste c'était du rap quoi

2 salles 2 ambiances Je les aime beaucoup à la base et je connais bien cet album

Je savais pas que hey ya venait de cet album! Plutôt sympa en général mais un peu long

Real shit

Didn’t like

so bad

2 hours! Yikes

Once again, not my usual listening habit, and for songs that were mostly new to me (aside from Hey Ya!, of course), I did find myself enjoying most of the album. I liked The Love Below side more, with its Jazz parts being particularly enjoyable. If it wasn’t so long, it would probably be a 4/5, but being a double album, it’s a 3/5 for me.

Puha 2t15m - Speakerbox er den halvdel som er klassisk outkast. Jeg har kæmpet mig igennem det. Ærligt så var det forfriskende med Boogie hits, men jøsses der er langt imellem.

Speakerboxxx åbner lidt svagt, men bliver lidt inde i det, faktisk et ret godt Hip-Hop album. SPEAKERBOXX: 3 stjerner The Love Below er fucking mærkeligt. Det giver mening at André 3000 render rundt og spiller fløjte nu. Og så er det selvfølgelig også denne del der har hits’ne. Det redder dog ikke den katastrofe The Love Below er. The Love Below: 1 stjerne I den samlede vurdering bliver jeg også nødt til at medtage det faktum at jeg skulle slide mig igennem 2 timer og 15 minutter. Hvis jeg skal lytte til så langt et album, så skal det fandme være verdensklasse. Og det er det her ikke.

Hey ya! is an okay song but 40 tracks, over two hours is way too long.

It's good, just very lengthy. Nothing stands out too much, seeing Hey Ya on this album was a fun surprise

Knowing

Unfortunately, nothing on this way-too-long album recaptures the infectiousness and energy of "Hey Ya!" - somewhere in this Iliad of a double album, there's the sketch of a pretty good, 40 minute long, modern hip-hop album, but this needed some serious editing to separate the fat from the meat. If I had to pick, The Love Below is the better of the two halves, but not by much, and not enough for me to recommend this album outside of Hey Ya!.

loooove outkast!!!! pretty funny bits on here asw

8/10 - Not the OutKast album I would have included on the list but still really great Andre 3000 and Big Boi are both underrated in my mind. I admittedly don’t love double albums but they kept it interesting throughout. I would have to imagine this was their biggest commercial success and maybe that’s why this album was chosen.

I really like hearing the contrasting styles on the 2 albums. Like The White Album by The Beatles, some of the charm comes from how absurdly long the album is and how there's room for each member to experiment and try things. 8/10

My love hate for the double album continues. Speakerboxxxx was the better overall album and maybe would have had more hits of released alone. The Love Below had at least 3 hits but the rest was quite lackluster. They work together but separately I don't think they would have done as well and that's why I love hate the double album.

This is a solid album but holy fuck this is long

2 Outkast albums in 3 days. Well, I suppose it's 3 as this was originally intended to be 2 albums. I tend to struggle with long double albums, but when the second album feels like a mix tape it's a little easier to digest. As ever, I always imagine what a regular length album of just the best tracks would've been like though - that would've been truly great instead of being very good.

I remember the hits off this massive album but I've never fully listened to OutKast before. Not bad at all and, as a whole, it does represent that pocket of time in 2003 when this was the style for a minute. And can we all just agree this album has the best song ever featuring the word "poo poo"?

Compared to the rest of the album, Hey Ya comes off as such a jarring upbeat track compared to all the others.

Speakerboxxx - 3.5 stars with no real lows (outside of the interludes) The Love Below - 4 stars with some real lows (better interludes)

What is this? 1002 albums?!

I'm an OutKast fan so it pains me to give this a 3. But there's just so much bloat on this 2 and a half hour double album. So many interludes. So many skits. So many forgettable songs. This album has 40 "songs" and 3 hits. That's a rough ratio. Like Hey Yeah, The Way You Move, and Roses are great. But just listen to them on their own. Don't slog through this many songs just to pay respects to the few that landed.

sehr gut aber VIEEEL ZU LANG, warum packt man 2 alben in eins?????

zu lang

This took me forever to listen through which is why my review is late lol. Earlier on I was planning to give it four stars but now I'm feeling five. So much variety on the album and I really enjoyed most of it. I liked that Speakerboxxx was more rap leaning and The Love Below was more r&b/jazz leaning. Some of the songs are a bit corny but not in a bad way. Overall, this was a very entertaining listen! Side note: there's an Outkast track on the live action Scooby Doo soundtrack so their sound always reminds me of that movie - an absolute classic.

Psyched for this one! Definitely a top tier hip hop album. Nice to get a break from that two day run of country albums too. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. Callie immediately danced around and screamed with joy with the intro. You can tell she gets to listen to a fair bit of music in the hip hop genre. I’m actually surprised OutKast’s album aquemini did not make the list. Since it’s considered one of the top 500 albums of all time and one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. Either way the fact they have two albums on this list, truly demonstrates how André 3000 and Big Boi really put the South on the map for rap and hip hop. Both Stankatonia and Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below are excellent albums as well. Aquemini would have likely helped pave the way for their recognition on a broader audience too. I appreciate how this double album gave each individual artist of the duo the opportunity to shine on their own solo portion of the album. I also enjoy that our garage door lock key tone rings to the tune of how they sing “Speakerboxxx”. So I’m regularly reminded of this album every time I go into the garage. André 3000 more recently has released a flute album and another album titled 7 piano sketches. Fun to listen too but not my typical genre of music so I can’t tell you if they are high quality. Despite large success, André 3000 found it hard to be inspired to continue making hip hop albums due to social anxiety disorder and hypersensitivity to criticism of his work. I’m happy to see that he found a way to continue to make music on his terms though. It’s evident he is a very talented and introspective musician.

Tricky one to review, since this is pretty much 2 albums on one disc. Which is a lot of music to go through, yes its long, but with the thought that this is 2 separate albums combined into one, I will forgive its length. Each artist brings their own unique flavour, so I think its kind of cool getting to see both styles which make up Outkast deconstructed into two sides. With that we get some major hits, and some of my personal favorite songs, The Way You Move, Flip Flop Rock, Happy Valentines Day, Hey Ya, Roses, and a sleeper hit for me being Take Off Your Cool (featuring Norah Jones?! Love this, seems like such a random feature for this album, but maybe her and Andre are tight?) Some moments and songs I wasn't too sure about, that being more on Andres side, I think he could have trimmed outa few songs to improve the album. Speakerboxx seemed pretty tight, and flowed well. Definitely an interesting album/double album. I've been an Andre 3000 fan ever since I heard Hey Ya back in an oldschool runescape music video posted to Youtube back in like 2008. Love his cadence, flow, and creativity. 8/10

Thus album is fun when it wants to be, but there was definitely some creative issues that led to it being too long and too disjointed for my taste. Big Boi and Andre 3000 are magnificent, and when they collaborated well, the music was unmatched. When they branched off into their own thing, things got weird. I enjoyed the through line of “Speakerboxx” and frequent callbacks, but that felt more forced into the rotation than a genuine plan for the album. The flow from one track to the next wasn’t always solid which impacted my enjoyment. Overall, there is definitely some gold here, but there’s also a lot of pyrite.

Classic album. The hits are great, but it works really well as a whole album as well. Nostalgic to boot

Hey Ya! What great music!

Reviewing this massive double project is an exhausting undertaking for someone to whom listening to hip-hop does not come easily. Even though I own the album, there really is simply too much here to take in at once, which explains why I rarely play it. Nonetheless, tackling this sprawling collection track-by-track reveals two completely distinct musical worlds packaged under one banner. Disc 1: Speakerboxxx Big Boi’s half of the project is an excellently produced, eclectic listen that in the main avoids clichés. What stands out immediately are the heavy Prince and Minneapolis funk influences, particularly in the prominent horns and sharp horn stabs on tracks like 'Bowtie' and the standout track 'The Rooster'. Even the rapping style across these songs is highly reminiscent of Prince's vocal work from the late 1980s and 1990s. There is plenty of melody to be found here, especially embedded within the vocal melodies. While I doubt I will ever love the more standard hip-hop tracks, like 'War', the way aficionados of the genre will, they remain good and genuinely enjoyable. That said, the experience is weighed down by structural filler; I would be entirely happy if I never had to hear another hip-hop skit or interlude again, such as the 'D-Boi' snippet or the closing 'Bowtie (Postlude)'. In summary "Speakerboxxx" is a highly polished, melodic funk-rap record driven by excellent production, though slightly bogged down by unnecessary interludes. Rating: 3.1 / 5 Disc 2: The Love Below If the first disc is grounded in funk-infused rap, André 3000's half is inconsistent, self-indulgent, and totally mad - but in a good way. It is an ambitious, adventurous, and challenging listen that is ultimately very hit-and-miss, where the lows are low but the highs are remarkably high. The record opens with 'The Love Below (Intro)', which is reminiscent of Nat King Cole with its lush orchestration, before pivoting into the jazzy but somewhat disjointed 'Love Hater'. Prince influences emerge again on 'Happy Valentine's Day', but they peak on 'Pink & Blue'. Channelling the electro-pop elements of Prince's 1999 era, 'Pink & Blue' stands as the strongest track on the disc outside of the main single. Other highlights include the bizarrely excellent 'She Lives in My Lap' and the wonderfully weird pair of 'She's Alive' and 'Dracula's Wedding', the latter of which I loved. Later on, 'Take Off Your Cool' introduces the delightful and quite lovely Norah Jones, delivering a beautiful acoustic guitar piece quite unlike any other track on either album. However, the album regularly stumbles over its own eccentricity. 'Where Are My Panties?' is laughably poor, and 'Good Day, Good Sir' is just plain ridiculous. 'My Favorite Things', a cover pf the famous tune, shifts back to standard jazz, leaving me wishing he had kept with the weird and whimsical style instead. Meanwhile, tracks like 'Vibrate' typify the flaws of both albums: it brings back that welcome Prince influence and shows promise, but it goes on much longer than it should. The disc ends on a flat note with 'A Life in the Day of Benjamin André', which possesses none of the imagination of the previous tracks. The undisputed oasis here is 'Hey Ya!' It explodes through the speakers with its wonderful pop, acting like a breath of fresh air. It is followed by 'Roses' (4/5), which is lyrically ridiculous but somehow works perfectly. In summary, "The Love Below" is a wildly experimental, unpredictable journey that contains brilliant highlights but suffers from severe pacing issues and narrative self-indulgence. "The Love Below" Rating: 3 / 5 In conclusion and taking both albums as a single package, the inescapable truth is that both discs are individually way too long, and way, way, way too long when taken together. Attempting to listen to both back-to-back requires a huge fit of discipline and patience. In fact, I literally got a dead leg listening to this session, which is not good for the circulation. Overall, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" is an OK listen, but unless you are a dedicated fan of the genre or the artists, you are highly unlikely to listen to this massive collection again in full. Overall Album Rating: 3 / 5 Disc 1 - Speakerboxxx 1 "Intro" (3/5) 2 "GhettoMusick" (4/5) 3 "Unhappy" (2/5) 4 "Bowtie" (featuring Sleepy Brown and Jazze Pha) (4/5) 5 "The Way You Move" (featuring Sleepy Brown) (3/5) 6 "The Rooster" (5/5) 7 "Bust" (featuring Killer Mike) (4/5) 8 "War" (3/5) 9 "Church" (4/5) 10 "Bamboo" (Interlude) (featuring Bamboo) (3/5) 11 "Tomb of the Boom" (featuring Konkrete, Big Gipp, and Ludacris) (2/5) 12 "E-Mac" (Interlude) (featuring E-Mac) (3/5) 13 "Knowing" (2/5) 14 "Flip Flop Rock" (featuring Killer Mike and Jay-Z) (3/5) 15 "Interlude" (3/5) 16 "Reset" (featuring Khujo and Cee-Lo) (3/5) 17 "D-Boi" (Interlude) (featuring Henry Welch) (2/5) 18 "Last Call" (featuring Slimm Calhoun, Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, and Mello) (3/5) 19 "Bowtie" (Postlude) (2/5) Speakerboxxx Sub-total - 58 Speakerboxxx Average - 3.1 Disc 2 - The Love Below 1 "The Love Below" (Intro) (4/5) 2 "Love Hater" (2/5) 3 "God" (Interlude) (2/5) 4 "Happy Valentine's Day" (3/5) 5 "Spread" (2/5) 6 "Where Are My Panties?" (Interlude) (featuring Toni Hunter) (1/5) 7 "Prototype" (3/5) 8 "She Lives in My Lap" (featuring Rosario Dawson) (4/5) 9 "Hey Ya!" (5/5) 10 "Roses" (4/5) 11 "Good Day, Good Sir" (Interlude) (featuring Fonzworth Bentley) (1/5) 12 "Behold a Lady" (3/5) 13 "Pink & Blue" (4/5) 14 "Love in War" (3/5) 15 "She's Alive" (4/5) 16 "Dracula's Wedding" (featuring Kelis) (5/5) 17 "The Letter" (featuring Qasha Aman) (3/5) 18 "My Favorite Things" (3/5) 19 "Take Off Your Cool" (featuring Norah Jones) (4/5) 20 "Vibrate" (3/5) 21 "A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)" (2/5) The Love Below Sub-total - 66 The Love Below Average - 3 Grand Total - 124 Average - 3 366/1001 193/366 albums reviewed were new to me.

I know it’s a pivotal album but I think it’s ok.

Viel zu lange und viel zu viele mittelmäßige tracks 2/5

Im proud to say I fully listened to this, since it’s actually 2 albums in one, each with an own style. I liked the first more, even though im usually more into soul, I liked to get some hip hop/ rb that’s actually tolerable, unlike the usual ones. The second part had the hit Hey Ya! though. And I see I saved a few tracks

I remember when this album came out. It was a very cool and unique concept, but also made me feel a certain type of way. This great duo did their own things, as much as they tried to convince everyone there were no issues between them (which might be true), but it seemed sad to me. I also always felt bad for Big Boi because it seemed like everyone liked Andre’s album more lol. Had never listened to it until now though and I can say with 100% certainty Big Boi’s album is far superior. 5 stars for the first half, 3 stars for the second half = 4 stars Hey Ya and Roses still slap though.

Listened to Stankonia instead

Too long

Far too long. Andre 3000 Love Below is the better half

Masterful arrangement of each of the members feel. Speakerboxxx is purely rap and hip-hop, it's well paced and energetic, and The Love Below feels soul-like and it heightens the influence if had on many artists like Thundercat. Exquisite experience.

It's way too long. But it's also unabashedly weird & iconoclastic. There's not nearly enough weird rap these days, and I'd rather wade through a bloated Outkast album, skits and all, any day, than listen to contemporary southern or trap.

Speakerboxx gets a 4, Love Below a 2

Un monumento maximalista del hip-hop y el art-funk que ha envejecido bien como una radiografía sónica de la postmodernidad. Aunque en el plano de diseño formal la estructura se percibe fragmentada y sobrecargada, este caos es deliberado y brillante: refleja fielmente la vida en las grandes ciudades, y los cambios entre los suburbios y las manzanas llenas de rascacielos, la moda urbana y el ajetreo del día a día. A través de sus dos extremos, el fraseo técnico de Big Boi y la experimentación melódica de André 3000 en piezas inolvidables como "The Way You Move", "Ghetto Musick" y "Hey Ya!" proyectan una fuerza y calidez que transmiten autenticidad absoluta, dotando al dúo de una autoridad superior desde sus respectivas trincheras. Bajo el barniz de mega-éxitos bailables y ritmos frenéticos, el álbum opera como un potente llamado a la conciencia sobre las grietas de las relaciones modernas y la realidad urbana, entregando un documento conmovedor, crudo y real. Un trabajo cuya vibrante energía y sutil sensación de paz y fluidez en sus pasajes más íntimos lo vuelven idóneo para múltiples usos, destacando como un motor excepcional para el ejercicio, caminatas urbanas o para dinamizar el trabajo creativo.

Long album with some great songs on it.

Génial, je préfère 100 fois la partie de André 3000 (même si celle de big boi est sympa). Très bon album, les interludes apportent vraiment quelque chose à l'ambiance générale.

C'était cool mais particulièrement la deuxième partie

I didn't realize how misogynistic a lot of their lyrics are. A lot of good dance-able tunes that I enjoyed, often in spite of the actual words that were troubling.

Great album. The Love Below gets a lot of praise because the singles are much better, but as an overall album Speakerboxxx is much better. It doesn't have the odd and very aged interludes. While Speakerboxx is less experimental, for me the experiments on TLB generally aren't successful and it really started to drag by the end. Borderline between a 4 and 5, but I'll give it for the influence and the singles

Disc 1 - 3.5/5 Intro - 3/5 GhettoMusick - 4.5/5 Unhappy - 4/5 Bowtie (feat. Sleepy Brown & Jazz Pha) - 3.5/5 The Way You Move (feat. Sleepy Brown) - 3.5/5 The Rooster - 4/5 Bust (feat. Killer Mike) - 2.5/5 War - 3/5 Church - 4/5 Bamboo (Interlude) - 2/5 Tomb of the Boom (feat. Konkrete, Big Gipp & Ludacris) - 3.5/5 E-Mac (Interlude) - 3/5 Knowing - 3/5 Flip Flop Rock (feat. Killer Mike & JAY-Z) - 3/5 Interlude - 2/5 Reset (feat. Khujo Goodie & Cee-Lo) - 2.5/5 D-Boi (Interlude) - 2/5 Last Call (feat. Slimm Calhoun, Lil’ Jon, The EastSide Boyz & Mello) - 2.5/5 Bowtie (Postlude) - 2/5 Disc 2 - 3/5 The Love Below (Intro) - 3/5 Love Hater - 3/5 God (Interlude) - 2.5/5 Happy Valentine’s Day - 3.5/5 Spread - 3/5 Where Are My Panties - 2/5 Prototype - 3/5 She Lives in My Lap (feat. Rosario Dawson) - 2.5/5 Hey Ya! - 5/5 Roses - 2/5 Good Day, Good Sir (Interlude) - 2/5 Behold a Lady - 3/5 Pink & Blue - 3/5 Love In War - 3/5 She’s Alive - 3.5/5 Dracula’s Wedding (feat. Kelis) - 3/5 The Letter - 3.5/5 My Favorite Things - 3/5 Take Off Your Cool (feat. Norah Jones) - 3.5/5 Vibrate - 2.5/5 A Life In The Day of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete) - 2.5/5

I've listened to The Love Below several times in the past and love it but always kinda wrote off Speakerboxxx as more commercial and boring because of the single. I didn't realize that without Andre around, Big Boi would be the weirdo in most rap circles. I loved both of them this time through. Each half of the album is individually a 4 and the project as a whole almost adds up to a 5 somehow but ultimately falls just short.

now this was a good list experience. I've got so many conflicting opinions here I bought this CD when it came out and kind of wrote off Speakerboxxx. Outkast without the weird cool interesting guy? No, I listened to a ton of The Love Below but ignored Speakerboxxx. I was wrong. Listening to both made me realize I not only missed out but I'd never given Big Boi enough credit for what he brings to the group. It also made me realize Outkast is so much better together - while both albums are interesting, and the solo aspect is a core part of what makes them interesting, the tracks that include Big Boi and Andre have this electricity to them. So I'm torn on how to rate this. The double album and solo album nature is, again, a key part of why this is so fascinating. It wouldn't be as interesting if it weren't so uneven, highlighting what makes each artist individually interesting and what's missing when they aren't working together, so are the flaws really flaws? Speakerboxxx being consistently good and The Love Below hitting way higher highs and way lower lows only improves the experience. Four? Five? Gotta be a five. It has to be weird getting this before Stankonia for anyone doing this list that doesn't already know Outkast

Two Outkast albums in a row. That was very cool and snazzy

The love below > Speaker boxxx J'ai même quasiment beaucoup aimé le deuxième album. 4 étoiles pour l'ambition et la redéfinition du rap des débuts '00s, Roses et Hey Ya auront quand même marqué mon secondaire en background.

5 etoiles certainement. Big boi manque d’amour dans cet histoire. Quoique plus classique, son album aussi est excellent.

Not much here interests me. Except hey ya. That's a banger. 1 star

This double album could have been a single album and actually the single album could have been an email with just Hey Ya attached. Rating: 1.5

Not too long for a single sitting. Good, and a hip-hop classic but found it overwhelming in the end.

OFCCC OUTKAST MY LOVE MY LEGEND

Dnf. Whalevah.

some fat trimming would have done wonder for this project

As many others have said, it's far too long and the skits are generally pretty terrible. But it contains loads of bangers, it's hard to hate on it. Probably the Outkast album I reach for the least (after Idlewild, obviously), but still a lot to love

Couldn't finish it because it was so long but I did enjoy a few tracks

While I appreciate the 2-for-1 feature, I can't say any of them was good.

First double album I've gotten where it really is two totally separate experiences. Disc 1 has more of a classic hip hop/ rap style and does it exceptionally well, really enjoyed a large amount of what was on here aside from the round table stuff. Disc 2 slows down quite a bit and goes more intimate and introspective, this one has the mega hits and the highest highs, but also drags more and has more misses. Overall I think its an achievement of the art style.

could definitely have been a 3 (maybe a 4) if they engaged in some more self-editing

2+ hours?! Ok it is 2 albums I guess Hey Ya is one of the best pop songs ever though. The whole album(s) a lot of fun but goes on way too long. Do always lose points for including a kid's voice, in my book

Far too long, packed full of filler, was happy for this one to draw to a close, the music wasn’t bad, just too much bang average songs, this did not need to be a double album

Two. Hours. Fifteen. Minutes. If this album was condensed into an hour, it would be a straight 10. In fact, the whole album is great, there isn't a single song that you could call ‘bad’. The hip hop grooves, instrumentals and vocal delivery are brilliant and undeniably Oukast at their best. BUT, any album this long takes it out of me by the end, and that's no different here. Great music, loved the vast majority of it, but a point off for being a bit of a slog to complete in one day.

I remember buying this album was I was a kid! One of the first I bought with my own money, I loved it then and I love it now! Great double album, almost as if Andre and Big Boi are dueling back and front with their own unique musical styles

Good album and some nostalgia given the time in my life that it came out, but way too long.

cRap

I really don’t know where to start on this album, it’s iconic for the hits. It just comes off choppy, there are some clean transitions and clarity to the narrative being told, and I know the OutKast dynamic is part of their stick, but just was off to me.

This is two albuns in one! Giant list of songs but oukast did a great job on this. So funky and so well produced with true hip-hop in their veins. Plus the interludes in this album are a true artform. Loved it!

Not their best work and honestly a bit of a slog to get through, but definitely some bangers in there to find if you can be bothered to listen through the whole thing.

5/10

Yeah this record really explains why OutKast fell apart. Andre leaning further and further into eccentric music while bigboi went further to southern gangster rap. Hey ya still slaps but let's be honest this record is a mess

Nothing particularly unique or interesting about this album