Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

It's a good album but it's too long and the second half really drags for me.

An album that's just a lot of fun, top to bottom. It's also a double feature, which I wasn't crazy about. The lyrics are the highlight. They're clever, biting, funny. The music is great throughout. I preferred the first album to the second, but the highest highs were absolutely in the second. Hey Ya and Roses back to back is an incredible combo. Really enjoyable if you want to use 1/8th of your waking hours to listen to it.

Dubbel album. Een rap (met killer Mike) best een leuk album. De ander met hits als roses en miss Caroline en verder eclectische jazz achtige muziek

didn't disappoint me

Ha! Haven’t heard this in years! Wonder how it’s aged? Wow, it’s really good. Damn I hate the double album. It would be so much stronger as TWO albums. But broken up, I really love both, and honestly am surprised how well they’ve aged. 4. Solid. Despite that terrible length

En realidad son dos álbumes (por eso dura 2 hs). Uno es rap/funk, con vibes absolutas de GTA. Y el otro de repente es Sinatra+rap (?????). Love hater es buenísima pero Reset es top. Hey Ya es conocidísima. Siento que el disco 2 es la versión pionera de Tyler the creator, una mezcla de cosas que suena bien. Fue una buena experiencia escucharlo, todo un viaje, pero no creo que vuelva a hacerlo.

dit is echt veel te lang.... outkast is wel goeie... maar vgm ken ik alleen roses en hey ya! ik vind echt leuk de liedjes hebben variatie unlike saaie rock 🫪 sommige skits zijn wel beetje weird en t is echt veel te lang..

There’s a lot to digest here, and other than Hey Ya I haven’t listened to any of this in years. I prefer The Love Below overall, but Speakerboxxx has some great moments, though I think some of the guest appearances drag it down. I think they were better when they worked more closely together (Stankonia in particular is a masterpiece), but this shows both of these guys have a lot of talent on their own. Too bad Andre 3000 has never really made a proper follow-up expanding on his funk/soul influences.

Double album, with Big Boi on Speakerboxxx and Andre 3000 on The Love Below. Obviously, the hit tracks are "The Way You Move," "Hey Ya!", and "Roses." What surprised me were the varied number of features from Killer Mike to JAY-Z to Norah Jones and the list goes on. Andre 3000 has quite a sense of humor and a singing voice for different, jazzy styles of music. The album is fun and feels like a play with many acts.

Podria decir que volumen 1 no me encanto, quizas algunas que otras cosas para destacar pero no mucho. Y si pude encontrar mas placer en el segundo volumen con temas como Protoype con ese coro fantastico que te abraza el oido. No tenia idea de que Hey ya! era de ellos tampoco, gran tema me empezo a gustar mucho mas el album desde este momento.

I mean Hey Ya might be the song of the 2000s. There are a few other big hits, and some lesser known bops (to me) that I enjoyed but IMO this collection would have been better off distilled down to 45 minutes.

Sophista-funk/aristocrat/distinguished dog, clean up your act/pull up your pants/ladies and gents/please, act like you got some sense. I was so obsessed with the delivery of these lines, I would restart the song over and over just to hear them. I got this album, along with Lindsay Lohan’s Speak, for my birthday one year from an aunt and uncle who I thought knew me better than that. At 12, I wasn’t a huge fan of Lohan and I don’t think I knew OutKast at all. But, I dutifully listened to all the albums and came away a fan of The Love Below. Over time, I came to appreciate Speakerboxxx. I never cared for Speak, sorry Lindsay. If you can get past the unnecessary number of interludes, both albums have a lot to offer and the cultural impact of Hey Ya cannot be doubted.

A bit of an exhausting listen but there's a lot of good stuff here Fav tracks: Unhappy, GhettoMusick, Hey Ya

The Disc 2 is marvelous. Funk, r&b, jazz… excellent.

Duazo, aunque mejor el primero

A part of me wants to rate this lower because of the amount of fluff. There are some all time bangers buts it's too long. If you think of it as two solo albums put together into one, however, it holds up.

awesomeeeeeeee

Long as hell but pretty enjoyable from start to finish. I know we got hey ya on here. And that song is one of the most popular songs of all time. And for good reason it slaps hard. But im getting ahead of myself. First we start off with speaker box and thats more of a big boi thing than Andre 3000. Its alot of what you would expect from an outkast rap record. And its very good. Lots of good verses with great production behind it. Its good if not a little safe. But the 2nd half of this double lp makes up for that. Andres half the love below is wild. It starts off with some jazzy piano. There is pop stuff and spoken word. Its all over the place. And it has the best songs here but also the worst too. I know people like roses but not me. Poo poo as an adult man hurts me. But generally this 2 hour beast is very consistent. I like both parts about the same. For all different reasons. Its all good all around. Maybe not all but so much of it is good. And when you have so much of it its a hard thing to do. I think id prefer a tighter project but I cant complain very much at all with what I got.

Hiphops White Album. Speakerboxx er SÅ god, nogle af årtiets bedste beats. The Love Below er mere o pog ned - når den rammer plet er det nogle af de bedste sange det her årtusind, men der er nogle fejlskud og nogle numre, der varer alt for lang tid. Når det så er sagt er TLB også virkelig banebrydende, og jeg gad ikke leve i en verden hvor den ikke eksisterede - hvis den ikke var her kunne vi godt sige farvel til Frank Ocean, Tyler The Creator, Kanye Wests 808s-Yeezus run, Lana del Rey, Janelle Monae, Cee-lo Greens Fuck You!, og det ville være en trist verden at leve i

This was so long it took me 3 whole days to finish, the two sides are almost polar opposites but very enjoyable, Andre3000 is the horniest man alive

Day848 - there’s a handful of really amazing songs on this double album even if you have to get through some dumb skits to hear them

A unique collection of musical stylings and storytelling. I am suitably impressed with this group and agree whole heartedly that this album belongs on this list.

really good but damn 40 songs…

this one was HUGE and musically diverse. My fav track - "My Favorite Things." (lol). Great blend of jazz and... breakbeat, I think?

OutKast are suuuch a fun band, never get bored of listening to them. So many hits on this album. Only reason it's not a 5 is there's quite a bit of filler and I was struggling to find time to listen to the whole thing all day.

A modern classic and so fun cover to cover

I loved this. Great, timeless production that despite being made over 20 years ago still sounds fresh. Andre 3000 is so unique in his flow and lyricism. Slightly long at times with a couple of filler tracks but otherwise fantastic.

listened to this a while ago. liked some songs, but not everyone. the album feels GIANT. it is tremendous in its influence though, no denying that. it demands respect and does it deserve it hoo boy.

This double album is PACKED with banger tracks and i gotta be honest, it is soo long (only reason it's not a 5 for me cause id love it if i could listen to it in one sitting) 😭 but I had a great time listening to this

This is a huge record in a lot of ways. Length, style, variation, theme, influence, and more. It’s all good stuff but I think Andre 3000’s stuff really shines. It’s ahead of its time, it’s not the typical gangsta rap you would find on other records of the time. It’s deeper and more musically diverse than that. Great stuff.

La musicalidad y las voces quedan demasiado bien con lo que quieren conseguir en las bases de hip hop M gustan las ideas de las canciones God (interlude) por ejemplo me ha sorprendido

понравилось... сохранил.... не большой любитель хип-хопа, но тут слушать было интересно и прикольно.

Best Song: The Way You Move. Such a smooth, joyous pop song. Honorable mention to "GhettoMusick". Worst Song: Bust (feat. Killer Mike). Killer Mike has a decent feature, but the whole song samples this wet noise that sounds like someone sucking their teeth and I found it incredibly distracting. Overall: What an incredible album. Absolutely stacked with everybody who was somebody in the early 2000s, with a great mix of radio-friendly pop tracks and goofy southern hip-hop. One of the few cases where it being a double album might actually be worth it, even if it does run a bit long.

Awesome! Long but great. Realized I like The Love Below better than Speakerboxxx but the whole thing is great. Andre really is a musical genius!

A sprawling, conflicted project that thrives on its own contradictions. Big Boi’s side is tight and rhythm-focused, while André’s half is far more eccentric and stylistically scattered. That imbalance is part of what makes it interesting, even if it also leads to inconsistency. Some moments feel excessive or unfocused, but others are so inventive that they justify the length. It is less about cohesion and more about the sheer range of ideas being explored.

Both are chocked full of bangers but the first album is a lot more consistent. For a double album bloatfest I enjoyed this a lot.

Day 18 Speakerboxxx/The Love Below by Outkast I’m a big Outkast fan, but I don’t really listen to this album front to back that often. And honestly, let’s not kid ourselves, this is two albums. Even in production and feel, it was always going to be that way. It’s long as well, over two hours, so I had to find the right time to really sit down and take it in as a full project. Speakerboxxx starts off strong. Even though I usually prefer André 3000, the first half of Big Boi’s side is actually really good. After that, I kind of lose focus a bit. The Love Below is where things really click for me. It’s almost a masterpiece. It might be a bit bloated and could probably lose a few tracks, but there’s so much bold, creative music here. It blends hip hop, blues, jazz, funk—it’s ahead of its time, melodic, and really catchy. As a whole project, it lands at a 4 for me. It’s a great piece of art, but I do wonder if more collaboration between them could have pushed it past Stankonia. Wine pairing? Something bold but layered, like a Rhône blend or a Syrah. Complex, a bit chaotic, but rewarding if you take your time with it. Food pairing? A full spread. BBQ, sides, a bit of everything. This feels like a long meal where you keep going back for more. Vinyl? Yeah, I’d like to own this. First listen? No. Favourite track? Roses Overall 4 out of 5.

This is a great album, one of their best. But maaaaaan it's long.

No prawie tak samo dobre jak oczy zielone Zenka. Swoją drogą już nie mogę się doczekać jak Andre zacznie na swoich koncertach śpiewać oczy zielone... będzie hicior

I like it but its too old school hip hop-y? I havent finished the entire album yet so maybe it gets better?

hard to think of a double album that's tighter. 4.5

overall a good album. I was surprised by the political message in war but I liked it. roses is pretty good too. hey ya is obviously an all time banger. a thoughtful album

Wowzers, a two-hour album is not something you see everyday. Even thought it’s long af, OutKast made sure to deliver. This is a 2 hour journey that takes you through a myriad of funk, r&b, and rap songs and by the end of it, you will have experienced so many emotions. This is some impressive shit!

This is an album I really like but admittedly did not relisten to yesterday, I'm sorry, but I'm so many albums behind and I really got to keep this thing moving.

It's weird, every single song starts off intensely irritating, before settling in to something really good. Lots of annoying vocal stings and squeaky samples, mixed in with some absolutely spectacular rapping and beats.

This is fun of courseeee, I think its good stuff ngl. Kind of dont pay so much attention to the lyrics (some of them are crazy fr) when I listen to OutKast but the melodies and fun, the style is CLASSIC and its a little bit kitchy so it gets a high rating from me!

Definitely wish it was a bit shorter, but there are still so many great songs in here. Speakerboxxx was amazing, and I love how many ideas are in there, the overall energy (which is incredible), and the amazing writing and flows. The Love Below was a bit more inconsistent for me. Some tracks felt a bit more outdated, and, overall, it didn't hit as well for me. There are still some great tracks in there, though, especially towards the end! Overall, pretty good. Favorite Tracks: Bust, War, Bamboo (Interlude), Last Call, Hey Ya!, Love In War, Dracula's Wedding, My Favorite Things, Take Off Your Cool

Kinda wish they took the best tracks from each record and intermixed them to make a proper Outkast record, but damn, this thing is so absolutely bursting with ideas, sounds, hooks, rhymes, and beats that there is always something new to discover. I really miss hip hop production like this. It just sounds incredible. There are better Outkast records, both because they are more concise and nothing quite beats Andre and Big Boi bouncing off each other, but if you are going to put out a 2+ hour rap record, this is how you do it.

dura dos fucking horas uf pero este muy bueno, muy sollado, aún así sea súper largo no se me hizo pesado, pero yo es por que lo escuche en varios momentos. hubo temas que se me hicieron repetitivos, pues que no decían mucho, y aparte de los que son conversaciones hubo unos que más bien suave, pero me disfruté igual la experiencia

Well, there’s really only one song from this double-album that I’ve listened to: “Hey Ya!” I like the catchy R&B instrumentation, and I like the meaning of the lyrics, but I think it’s funny that the instrumentation masks the lyrics very well (and even André 3000 says so in the song (“Y’all don’t wanna hear me, you just wanna dance.”))

Speakerboxxx was better and there were way too many interludes but damn the music was great

Just a fun listen. 2 absolute bangers on this one in OutKasts' hit single Hey Ya! and the other being Love The Way You Move. Nothing much to say, other than for my future self, I am going to give my own rating on each of these, that is separate from the website ranking, and it will be out of 10. Fun listen, classic early 2000's hip hop/rap! Ranking 8/10 Best Tracks: Hey Ya! + Love The Way You Move

- 'Bamboo (Interlude)' is the funniest thing I've heard on any of these albums - Love the beats, super easy to get behind, makes the lyrics easier to follow - Rhymes are a little profane for my taste but that's not a knock against it - Feels a little long - Both halves are distinct and catchy - 'Hey Ya!' is so iconic it feels like it almost doesn't belong on this album - Liked 'Happy Valentine's Day', 'Vibrate' and 'Last Call' - Really interesting collaborations

Me gustó que vaya para tantos lados y por momento se ponga experimental. Dicho esto, me pareció demasiado largo, hay cosas que sobran. Nota: 3.9

Why are these just one album? It's two very different albums. Speakerboxx gets a 3 star. Very average hip hop/rap album. The Love Below gets a 4 star. Bangers after bangers but I'm docking one star for how misogynistic it is? Anyways it averages to 3.5 and I'll round it up to 4

I understand these were essentially two different solo albums and they don't thematically go together but there's a 5/5 album between the two of these once you cut out a lot of the fluff. Some great songs in speakerboxx and the first half of The Love Below is chock-full of bangers until it just kind of veers off. 3.5 overall

Both sides are a little too long, but it's hard to find much else to complain about.

- I like the vibe switch between the two sections of the album - it’s interesting how he can be vulgar in such a pretty way - I liked the jazzy song - I don’t like when they put the baby crying sounds on songs, especially not multiple songs in the album - My Favorite Things getting turned into what is basically a Mario Kart song is so awesome

good

It's a sprawling project and I'd be lying if I said I listened to the whole thing more than once when it came out. That said, it's full of bangers and yes, like lots of rap albums, the interludes tend to kill the momentum.

Some beats and melodies a bit basic, but a majority of the music was stand out skilled musicianship and creative melodic music and wordsmithing. I can see why there's so much love for these guys and this album specifically.

I genuinely think they’re incredibly underrated, this was great from beginning to end

Excellent!! Modern hip hop classic

Favourite Songs: The Way You Move Bust Hey Ya! Roses

speakerbox is an instant classic, not sure how I feel about love below, the highs are higher but the lows are much much lower

Uffff this album is a party. Is fuckng sexy, jazzy, danceable, rapable… is like a box full of surprises not only the lead single but the whole album.

Speakerboxxx Speakerboxxx has enough fun and funky raps to make me like it a lot. **** I don't like the poppier, bloopier sounds of The Love Below so much. It's still good, but Speakerboxx overshadows it for me. *** Overall still ****

Preferred Speakerboxxx over The Love Below. But mostly a cool album

Speakerboxxx wasn't as good as The Love Below, but is still damn good. Both discs went on a bit long for me.

actually not bad i lvoe the album cover and the divide between each disc, being very hip hop centric and very playful in the second disc. will give outkast and this album too, another listen in the future

listened only the first half :/

This was great, I enjoyed this a lot. Two separate solo albums combined in one is super ambitious, but I think it's awesome that OutKast pulled it off. A lot of bangers on these albums. I love Big Boi's flow.

Decent. Reminds me of the good times

Two fantastic separate double albums bundled up as one. Club banger after banger on Speakerbox with drum and bass influence and the more laid back sexy, jazzy, lovey dovey Love Below. Both are easy 4/5 albums individually only let down by some annoying skits

This doesn't really work as a double album. Despite what Big Boi says " OutKast, Cell Therapy to cell division/We done split it down the middle so you can see both the visions/Been spitting it damn near 10 years, why the fuck would we be quitting?" These two visions don't really match up at all. Even still, both of these albums are excellent on their own, and either one would be deserving of this ranking on its own.

Long, but wide variety of everything. Bigger fan of earlier albums but the hits were popular and I still rock some of these jams 20+ years later.

This is such a fun and joyful album, with such a diversity of influences from across funk/jazz/rap. I really loved Big Boi's side, especially Bow Tie, which is a hilarious song. Unhappy is also a great track. Crazy trivia that Rosa Parks sued them over this album. Takes me back to high school.

アルバムの長さにより完全に飽きてしまったけど知ってる曲が入ってて楽しかった。

Mostly brilliant album. TLB is indulgent and sex-obsessed, detracting from the whole. Big Boi's album is sheer brilliance.

Usually when I start an album, I start when I get out of bed and I'm done by the time I go on my lunch break. Today I got out of bed listening to Outkast and went to bed listening to Outkast. That's really my only gripe about the album. It's a marathon length at over two hours. Most of the songs are pretty good, with enough really great songs to keep you engaged throughout. But there were times when I would glance over at the track list and groan. I feel like this could have been a truly legendary album if it was trimmed down a bit. There's some really cool stuff here, too. Some experimental beats with drum'n'bass, some R&B and jazz elements, as well as some genre-defying hip-hop. It's a landmark album and there's truly nothing else like it. I really liked "Bowtie" and "Roses."

106. she lives in my lapp

I haven’t listened to this full album in years, I was surprised by how much was unfamiliar while others stood out.

Fun, wide variety of sounds.

I am biased here. I love Outkast. They pushed hip hop from the south at a time it was east vs west. They rewrote the ideas of rap at the time. This album is another way they changed the way you think of hip hop. I remember when it was released we were talking about how they made two double albums and then combined them. Yeah a few songs could be cut out as it's a lot of music but it still works. They have their distinct sounds yet pair well. I've had it on all day on repeat and not skipped any tracks because of boredom. It's a solid album, both go for different vibes and they do well at them. There are several hits on here, in fact most of the songs hold up decades later. Impressive. I understand they are done, I know that 3000 has moved on but DAMN I miss new Outkast music. It was always special to listen to that first time.

Each album is so strong and showcases what each does so brilliantly that it was easier to accept this as a swan song, even though we all understood that this was the end of Outkast (though I recall plenty of denial and bargaining in the media as people went through their stages of grief). I haven't done a proper front-to-back listen in probably 20 years. Speakerboxxx is such a shot of adrenaline that it's probably impossible to sustain for an hour. I petered out after "The Rooster", though there are plenty of good moments in the following *13* tracks. The Love Below sustained a bit longer, but I was done after "Pink and Blue" (possibly including, but I think that song is a groove and maybe I'd include it on my master mix). Their musical interests are so melded into that mix of funk/jazz/Prince that things feel more cohesive than I remembered. It's a natural evolution of Stankonia, itself an experimental mess that yielded a half-dozen all-time classics. There's one five-mic album somewhere in here. Maybe the alternate timeline I'd be most interested in is this project being one last proper collaboration before calling it a day. Imagine Big Boi having a firecracker verse or two on "Behold a Lady", or Andre lending some off-kilter flourishes to "Church" or "Knowing". We could be in Aquemini/ATLiens territory. Alas.

Speakerboxxx is a 5/5 The Love Below I have to give a 3.7. It sort of sputters out after Roses, love the interpolation of John Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things, but it really just added a beat to Coltrane's performance. You've already listened to an album and a half of really, really good music, that the second half of The Love Below is a little disappointing

TLDR but enjoyed the first disc for sure

Stankonia will always be my favorite OutKast album, but I do love this one. However, looking at it critically, I wish they’d been able to work together to edit and make one stellar album instead of 2 great albums marketed as 1.

Pretty good overall but definitively not my favorite OutKast album. And it's very long (because it's two discrete albums). Still, being the third or fourth best OutKast album is better than most other rap groups entire discography. Looking backwards you might think The Love Below is better based on Andre's higher popularity and prowess but musically and lyrically Speakerboxxx is more appreciated by me.

Okay, wasn’t expecting to see this on here but curious to give it a spin. Eeeek 2hr 15 tho! Bit a novel concept. I’m intrigued. Let’s go… I think I had always (wrongly) put OutKast in a pop category and written them off as simplistic, as a result. The start of this album tells me otherwise. A lot of depth, skill, cleverness, layers. I’m glad to be corrected! LOVE bowtie and last call, too. Already, it’s such a trip and so much depth and variety to it. Not sure how I’ll summarise all 2+ hrs! Anyway, onto CD2… …yeh, I feel like this needs repeated listens. It is SO good and SO much going on in it too. And the variety and layers and eclecticism. Is this the start of an OutKast rabbit hole?! CD2 maybe not as hard hitting as the first, but still just as clever and engaging. My interest is piqued! 4*

It has been awhile since I listened to this album… still stands up. 3.8.

When you look at it in 2 pieces they both are really quite good albums. Treating them as a single album bigs them down a bit with the sheer length

This is just some fun music. Perfect album to get on Friday. Production is super cool, lots of really unique ideas and textures. Not all of it is perfect, some of the more traditional rap songs are a little weak. But overall, very fun.

Banger 🔥

This is really good. The creativity and range makes this unexpectedly banging. But as a double album, it's way too long. There are some very good tracks, lot of decent guests, it's varied, sounds like the fun of the early 00s... Should have been shorter and kept the absolute bangers on this.

This album is kind of obnoxiously long (40 songs, 2+ hours), and I can do without the skits/interludes. But along the way there are enough gems to earn this album a higher ranking.

Say you have an eagle... that's pretty awesome. Say you have a lion... that's also awesome. Say you have had an eagle and half a lion, and glue the halves together... that's a Griffin, and maybe even more awesome than the two animals individually. Say you have a whole eagle and a whole lion, and you just sort of glue them to each other... well, that's just a lot. And makes you going "why are those two things awkwardly glued together?" Which is why I'm giving this album a 4 star, though I was tempted to go 5 star.

The talent and ambition is undeniable - and I recognize that without the sprawl and throwing a million things at the wall, you might not end up with insane dance songs like 'Hey Ya!', unmistakable classics like 'I Like the Way You Move,' big swings mixing R&B, electronic beats & spoken word/hip hop with 'Spread' and 'She Lives in My Lap' ...but you also end up with Eminem sound-alikes like 'Church' and needless guests that add nothing (looking at you, Jay Z.) & too many goddamn interludes. It's a tragedy Andre just can't do the fame & music thing anymore because everything they put together to this point was blisteringly fun, often surprising, and fucking infectious. But you can see the cracks here, in the sprawl, in wanting to try different things to the point that you end up with double solo albums rather than a purely joint effort. Given their talent, tho, even when it's too long with a few duds, it's still often a great listen - just not unmitigatedly so.

This one has some bangers! Cool concept for Big Boi & Andre 3000 to each do an album. Beastly one too at something like 40 songs & 2 hours 15 mins. I still remember singing "Hey Yeah" at the top of my lungs, dancing on the couches with everybody, the summer of 2003, when I stayed at Furman living at the TKE house. I've seen Outkast before (Big Guava 2014) and saw Big Boi come out for his "Big Grams" partnership with Phantogram at the Tabernacle.

Wow, lots to unpack. Hey Ya and Roses back to back are the elephant in the room. Absolute classics that on their own could carry a bad album. For The Love Below side, Take Off Your Cool and Prototype were nice surprises. I really went in blind on Speakerboxxx, and overall had a good time. The Way You Move was all I was really familiar with and took me right back to high school dances for better or worse heh. Now to get picky. 2 hours for all of it was a marathon. I felt like Speakerboxxx was just constantly solid, whereas The Love Below had its couple absolute bangers surrounded by other stuff that I either didn't click with or felt like filler. As many songs as I enjoyed from the whole package, I just can't see listening to the whole thing front to back ever again. Still an all-timer, but the bloat keeps it from the top for me.

I don't think I ever listened to this full album before. Speakerboxxx is so good. GhettoMusick is such a strong opener and it's just so solid all the way through. The Love Below is more hit and miss for me but the high points are really high. Overall these two albums are great.

the vibes were fr sm different than those of rap songs currently, love that but like yeah ts so long man like ik its a double album but like they couldve chosen the 6 best from each and release those icl overall, im happy that this cool ass website brought me to this album though, never would've even thought of listening to it otherwise a high three / low four for sure

Huge double album with some bangers and experimentation, that even when it isn't good, is at least interesting.. I prefer André's side though - for how weird and personal he dares to be, and the funky instrumentation throughout. 3 for Speakerboxxx and 4 for The Love Below for me - guess I'll round it up. Faves: The Way You Move, Flip Flop Rock, Last Call, Love Hater, Hey Ya!, She's Alive, Take Off Your Cool

A bit indulgent, but hits some serious highs. I feel like Thundercat must have been influenced by Andre3000 a bit.

Was this the sign of the end for the dirty south duo? You can kinda feel who inspired and had the most influence behind each disc and track. Killer Mike killin it per usual on two tracks is a nice treat. Honestly Andre’s vibe squashes the 5.

The creative energy and sheer ability on display is incredible, and contagious--even the interludes are super fun and full of personality! LOVED My Favorite Things; all together I think I preferred The Love Below. Both are great

Really solid. Lots of variance, and as a double-album there's just so much to dig into if you want to do so. I probably slightly prefer Speakerboxxx overall, but both "albums" have plenty of bangers. Best surprises for me were probably Tomb of the Boom and Last Call.

Good

I've never had the pleasure of listening to this entire album. The millennial in me loves it.

Some really good stuff in addition to the big radio hits.

> the Beatles Just fantastic stuff

os cara do outkast eram mto fora da curva, não tem como

Great album. Love that both artists created their own albums

quite fun

molto divertente, tanti sample belli ho letto che Speakerboxxx è più Big Boi e The Love Below è più André3000, team Big Boi atm ma molto belli entrambi i side NON li avrei messi assieme onest eh, 40 cazzo di canzoni

Ordinarily I've very little time for double albums. In fact, I can't think of one I like beyond this one. This one is a belter. 2 albums in one articulating both sounds of Big Boi and Andrei 3000. I loved it on teams and it's still a cracking album now.

I don't know where the critical mood is these days, but when this album came out the critical and popular consensus seemed to be that Speakerboxxx was an ok straightforward rap record and The Love Below was a work of staggering genius. This is precisely backwards. Speakerboxxx, on its own, holds up alongside OutKast's other records. The best songs in Idlewild (the movie) all come from Speakerboxxx ("Bowtie" "The Rooster" "Church"). The first half Speakerboxxx is simply flawless. Funky, fun, at times even deep. The bits where Sleepy Brown or especially Andre dip in elevate it. Even most of the features are good (exceptions: "Tomb of the Boom" save Ludacris, and "Last Call"). I know "The Whole World" is what really launched "Killer Mike", but I think his best work with OutKast is on this. Even "Bamboo" makes me smile (I too am a proud father), and I usually hate skits. I still play Speakerboxxx front-to-back a few times every year. Nearly perfect album. The Love Below, on the other hand, is too much. Andre 3K is, for me, the GOAT among rappers, so at some level it just feels sad and unfair that he's choosing to make pop records or (now) flute records. When he shows up on a feature these days, he's still fire! Keep rapping Andre! This is not to say The Love Below is *bad*, it's just incredibly uneven and not what I personally want. "Hey Ya" and "Roses" are both pretty much perfect pop songs. (Both discs are at their best when both members are on the tracks, as on "Roses" "Ghettomusick" etc.). Some of the other tracks are fun ("Happy Valentine's Day" "Prototype") or at least interestingly adventurous ("My Favorite Things" "Love Hater"). Trouble is Andre went too far down the rabbit hole of his weirdness and his genius, which results in something that a) doesn't really seem like an OutKast album; and b) is mediocre. In short, Speakerboxxx is a 5, TLB is a 3.

Took me awhile to figure out that this is the guy who wrote Hey Ya, then everything made sense. A very good double-album, the two halves are very distinct. The album really goes downhill after Hey Ya, but oh well, all around it was solid Favorites: Church, Hey Ya!

People don't make albums like this anymore. The length was a lot to get through - but the variety and talent on this is great. Some gems, some weird interludes.

Nice beats, good grooves, everything works well together. Speakerboxxx works a lot better for me than The Love Below, but you definitely get the difference in the direction each was going at the time.

Loved it! So very long though. More albums should say the name every song.

Decent. But very long.

Outkast are cool

Holy shit boys, 2 hr 15 min…interesting Andre did 1 album (Love Below), Big Boi did another (Speakerboxx) and they just issued it as 1 album. I like Big Boi's side better. Tighter

Basically two great albums in one. The mixing is fantastic. Fun rhythms and themes, and if you don't start moving at several points throughout you probably don't have a pulse. First disc is better than the second, IMO, but tough to beat "Hey Ya!" on the 2nd disc for an all-time banger.

First time I’ve listened to these albums in full since the mid-2000s and I was surprised at my reaction to them. Firstly, Speakerboxxx is hot shit. Barely a wasted note on it. Terrific. The Love Below always took a while to get going but that back end of it from Roses onwards is mighty fine. Made so much more sense to me at 47 than it did at 25. Very talented fellas. Sure, you could trim it down a little but I did the whole thing in one sitting and could happily listen again. I’m giving it a 4 because I don’t think it sits as high in the pantheon of hip hop, soul, r&b or jazz as others on this list but it’s 100% worth your time. Big Boi brings the party with Speakerboxxx and with The Love Below, Andre 3000 has made possibly the horniest album alive. Best: GhettoMusick, Unhappy, Roses, Love in War Worst: Most of the interludes

ESSE ÁLBUM EU TENHO APEGO EMOCIONAL !!!!!! maior da história deles como pode serem OS maiorais (ouvi dia 04 de fevereiro e ele me lembra o meu pai)

I really like OutKast. In the mid-nineties, ATLiens was a true revelation. I never connected with another one of their albums as much as that one, though I can admit that Aquemini and Stankonia might actually be better records. Andre and Big Boi, perhaps more than any other rap duo, showed a clear line of artistic growth with each release. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was an artistic peak, and one that seems almost inevitable in retrospect. This release was always billed as two albums, not a double album. Artistically, these two records would have been better served by being released separately, even if simultaneously. However, I understand why that would have never been possible from a marketing standpoint. I probably could focus on how great each record is if I could separate them and listen more carefully in turn. As it is, I find Speakerboxxx/The Love Below to be brilliant but sprawling, which is probably why I never got into this release even though I was already a pretty big OutKast fan when it (they?, see it's confusing!) was released. Four stars.

3 большому мальчику 4 А-3000

Ееее наконец-то хип-хоп, но сразу же неоднозначный альбом. OutKast и до этого релиза не отличались лаконичностью проектов, а тут еще и 2 диска от каждого из участников общей длительностью в 2 часа 15 минут, ууух, не каждый выдержит. Диск 1. Speakerboxxx. Big Boi на мой взгляд переоценен. Он, возможно, действительно неплохая вторая опция в группе из нескольких MC (имхо, но я, например, Phife Dawg в аналогичной роли значительно больше ценю, так что даже тут не самый топчик). Мне даже кажется, что он в хорошем смысле заземлял Andre 3000 от уходов куда-то в космос, да и на контрасте они вместе хорошо звучат. Однако сольные 19 треков Big Boi не то, что у меня обычно вызывает трепет. Тем не менее, первый диск мне все таки нравится. Во-первых, тут практически у каждого трека очень качевые и запоминающиеся инструменталы на стыке недушного фанка и южного хип-хопа, в целом то, чего и так вдоволь было на Aquemini и Stankonia, но там они были в основном во второстепенных номерах, а тут выходят на первый план. Ни одного проходного фита: Sleepy Brown своим припевом формирует главный хит Speakerboxxx - The Way You Move; Killer Mike и Jay-Z на одном треке - имба, еще и на таком лютом продакшене. И вроде все хорошо, но сам Big Boi не дотягивает до уровня остальных компонентов альбома, в редких случаях выдавая хоть немного запоминающиеся моменты. Вот и складывается ощущение, что ничего против альбома не имеешь, а пробираться сквозь утомляющий флоу автора не особо то и хочется, поэтому в основном я возвращаюсь только к переслушиванию второго диска. Диск 2. The Love Below. С каждым новым альбомом участники группы уходили все дальше друг от друга. Причем я даже не затрагиваю межличностные отношения, в данном случае хочу сфокусироваться именно на творчестве. Как минимум отдалялись стилистически, что видно на этом двойном альбоме, и какие разные у обоих рэперов получились "сольники". Big Boi неплохой рэпер, но без претензии на что-то за пределами его творческой зоны комфорта, а вот Andre 3000 было тесно в рамках жанра, куда его это привело как раз видно на The Love Below. Самое забавное, что Андре даже с точки зрения рэпа значительно талантливее и влиятельнее своего друга. Ладно облизал одного, закопал другого, можно возвращаться к музыке. The Love Below это, конечно, еще не нью-эйдж под флейту, тут пока подождать еще 20 лет придется, но тоже для стандартного хип-хоп альбома довольно необычный с точки зрения мешанины жанров проект. Соул, фанк, поп, психоделия, да и сам рэп, все это в своих прогрессивных вариантах - чего тут только нет. Очень серьезное влияние Принца. Сам альбом неровный, кажется, что Андре порой не хватает чувства меры, а иногда и вкуса (зачем так было издеваться над Колтрейном в My Favorite Things, я не понимаю). Но некоторые песни безумно красивые - тут мой фаворит Vibrate, который я регулярно гонял на прогулках в годы универа. Про Hey Ya ничего не могу сказать, эмоции аналогичны тем, что я описал в случае с Bittersweet Symphony. В целом ощущение, что гениальный рэпер подумал, что он еще и гениальный музыкант, но тут уже таланта не хватило. Четче всего это подтвердится спустя почти 10 лет на треке Sixteen у Rick Ross, где Andre 3000 сначала зачитает один из лучших гостевых куплетов начала 10ых, а затем зачем-то сыграет утомительно длинный и нелепый соляк на гитаре. Итого: Оставить инструменталы первой половины, сделать под них стандартный альбом OutKast с главной ролью у Андре. Чтобы не бузотерил добавить пару его сольных треков. Вот вам и рецепт практически идеального мэйнстрим рэп альбома с вкраплениями экспериментов от легендарной хип-хоп группы. В реальности тоже симпатично получилось, но до уровня предыдущего творчества дуэта не дотягивает, слишком много шероховатостей. 3,5, но снова карандашом 4. P.S. Альбомы длиной больше 2 часов нужно разрешить только Майклу Джире, остальные не вывозят.

Стадии когда человек с тиктоковым мозгом узнаёт, что ему нужно послушать двухчасовой альбом: отрицание, гнев, торг, депрессия, сижу качаю ногой пока группа ауткаст рифмует fallopian и Ethiopian. Слушайте, ну это оказалось не только вайбово , но ещё и сразу несколько треков были добавлены в избранное. Отдельно плюсик за интересные тексты, которые можно разобрать, но не понять с первого раза, так что есть повод переслушать ещё раз и представить как прекрасен был мир без мамбл-рэпа..

It's hard to give this anything lower than a 4 because it produced multiple iconic songs. I still wish this was a single record with only the greatest. That would have made this a 5 but it's still a really great record. Andre and Big Boi were both at the height of their creativity when this was made.

I like both of these. Obviously two different vibes, which is why it had to be broken up. But both halves of the album are good.

Like OutKast, own this. Too long for an album, but then it’s 2 albums ain’t it. It’s good 4 Star

My first ever musical ringtone came from this album!

I'm a little torn. Some iconic stuff. Some stuff that's not super great. Some stuff that was a really fun discovery because I never bothered to listen to the complete double album before. I guess if I'm not looking for something specific, this a fun, diverse ride. 3.5? I liked more of it than I didn't. Guess that's leaning into a 4.

The length of this combined project is way too much for one listen and would've benefited from being released as separate albums from Big Boi and Andre 3000. Individually they have their blemishes but these would've been two fantastic albums. Since I'm rating the combined album it's tough to justify a 5 but with the amount of variety packed in and the skillful production and lyricism I can't do less than a 4.

A Little to long… But childhood memories are hitting. Not a big HipHop girly.

A great album, but very long

A big album with big hits, a bit too long for my taste.

I like it a lot

Iconic

Two great albums for the price of one.

1/26/26: So fun, and deeper and more varied than I expected. 7.5/10

Two completely different projects in one package. Big Boi's half (Speakerboxxx) has both feet in the Outkast formula: strong beats, tongue twisting rhymes, and impeccable grooves. Andre 3000's half (The Love Below) is... wow. It's all over the place. Jazz, rap, pop, R&B, it is the Lost Prince album. Very few songs outwardly feature both Outkast members on the same track (if I recall, rumors of an impending split were pretty rampant just before release). I remember not really caring for Andre's album back in the day, while loving Big Boi's. That still mostly holds. I think Speakerboxxx is a masterpiece. The Love Below is more interesting sonically, but not as good... though it does have the two biggest hits (Hey Ya and Roses). I mean, it does have some great moments, but the lows are pretty rough. I was looking to see how many tracks were left at times... never a great sign. As it is honestly two albums by two artists, it's a bit unfair to give a single star rating. I give Speakerboxxx a 5... I give The Love Below a 3. So... 4?

I’ve liked OutKast’s radio hit but never listened to a full album. Loved this. I definitely appreciate OutKast’s weirdo experimentation and can see how this really set the stage for a lot of more recent hip hop albums.

This album or these albums? Basically two solo albums packaged together to meet label demands. Andre 3000’s The Love Below was such an ambitious release for a rapper at this time and spawned some truly mega hits, no matter how many times I hear Hey Ya it still makes me smile. Big Boi on the other hand shows us more of why OutKast were so hot at this time with more of their classic sound. This album holds a special place for me as it really was my gateway into discovering other kinds of music than just punk. Before this I would have called anything that wasn’t a shouty punk band lame. These days I probably prefer Speakerboxxx to The Love Below but both are fantastic. I would say they are better to listen to as individual pieces rather than one album. I would love to pick a song from each disk for my playlist but it feels like I’m flouting my own rules but it would have been Happy Valentines Day from the Love Below. Playlist track: Flip Flop Rock

eu gostei mas meio que 40 é demais. entendo o contexto mas

surpreendentemente bom.

Did this album get longer since it was released?!

It’s definitely best to treat this album as two completely separate albums with its over 2 hour run time. Granted it is still very incredibly massively long and kinda unlistenable repeatedly because of that. I will probably never listen to this album fully again in my life. Honestly so solid though, never was bored through the massive length which I can’t even say about countless albums at a quarter of the length of this album so that’s pretty impressive in its own right. Feeling generous today.

Had a good couple songs on it and overall not too bad to sit through for being 2 hrs

Fantastic bit of work. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I have done multiple times and I will do multiple times more.

Speakerboxx 1: GhettoMusick 2: Unhappy 3: Knowing The Love Below 1: Hey Ya! 2: Happy Valentine’s Day 3: Vibrate

I like hiphop

It feels like two completely different parties happening under one roof. The first room is a sweaty, bass-heavy jam session that I never want to leave. The second room is an art-school kid’s fever dream, full of eccentric storytelling and weird funky shit. I dig the quirkiness of the lyrics too. It does drag a bit; there’s too much filler here. But it's a brilliant, messy, two-sided experiment. Hey Ya! Spins: 1 Playlist Additions - The Way You Move - Hey Ya! - Roses - Take Off Your Cool

Speakerboxxx is doing most of the heavy lifting for this rating.

Speakerboxxxx … never heard of this but really enjoyed the album

ya pretty good

Never would've guessed it can be this good just from the cover

I saw how this was a double album, and over two hours, which immediately made me dread listening. But now at the end of this album I really enjoyed my time with it! It was so fun, some great tracks in there.

I never feel as millennial as when I sing along to Roses

Long album, but man has some great songs!

I love Outkast, but I had never listened to this entire double album before; I guess I thought the 2:15 length was too daunting. Obviously there are some of their classics on this album, but most of the songs were actually really great. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition between the two albums, but I give it a 4 just because I think I prefer some of their older songs and albums just a little more. But overall, I did enjoy this a lot.

I was only familiar with some of the singles from this album, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear the whole thing (even if it was loooong!). I definitely thought Bad Boi’s Speakerboxxx was the better half, but André 3000’s The Love Below had some good tracks on it (including Hey Ya! which is the best track in my opinion). Some of the interludes were weird comedy and a bit cringe, but overall you have to applaud their creativity, especially seeing as they never hit highs like this again.

This was amazing I enjoyed that there was a distinct sound between the two and I was surprised by how many songs i already knew. I also was obsessed with the features and I thought all of the interludes really added to the vibe.

Almost lost a point for being so long

Jøss, et gjensyn med OutKast ALLEREDE? Dette har jeg riktig nok aldri sjekket ut før. To soloalbum som ble slått sammen til en OutKast-utgivelse, hvor Bog Boi står for Speakerboxxx, og André 3000 er ansvarlig for The Love Below. Førstnevnte album er bunnsolid, tilnærmet perfekt hiphop i tradisjonell OutKast-stil, mens Andrés prosjekt er noe mer eksperimentelt og soul-orientert, med et par sanger med legende-status. Jeg foretrekker nok Speakerboxxx for sitt gjennomgående høye nivået, der hvor jeg opplever The Love Below som litt mindre engasjerende i enkelte øyeblikk, men begge artistene leverer skyhøyt nivå her. Top 3 Speakerboxxx: Bowtie, Flip Flop Rock, Unhappy The Love Below: Hey Ya, Roses, Spread

Speakerboxxx / The Love Below is OutKast at their most polished, most technically accomplished and, paradoxically, least inspired. It’s an album that succeeds on craft while quietly revealing the unraveling of the partnership that made OutKast essential in the first place. Earlier OutKast records thrived on tension. André 3000’s curiosity, abstraction, and vulnerability were counterbalanced by Big Boi’s discipline, grounding, and rhythmic precision. Their voices didn’t just coexist, they edited, challenged, and sharpened each other. That dynamic is almost entirely absent here. Instead, the album feels less like a dialogue and more like two parallel monologues bound together by contract and branding. The double-album format makes this separation explicit. Speakerboxxx is confident, professional, and impeccably executed. Big Boi doing exactly what he does best. The Love Below is raw, exploratory, and emotionally exposed, capturing André in a state of searching and creative restlessness. Both halves are competent, occasionally compelling, but rarely transcendent. What’s missing is the shared sense of purpose that once made OutKast feel like they were building something larger than themselves. There’s an undeniable sadness to the record. Not because it’s bad, it isn’t, but because it sounds like closure rather than discovery. The album feels like a compromise: a way to fulfill expectations without forcing a collaboration that no longer existed. The singles are separated, the visions are divergent, and the connective tissue that once defined OutKast has quietly dissolved. In that sense, Speakerboxxx / The Love Below functions less as a grand finale and more as a sad bookend. It documents the moment when OutKast stopped being a unified creative force and became two gifted artists moving in different directions. Impressive, interesting, and historically significant, but as a whole, it lacks the urgency, cohesion, and magic that made their earlier work timeless. If Stankonia was the last true OutKast album, this is the paperwork that followed.

Bangers on bangers. A surprisingly long album, full of great music. It's eclectic because it shows a lot of push and pull between Andrew 3000 and Big Boi's musical aesthetics

Impossible not to get pulled in to this oversized helping of a good time.

A towering, fraught classic longer than some feature films. That happens when you make two solo albums share a “get along” shirt. It is really good and would perhaps be excellent if it was, say, 40 minutes shorter - maybe normal double album length. But you can hear what makes OutKast great as individuals. ‘Stankonia’ is better for hearing what made them great as a duo.

LOOOONG ASS ALBUM. Some bangers some eh. The second half is more my style. I can def hear the influence this had on Childish Gambino.

While this might not be something I reach for again, I can acknowledge that it is a rare great double album.

Sure it's a little bloated and some of it feels dated (particularly in Big Boi's half), but Outkast can do no wrong.

As albums that presage a legendary group’s dissolution go, it’s a banger — but it’s also a lot to digest. I own this, yet I’m not sure I’ve ever played both CDs back to back. Speakerboxx is thumping, funky hip hop (I had forgotten about Killer Mike’s cameos) that carries OutKast into the new millennium, but it’s The Love Below that is most impressive in its kaleidoscopic and horny mix of psychedelic funk, soul, folk and jazz-tinged jungle (“My Favorite Things”). Given the sheer amount of material here, this double album would have benefited from some editing (some of the skits/interludes, for starters), and I don’t love the misogyny that concludes the track “Roses.” But man, these guys were talented, and I’d sure like to hear more from them than that weird new-age flute music Andre 3000 recorded a few years back. 4.5.

This is so great! I loved this album when I bought the CD in high school and I still think it’s awesome. Definitely too long though I just skimmed through the lyrics of the interludes rather than listen to them and i skipped all the radio-popular songs I’ve heard a thousand times before (Hey Ya, Roses, ILTWYM etc). Speakerboxxx is my favourite of the two and both are so creative and fun and really interesting and easy to listen to.

Lots of fun listening to this, didn’t find any new tracks but I should really go back to it.

who doesn’t love OutKast? i have listened to a lot of these songs, just never the entire album. andre and big boi sound great together, plus a lot of great features.

Speakerboxxx: excellent bops all the way through 5/5 The Love Below: uneven quality, Hey Ya is the high point 3/5 Average between the two albums: 4/5

i liked it. the second half was way better, andre 3000 is a pretty cool guy. I liked when he prayed to god (who is a woman). favourite song is probably hey ya cause i’m basic but i’ll just have to listen again to get a better favorite.

Loved the different vibes on the first half vs the second! The horns, the layers, the production all blew me away & I felt like dancing. It was a littttttle long, but thoroughly enjoyed.

This is a very fun album to listen to. It is also VERY long. It plays like a tale of two halves with Speakerboxxx being a very hip-hop orientated record, and The Love Below blending hip-hop with influences from jazz, soul and R&B. TLB gets a little bit samey by the end but it never stops being enjoyable.

Wow, that was a lot of music. I found it hard to rate this album since it's basically two solo albums. I really enjoyed Speakerboxxx. All the songs were bangers. If the album was just Speakerboxxx I'd give it a 5. I didn't like The Love Below as much. It was ok, and I didn't mind the jazz-experimental aspect of it, but I thought it was a little self indulgent and drawn out. I'd give it a 3. Therefore I'll split the difference and give the whole double album a 4.

Realistically, at 2+ hours too sprawling to get a 5, although made a good shot at it! Arguably more a two album package rather than a traditional.double - the 2nd half at times gloriously takes the baton from Prince, and runs with it. Wasn't really a bit fan of Hey Ya and other singles back in the day - which somehow stalled my digging into them in my hip hop dive. Had them next at bat when this project hit, so was waiting for one of their albums to pop up. It didint disappoint..eclectic, irreverent, innovative and a great alternative to the coastal stuff.

So fresh and so clean. Speakerboxx hardly ever lets up. Love below is much more experimental. 2 hours+ but flew by.

This is a fun album! Definitely adding it to my rotation. I like the varying styles of music and the humor. The beats make me dance in my living room.

It's.....long. I mean, I get it it's a double album. But damn! 2 hours 14 minutes! However the good thing is that it's a fantastic double record. They could've released it as solo albums or pared it down to a single disc and frankly either way we would have gotten a full, cohesive project. But then you'd need to cut out something. You'd be missing a lot. Honestly you'd be missing too much. You need the whole thing. Did these guys know that they were making an all timer? Was this just another project? How easily do these songs pour out of these musicians? There's just a lot going on. I'm a few dozen into my 1K1 Albums project and outside of a couple punk discs and my one Dylan album, this is one of the first ones that truly belong in the list.

Speakerboxxx - 5 star The Love Below - 3 star 4 star overall

One of my faves by them

Some exceptional stuff on here, Outkast really are unique, but it didn't need to be this long.

Just do 2 albums ffs

Great double album!

As I fired up the album generator today I actually said out loud to the Universe maybe no Hip Hop today (I've had a lot this last two weeks). Then this popped up with over two hours run time. So as I begin I am saying out loud to the Universe that I hope Margot Robbie does not knock on my door today ! 🤔 As for the album. It's bloated, indulgent, over produced, has some bangers, some mingers and everything in between. It was actually a pretty fun two hours overall... oh, who's that at the door ?...

I hadn’t listened to the whole thing before; I was worried that it would be a lot of unremarkable rap music, outside of the singles I already knew. But this was a really weird interesting listen throughout. Very long, but I think it had enough ideas to actually warrant being this long.

Is it excessive? Yes. But what else can you say about a double album that produced a couple of the biggest hits of the 21st century? I can only ask, are you a Speakerboxxx guy, or a Love Below guy?

For hip hop it's very creative. Every song has a different vibe. It's fun to listen to. Favorite song: Bowtie

Outkast album in theory, in practice it's half Big Boi solo half André solo. It's also a tale of 2 albums (makes sense) with the first half being your typical southern hip hop shit whereas the second half is more neo-soul/r&b with a bit of rap. It starts off pretty good - a lot of bangers on the first disk with some banging beats and great features - The Way You Move, Rooster, Church, Flip Flop Rock... but there is also a bit of filler, I feel like some songs sound like leftovers from their first album but not as effective. The 2nd half is really where it's at, André is a genius and you can tell it. He's obviously an incredible rapper, but also an amazing singer. Everyone knows Hey Ya and Roses and for a good reason, for pop songs they're pretty much as perfect as it gets, but there is so much more to it. Happy Valentine's Day is one of my fav Outkast songs, so much joy, so slick and catchy. Prototype and Love Hater are these jazzy soul ballads, kinda proto-Thundercat and sound soo smooth. His approach to all the genres he is making feels so genuine and down to earth that it's hard to believe he is primarily a rapper. The second disk also seems to have sort of a concept of finding love and I think he executes it in a really profound way. In many ways this album is also about self love and self acceptance, which I think is very important. It also ends with a bang, the outro track has one of the most menacing hip hop beats ever and showcases André's storytelling masterclass. One aspect of this album which I don't think is talked about enough is its influence, not only because it sold so well but many of the soul and pop crossover songs influenced more melodic, r&b infused hip hop. And that's years before artists like Kanye, Cudi or Drake did the same. I would give the first disk a 7/10 and the second one a strong 8/10, so all in all it averages out to 4 stars.

It takes a lot of ambition to make a double-album, and even more talent to actually make it listenable. They’ve managed to pull this one off.

Hell yeah! Really does feel like two different albums. Standout track: My Favourite Things

The first half of Speakerboxxx is perfect but it gets pretty wobbly after the Bamboo interlude. The Love Below has moments of greatness throughout. There would be a killer five star album here if you culled some weaker tracks and put them together but the dual halves are interesting as well.

OutKast took a big leap releasing this style of album after Stankonia. But it delivered and spent a long time at the top of the charts (best selling hip-hop album of all time). When it came out I liked Speakerboxxx more that The Love Below because I wanted more rap which is what Big Boi delivered. Now, I would say one of my favorite albums is The Love Below - but you can't mention one without the other. I like TLB more now because of how unexpected it is: lyrics about Dracula, prototypes, jazz piano/drum. I loved hearing the organs, horns, and other instruments throughout a hip-hop album.

I love this album...it takes you here there and everywhere but somehow works so well together. I like that while they are a team they each took and album and made their own vocals and own talents shine. You can listen to this as one big experience or break it into two separate albums. Big Boi has good rhymes and is just simple, easy going and yet gets to the point in ways you can feel. Then Andre is just so over the top and sneaky funny. I am not sure which I like better because they both have their own high points, on a mellow day Speakerboxxx is where it is at, but on a high happy day I can't help but rock out to The Love Below.

I had my ears into other things when this came out so I never listend to OutKast before. I liked this better than their other album we had. The Way You Move is soooo groovy. Love that song. Overall I liked SpeakerBoxxx better than The Love Below but both have some great stuff on them. My Favorite Things is a great jazz piece.

I bought this album on vinyl in Las Vegas when it came out because it was trendy. I liked Speakerboxxx more than The Love Below at that time but I think I feel the opposite now. Andre is trying to be Prince and his freak flag is flying high, but it holds up, whereas Big Boi is just being himself with solid hip hop that is good but never mind blowing. It offers a pretty great glimpse into what energy and style each of them bring to OutKast. This is one of the rare double albums that can and absolutely should be listened to as separate albums, much like Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. Ultimately the entire package is just ok. Each part of this is too long to sit through just to move on to another hour plus of it, despite good songs popping up often enough. Vinyl really is the best way to consume this. There’s enough good stuff packed on one side of each record and just enough of a dose of OutKast at a time to stay interested before it becomes too much. 3.5 stars

This is such an interesting double album. OutKast is this unique duo, and I love that they split up to showcase who they each are musically and to give a sense of their individual contributions to the greater whole. That’s my interpretation of what they’re doing here anyway. I’ve always really enjoyed OutKast. I have specific memories of when this came out, and listening to it in my car a whole bunch. I definitely gravitated towards Speakerboxx over The Love Below back then, and listening again now, that still tracks. Big Boi just brings the beats that make me groove more. Andre’s lyrics crack me up, and I appreciate his unseriousness while still making great music, but his part of the album teeters on being a little too self indulgent and unedited at times. But c’mon, Hey Ya and Roses both came out of that, so I can’t complain too much. And I really enjoy his storytelling. And God is a lady, so yay for that. This is really too long and is missing enough truly awesome tracks to be a 5. But there's still a lot of great stuff here!

quite long but theres a lot of great songs and will be listening to outkast a lot more from now on

Very surprisingly good

I remember when Hey Ya! dropped. It wasn't just a big single, it was a cultural phenomenon. It was completely unique and seemed to come out of nowhere. Everyone was shaking Polaroids, asking people to lend them some sugar, declaring themselves as neighbours. I was fully swept up in it. I absolutely loved it. I'd play it at parties, quote it constantly, and I even created a medley on guitar that started with Hotel Yorba and would segue into an acoustic version of Hey Ya! It was the ultimate crowd pleaser ("crowd" being the 2-5 people actually listening to me play). But underneath all the pure joy of the song, is something really dark. Hey Ya! is one of the most upbeat songs ever written about how love isn't permanent. André literally tells us what he's doing, and we somehow don't notice, maybe because we don't want to - I guess that was his point: "Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance". It's a brutally honest confession about love falling apart, people staying together for the wrong reasons, and how we avoid confronting hard truths. Hiding the message in the lyrics of a song that was so catchy and energetic, and playing on the trope of romance and love in pop music, is genius, and living through that hype while slowly realising what the song was really saying felt like André pulled off the ultimate magic trick. That track set the tone for The Love Below, André 3000's half of the double album: a psychedelic, jazzy, funky, 70s-soaked, musical-theatre fever dream where he leans fully into eccentricity. It barely resembles hip hop at all. It's lush with Prince-like falsetto, spoken-word interludes, theatrical storytelling, jazz melodies, and basslines full of stank. And it's FILTHY! It was bold, strange, theatrical, and completely unexpected for an Outkast album. Back when the album came out, I used to skip Speakerboxxx and go straight to André's side. Big Boi's half felt like the "other one", and I was there for André. But, Speakerboxxx is a really strong album too. It's dense, funky, and full of intricate, complex and layered melodies. Big Boi pulls in Funkadelic-style textures, and interesting samples and blends them perfectly with hip-hop. It's more in line with the classic Outkast sound, sure, but it's still complex and great. It never stood a chance, when sitting next to André's horny cosmic jazz opera. It was always going to be overshadowed. It was a really strange move to release separate albums in a double, and it was another angle of something unique and interesting that they were doing creatively. For me, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below will always be tied to that moment when Hey Ya! was everywhere, blaring from radios, at parties, on TV, while quietly saying something heartbreaking that most of us didn’t notice. We just wanted to shake polaroid pictures and borrow sugar.

Really liked the album when it came out. It holds up well. I preferred the Love Below disc back then. Speakerboxxx has grown on me.

8.5 / 10

Too looong... It's all okay, but if you're going to release a huge joint opus like this you need more standout tracks than there are here, it's more enjoyable background beats than bangers, particularly The Love Below (aside from the hits). I liked more on Speakerboxx, that's an easy 4 stars. Bowtie, the Way You Move, the Rooster, both Killer Mike's tracks and Last Call were the main standouts for me. The Love Below has Hey Ya and Roses but other than that, mostly meh. A lot of filler and kinda juvenile in its humour (I know that's a bit rich since my last review was Frank Zappa, but I don't mind when he does it 😂). So probably only 2-3 stars for that one... but since they come as a package deal I'll say 4 stars, but the 4th is for Killer Mike

Is the the worst Outkast album? Maybe? Theoretically? But I'm not even entirely sure it matters. "Is this an Outkast album at all?" may be a better question. And the answer is actually "not really". This is famously a Big Boi album, and an André 3000 album running back to back. The albums were even going to be sold separately, until The Label (TM) decided against it. Speakerboxxx is Big Boi's contribution, and it's more or less what people wanted from him. It's about an hour of funk and R&B inflected Southern Hip-Hop. His personality shows all over these tracks. He talks about the things he finds important: like fatherhood, social injustice, religion, and philosophy. And the features on Speakerboxxx are all artists that Big Boi clearly finds important (including Ludacris and a young Killer Mike, both amazing here). In short, he's in his element. The creative control Big Boi had over Speakerboxxx manifested as an album with a laser focus, and an impressive level of consistency. André 3000's The Love Below stands in stark contrast. Firstly, it was very much *not* what people wanted from him, but it might have been what they needed: after-all, we got one of the best pop songs of the 2000's out of it. It isn't really a rap album at all: he breaks free from the genre's confines and experiments with writing rock, pop, R&B, psych, and jazz. Despite the eclectic pile of styles here, André 3000 does manage to pull it together in a pretty cohesive way. I think the lyrical focus helps out a little: he stays rigidly on the topic of relationships here. The start of relationships, the end of them, the highs, the lows: André covers this topic from just about any lens you could ask for. But he definitely does have a vision here and everything *does* slot in musically too. It just gets a little messy in the process. In The Love Below's 80 minutes, André 3000 finds room for generational hit Hey Ya!: which is also one of the most interesting realizations of the themes at play here. The core song here is one of the best in the history of pop music, and the lyrics are about two individuals who are deeply unhappy in their relationship who can't bring themselves to break things off because of their fear of loneliness and social judgement. And I've always read the incredibly upbeat sound of the track as a confrontation of peoples' tendencies to try to dance through it and ignore their own pain. It's honestly really sad at its core, and I think it's part of what gives Hey Ya! really compelling staying power. On songs like Hey Ya! and some other favorites, I think The Love Below hits higher highs than Speakerboxxx, but it's way messier. Andre's half runs for 80 minutes, and it's effectively genre soup, it's gonna be a little messy. And while, the lyrics usually work really well, sometimes his sense of humor just doesn't work for me. Like I don't really like the chorus of Roses because of the lyrics: although it is a good song overall. I think the single thing most emblematic of The Love Below as a whole may be the fucking insane cover of My Favorite Things. It comes out of no-where, and damn near disrupts the flow of the project. But against all odds, it manages to be a standout. And this is a song combining improv jazz with breakbeat, which happens to be a cover of My Favorite Things. It's The Love Below at the furthest reaches of its indulgent brilliance. The worst thing I can say about the whole package is that it's extremely clear that this exists due to a kind of creative meltdown, and that, consequently, the two halves do not end up creating something that feels like an OutKast album at all. Although, I have kind of learned to love it on its own terms. Considering just how much music is here: the amount of it that is really impressive from both artists is pretty astounding. And this is a pretty great addition to modern music, even if it's kind of got a weird asterisk in Outkast's discography.

Genuinely so much more enjoyable than I was expecting.

Its ok

It’s like I’m back in jr high

Ah, memories of 2003! Haven't listened to this album all the way through in over 10 years, maybe over 15? Always preferred Andre's disc and today was no different, but both were refreshing today.

It's a classic, it's pretty varied, a little long

This was the second album I ever bought. I had to really turn the volume down on Last Call to make sure my parents couldn't overhear the lyrics. Overall it falls into all the usual double album pitfalls, bloated and too long. But this is a weird one. Its a Big Boi album and an Andre 3000 album, and a perfect showcase of why the pair need each other. The Speakerboxx side has some bangers, some great rapping, but also a lot of generic 2000s rap and some completely pointless skits. The Love Below is beautiful at times, and has 2 of the best pop songs of the 21st century on it, but also has some definite misses. I actually really love the jazzy breakbeat instrumental cover of My Favorite Things. I think maybe Speakerboxx is a 3.5 and The Love Below a 4, but together they feel like less than the sum of the parts. This isn't one of those cases where you can combine the two and make a really great album out of it though, the sides and songs are just too different. Fave Tracks: GhettoMusick, Bowtie, The Way You Move, The Rooster, Knowing, Reset, Last Call, Happy Valentine's Day, Prototype, Hey Ya!, Roses, Love In War, She's Alive, My Favorite Things, A Life In The Day of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete) 3.6/5

Couple of bangers spread across a double album. Ballsy to release a double able with distinctly different styles on each. Feeling generous. 4/5.

A surprisingly entertaining album given the length. The super diverse blend of funk, rap hip hop and pop actually kept my interest throughout the whole album. I think it was a very bold choice for them to release a double album, split cleanly down the middle to feature each artists half of the material , but the concept somehow worked. All the music is still related and feels cohesive but you did get somewhat refreshed transitioning from one album to the next, trying to detect different influences and changes in style. Some tracks suffered from some of the painful and sometimes cringy cliches of this genre that left it feeling a bit dated at times.

(80/100) --- (75/86)

It was evident that the band had a lot of fun making this eclectic sound. Highs and lows abound but it is worth a listen to from time to time.

i think this is two albums in one and i think the second ones better

Speakerboxxx: Decent lyrics for some of the songs. More melodic would be better. "Bowtie" has some decent rhythm and flow. The love below: "Hey Ya!" is really good of course! Lifts the score by a whole point by itself. "Roses" is almost as good and adds another half a point. 4,2/5

High school fun

This is a great split for these two talented artists. Both albums bring much storytelling and energy.

this was originally meant to be two solo albums, andre3000’s half is better

This is what I wish most Hip Hop was like honestly. It's adventurous, engaging, sonically varied. Really a lot of fun to listen to. I have to take off a star because it is _so_ long. About two hours and ten minutes. Discipline is an important part of artistry guys. Some editing would have done the world of good.

This blew my mind when it came out. The departure of Big Boi and Andre 3000 as they (well, Andre 3000…) started going in different directions. This was certainly an album of my younger years.

Imponerande

OutKast gave us an album who's concept is as sly as their word play. "It's not a double album, it's an album double." There's over 2 hours of material here worthy of a track-by-track summation and dissection, but I'm gonna keep it brief. For most of my OutKast fandom, I've been Camp Three Stacks. Absolutely nothing against Big Boi, Dre just had the playful lunacy, like a Bugs Bunny of hip hop. Yet within the last few years, I've shifted, my interests gravitating towards Big Boi's bars. Before this listen, I would have said I prefered The Love Below. Instead, I preferred Speakerboxxx. Maybe Big Boi really has been the secret sauce behind OutKast's success. This isn't really an either/or situation, since you're buying both albums; they're grouped together on your streaming service. And yet, comparison is impossible to resist, since the album is a demarcation of each performer's instincts and interests. Andre 3000's The Love Below gets the most airtime. It's the critical darling. It's weird, it's comical, it's sincere, and it's musically eclectic: lounge jazz numbers, pop rap, electronica, R&B, neosoul, spoken word pieces, all interspersed with inventive skits. It's very cool, it highlights 3000's creative individualism, and it's overlong and indulgent. It has more lows than Speakerboxxx, which are only emphasized by listening to both albums back-to-back. Andre pushes his vocals into ranges he just can't meet, especially on "She's Alive", a strange ode to his mother as a single parent. Andre's songs are thematically consistent, to the point that it's a little humdrum. I read a review that said "Andre 3000 made The Love Below to get laid". Perfect summation. And there's nothing wrong with that. Andre 3000 is clearly channeling Prince throughout the album, it's soaked in the music's DNA, but Prince wrote about so many other subjects while also writing about wanting/getting pussy. When one of the few songs on The Love Below that's NOT about falling in love (or wanting to fuck) is about the singer's mother, no matter how saccharine or sincere it is, it's hard not to make an intellectual Oedipal connection. But I'm not a Love Hater, this is still a great album. When comparing Singles, I have to give it to The Love Below's two hits, "Hey Ya!" and "Roses". The latter may have been the most popular song throughout my middle school and early high school life. "Hey Ya!" is still huge, especially when you're in the club and the DJ is trying to throw a bone to all the white girls. Despite "Hey Ya!"s oversaturation, listening to it in context of the album shows how much of an injection of energy it is, and sitting with it shows off it's less thought about qualities, like the squiggly warbly synth sound throughout the song. And the music video is still cool. HOWEVER, "The Way You Move" (feat. Sleepy Brown) is one of the definitive songs of the 00's, and at this point I'd rather hear that in any context before either "Hey Ya!" and "Roses". Speakerboxxx is incredible, but not without it's sins. The Bamboo interlude is cute, but does it need to be 2 minutes long? Does the album really need that many interludes at all? While The Love Below is musically eclectic, Speakerboxxx is lyrically and thematically eclectic. Not to say the Speakerboxxx's music is predictable. It zigzags all over the place. "GhettoMusick" launches with an electronica feel with heavy synths, then 45 seconds shifts into an electric organ. 1 min 15 seconds, you shift to a chill downtempo section with a longing soul singer crooning and various voices singing "Feeling Good, Feelin' Great". A strange tangent for 45 seconds? Nope, it's something like a 2nd chorus, or a repeated bridge. It's awesome and strange. Meanwhile, lyrically the song is something of an anthem, for partying, for celebrating music, for celebrating OutKast. This is followed by "Unhappy", my favorite song on the album, which talks about stoicism, creative productivity and a pursuit of happiness in dire situations, while also sharing seemingly autobiographical stories about Big Boi's parents disentegrating relationship due to stress and money troubles. The next song, "Bowtie" is full of imagery of decadence and wealth, set to a horn-led big band funk sound; the irony of juxtaposing this with "Unhappy" is not lost to me. The album bounces around these ideas--"The Way You Move" being a sexual dance song followed by "The Rooster" a song about being a single father, a song literally about "War" to a call to respond to existentialist (and literal) worries by going to "Church". If The Love Below is Andre 3000 chasing Prince's lineage, then Speakerboxxx is Big Boi chasing Parlaiment/Funkadelic's lineage. Anyway, neither album is perfect, and when combined the flaws are emphasized. And yet you get two of the best albums of the 2000's for one price, so who's bitching?

I preferred the first half (speakerbox) to the 2nd half. Some great tunes but also some filler let it down.

Absolutely incredible album. This albums covers a wide range of styles and genres, along with a handful of massive hits. Really, really good.

nobody does it like this anymore

Genre: Pop Rap / Neo-Soul Truly an instance where a double album is two completely separate musical ventures, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a shining musical statement. Half southern hip hop, half clean, crisp, neo-soul, OutKast truly lays out all their chops possible on this self-indulgent, full-fledged party from start to finish. Big Boi’s half is nowhere near as strong as Andre 3000’s, but both serve their part in the grander scheme. Really solid tracks up and down the tracklist, albeit a bit cluttered and overlong. 4/5

Let’s be honest here, I like OutKast but they have 4 better albums than this. It’s not bad, in fact I enjoy the majority of it. Big Boi’s speakerboxxx is the better of the two solo albums but it’s Andre 3000 who has the bigger song cause if you don’t know OutKast from Ms. Jackson you sure as hell know them from Hey Ya. I’d probably give this 7 out of 10 so I’ll round up to a 4 out of 5 but I do think this is OutKast’s weakest LP…. Idlewild doesn’t count. Also truly a double LP with this essentially two solo albums but it’s tooooooooooo long.

It's hard to listen to this and not divide it up in to two albums, and even both of them agree that it is a double album consisting of two bodies of work. I've always liked Speakerboxxx a lot more than Then Love Below, just to get that out of the way. Speakerboxxx is a product of its era in terms of lyrical content, nothing really groundbreaking but Big Boi is a good rapper so it doesnt' really matter anyway. His flow is unique to him, with aggressive stops mid sentence and coming in on off beats. The beats are mostly great, with the notable exception of the Bamboo beat used in a couple tracks/interludes that's too primitive for the content. The features are all complementary, with my favorite ones being on "Reset"; I've been listening to that song for ages and it's still good. There isn't a ton of innovation on here beyond the fact that the Outkast style is already innovative. I would say that the big singles, "GhettoMusick", "The Way You Move", have the most interesting beats, breakdowns and raps even. My favorites are the aforementioned "Reset" and "Bust". The Love Below marks the beginning of Andre 3000 going from traditional if different rapper to the weird phenomenon he is today. The piano and acoustic guitars in a bunch of the tracks gives out that crossover appeal that made him really stand out by himself as an artist. I can't say I'm a huge fan; it's definitely a unique style but I'm not enough of an R&B or love song guy to want to listen to it often. I get they're not strictly love songs but the whole sub-album is about that. "Roses" is the most Outkast song on the whole album though I know Andre is on a few of the tracks on Speakerboxxx. If I never hear "Hey Ya" again it'll be too soon, though it was a banger for a long time. I had forgotten about the drum and bass style version of My Favorite Things - what a weird but cool track. Anyway! This is a good double; there is plenty of material and it's cool that we see a duo split themselves up and take over half an album. I like that they address the fact that they're still Outkast in various places on both discs and that they're still doing it the way they always have. They knew the critics and press would be all over the fact that it's two separate albums. Overall I'd like this more if it was cut down to about an hour and a half instead of more than two hours (most of which would be cut from the second disc), but I dont' regret listening to the whole thing. It's fun, and it was a nice nostalgia hit.

First hip-hop album I ever listened to in its entirety. I enjoyed it. I found the first one far more interesting than the second, but I liked both.

it’s a double album that stretches to 2 hours 14 minutes. you definitely feel it once you reach the last quarter. i think that’s partly due to the first album being tighter and honestly better overall. they do some cool things in the second one but they get more experimental and sometimes it doesn’t last as much as the first album that had great song after great song. still a very, very good listen though. it was funny to have Hey Ya! thrown in there just because it’s so well known and i didn’t recognize most of the other stuff. my favorite things was a crazy shout. overall will definitely listen to Speakerboxxx again but maybe not The Love Below

Less a double album and more two very separate LPs. Speakerboxx is a top quality hip hop lp, only limoted by its somewhat reduced sonic palette. The Love Below, on the other hand, is a beautiful, textured combination of jazzy sounds, but outside of three tracks (Hey Ya, Prototype and Roses) it's all a bit meandering and doesnt really grab me. Neither album is short, either. A perfect example of "would have made an incredible single album". Very low 4, because the highs are fantastic, but far between.

So much! Need to relisten

Álbum bem variado musicalmente. Me surpreendeu positivamente. QoA Adonis New.

4. first time not disliking this genre

Brilliant album with two equally enjoyable sides emphasising different styles and themes. Outkast's brand of progressive/southern Hip-Hop has always stood out to me as someone who tends to get bored with most Hip-Hop and its preoccupation with violence, beefs between rappers and repetitive looped samples. This album instead has beautiful instrumentation and immense variety from song to song. The music itself is streets ahead of what is typical of the genre and it interspersed with interludes that flesh out the story being told. Immensely relistenable and much deeper than the hits that got all the airplay. Top Track = Last Call, Ghettomusick & Hey Ya.

These guys are so creative, damn!

Not their best but there is so much here. One has to wonder if they could have just reconciled their differences and collaborate this could have been a truly classic album.

Really great and I'm really one for hip-hop/rap most of the time. A lot of diverse sounds with all the features in here.

Not my favourite OutKast (that's probably Stankonia), but still, a great stuff.

Damn! Always thought this was a good double album. I was wrong. It is a phenomenal double album. Always thought I preferred The Love Below. Now I am not sure... Speakerboxxx is so much fun! Just a great listen with fire grooves and great tunes.

8/10

7/10 Favourite: Hey Ya Least Favourite: Last Call

Another long album. I wrote this one back in August 2024. Here you go: Of all the double albums I’ve listened to, this one easily has the most disparity between the two sides of them all. Of course, the explanation for this is quite simple. Speakerboxxx and The Love Below are two separate albums. Outkast’s two members, Big Boi and André 3000, originally wanted to make solo albums, but their label advised them to make a new Outkast album. So, because these are effectively two albums, I will review them separately. First up is Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx, a more traditional hip-hop album in the vein of Outkast’s works before this. Honestly, I really like it. It’s a very consistent record. The writing is fun and the sound is even more fun. Big Boi’s rapping is thoroughly entertaining. Despite the fun, there’s still important things to be said here. For example, the back-to-back songs “War” and “Church” tackle politics and religion respectively. And yet somehow the balance between these and songs like “The Way You Move” just works! This one’s great. High 4/5. Now André 3000’s The Love Below is a bit more mixed in my opinion. This one shows André's desire to move beyond hip-hop and utilize influences from genres like jazz, pop, and soul. It’s also a bit of a concept album about love. I really like the ideas of this album, but I think the execution could’ve been a bit better. It’s still good though, don’t get me wrong. There are some amazing songs on here. Obviously, the highlight is Outkast’s most popular song, “Hey Ya!” That song is amazing. I do find it weird that it’s their most popular song, but it deserves the praise. Songs like “Prototype” and “Roses” are quite good as well. However, it goes on for a bit too long and kind of gets weak near the end. I just didn’t feel as passionate about it. I highly respect it and I sincerely hope that André is able to explore more musical styles throughout his career. However, I do like Speakerboxxx a bit more. I’d probably give The Love Below a high 3 or a low 4. Overall, as a combined package, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is pretty bloated and all over the place, but it’s a fun album that actually makes the disparity in sides work somehow. 4/5.

Interesting album, and a cool concept. The two visions blend super well, I might like the first part a little better, more cohesive, but also, Hey Ya is a smash if I ever heard one and with this double album it has a lot of diversity of sounds and that is picking my interest. It is however not a five, it is too long, and it is really weighed down by all of the interludes that reaaaally feel like filler tracks to keep the structures. Some are fun, but not all of them, and there are definetly one too many. That being said, it is powerful, smart, and a good listen.

So versatile, this album is going all kinds of places

Outcast was super popular at this time and this was a great album. They were getting tons of radio play everywhere, kind of a crossover hit. It's good stuff and I really enjoyed it back then and still like it. Not the kind of thing I would listen to all the time but still exceptional vocally and musically.

Above all else, I am a Big Boi defender. I think if there's one benefit to this split LP style, it's that Big Boi really gets to stretch his legs and flex his creative muscles even if his impulses are less eccentric. Big Boi might have my favorite deep cuts on the whole album; I hear "GhettoMusick" and I am immediately energized every time, and I love the way the horns on "The Rooster" tickle my brain. Speakerboxxx is just so much fun and really hints at what he'll do later with stone cold classics like "Shutterbugg". Meanwhile, of course Andre goes for Prince and lands in his own idiosyncratic universe that's always way jazzier than I remember it being (see: the cover of "My Favorite Things" I kind of love?). I always think I'll be put off by the longer excursions like "Prototype" and "Vibrate" but the former remains another of my favorite OutKast songs and the latter has a fantastic hook. It's hard not to be shadowed by the fact that humankind's global anthem "Hey Ya!", the most played song possibly ever, is on it, but you know what? I still think "Hey Ya!" is great. Both sides suffer from bloat, the fact that the two sides are so different from one another remains melancholy in a way few works match (the closest parallel I can think of is watching the White Stripes' Under Great White Northern Lights documentary), but all told I remain above all else impressed that this works at all.

Didn't know most of these songs going in. Had no idea this album was a double of solo albums. I've never listened to Big Boi's side, and it's catchy as hell. 5* Andre 3000's side was less good, but had a couple of bangers. Self-indulgent like many have said. Opposite of what I expected to like more going into this album. 3* I will never understand rap/hiphop interludes, -0.5* A rare case where I didn't mind this being 2hr+ long. 4* (rounded up from 3.5) Highlights: hey ya, roses, church, ghettomusick

Speakerboxxx 5/5, The Love Below 3/5. Exquisite production on the whole thing. I was surprised I didn't like The Love Below more, but the hits still hit.

really good

Classic. Although not my favorite OutKast still a generational album

Great album, but pretty long

Speakerboxx is a bunch of bangers. Love Below kinda hit or miss but Hey Ya/Roses back to back is classic and I appreciate that the halves are so different stylistically

Super, idealne zeby na imprezie lecialo w tle

02/10/2025 Apart from being so long, it was relatively enjoyable. Spotify listeners: 22.8 million

4.1 Super ambitious but maybe a bit too much to take in on one listen. Whenever I hear Hey Ya I get flashbacks to 2005 of the college bar in fairview (twisters) and pimps and hoes night.

Fuckin hell yeah this is gooooood shit. Speakerboxxx I think I liked more than the love below but they're both good. Special shout out to Church, Flip Flop Rock, and Reset.

93/1001 :: Outkast - Speakerboxxx / The Love Below Heard before? ✅ Would I revisit? ❌ Rating: 7.5 Listen before you die: Yes I’m sorry Miss Jackson but while there’s some real gems on here I’m not sure I’ll ever listen to this (whole) 2 hour and 15 minute sprawler again. Been a while since I listened to Outkast’s swan song. It’s an important album because it truly shows where 2 visionary rappers can take the genre. That said, if I’m picking sides I enjoy Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx slightly over Andre 3000s The Love Below. I especially love the Killer Mike features. The first time I ever heard Killer Mike was Stankonia but this was a strong reintroduction. The Love Below does have some bangers though. Obviously Hey Ya but also She’s Alive and Take Off Your Cool. Overall an important album but it could use a nip and a tuck.

Not my favorite OutKast album but great songs on this one.

This album kind of meanders. Otherwise, the highs are exceptionally high!

This double album needs a double review. Speakerboxxx Sick mix of slick lyrics and silky flow. Filthy beats. 4.4 outta 5 The Love Below Electric and eccentric sound. Andres flow just goes crazy, he's definitely a top 5 spitter all time. That being said I think both albums were a little too long and could have the fat trimmed. 4.4 outta 5

Speakerboxxx > The Love Below, but both are really great

I think I prefer speakerboxx over the love below but there are definitely some nostalgia hits on the latter.

Damn this album kinda long... ...what do you mean disc 1?!

I love so many songs on this: rubbery bass, horns, guitar funk, Prince and Parliament and so much more. But this is one where maybe a single disc would do. Culled and leaner, it would be nonstop classics.

It brings rap and pop into the new century, looking backward and forward. I did eventually yield to exhaustion: just too much goodness.

This is definitely longer than it needs to be, and at the two thirds mark, I was ready to give it a three on that basis. But it continued to win me over, and I think somewhere around Dracula's Wedding I tipped me over into four. Big Boi half good, Andre 3000 half better. (And I loved the version of My Favorite Things)

One of the first and only rap CDs I ever owned. As a kid I only listened to the hits, a lot of this sounded vaguely familiar but mostly new to me. Speakerboxxx is incredible from front to back and in my opinion superior of the two. The Love Below is a bit bloated but so out there you have to respect it, along with two of the biggest hits of the 2000s right in the middle, and "A Life in the Day of Benjamin Andre" is a masterpiece.

Incredible album. Some all time hits. I wanted to like it a little more than I actually did upon relistening, but it’s obviously amazing.

Fundamentales y este, tal vez Skantonia sea mejor o al menos más sencillo de escuchar, su obra maestra. Ajenos a esa absurda guerra entre el rap de la coste oeste y el de la este, desde Atlanta sentaron cátedra. Me gusta más The love below, pero no quita para que Speakerboxxx sea de enorme calidad con auténticas gemas como la inicial GhettoMusick, Unhappy (que resuena a los inigualables Arrested Development),Bowtie (hola Janelle...) o ese pepinazo que fue The Way You Move. Lo de André en The love below es de otro nivel. ¿Qué son la titular, God o Love hater sino música de otro planeta? Happy Valentine's Day es más Clinton que Prince, que también (al igual que She Lives In My Lap). Spread otra marcianada, como Prototype o la genial Prototype. Hey ya es uno de los mejores temas de este siglo, Roses sigue esa línea, y otra de mnis favoritas es Take Off Your Cool.

7.5/10

Oon aina tykänny tän levyn ideasta missä eka levy Big Boin soundia ja toka sitten Andren. Lahjakkaita ja monipuolisia. Itse henkilökohtaisesti nautin ekasta levystä enemmän. Kokonaisuutena ihan liian pitkä. Ja omasta mielestä rakenne, missä olisi joka toinen Andreta ja joka toinen Big Boita olisi toiminut paremmin. Tällöin olisi pysynyt mielenkiinto yllä helpommin. Törkeen kovia raitoja silti. Kokonaosuutena 3,5, mutta luikautetaan neloseen koska tää vei mut yläasteajoille, kun kaverin huoneessa kuunneltiin Outkastia ja photoshoppailtiin.

Nautin! Oli tosi monipuolinen levy (pitkä tosin, mutta kerrankin ei haitannut) ja muutamaa isoa hittiä lukuunottamatta en ollu juuri kuullu näitä biisejä. Erityisesti ilahduin sound of music- coverista lopussa lol. Monenlaista sisältöä ja yllätyksiä. En osaa teknisesti sanoa mitään, mutta oli todella miellyttävä kokemus

OutKast’s 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘹𝘹𝘹/𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 is the rare double album where each half feels like its own world. Big Boi’s 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘹𝘹𝘹 is a tight, funky hip-hop record that could stand proudly on its own, while André 3000’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 pushes into pop, funk, and jazz with sheer brilliance. Together, they delivered two massive singles — 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘺 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘦 and the unstoppable 𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘠𝘢!, a song so iconic it practically defined the decade. At over two hours, it runs long, but it remains one of the boldest and most creative albums of its era.

Such a classic listen. I love it.

You have to admire the scope of an album like this. Looking at how it came about, you also kind of have to hand it to whatever record label executive convinced Outkast to release these two albums under a single project. Though not everything on offer here works, there’s something here for everyone. I greatly enjoyed myself despite the gargantuan length. Flip Flop Rock was an awesome discovery for me that I’ll be revisiting a lot. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not my personal favorite Outkast album (I personally prefer ATLiens or Aquemini) but their catalogue is just so solid and timeless that if you were to rank them worst to best, even the quote unquote "weakest" Outkast albums are still head and shoulders above a lot of other artist's work. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is still so wild, experimental, creative, and entertaining and is just another notch in the belt of one of the greatest discographies in the genre from the best duo Hip Hop has ever seen

Got it already.

I guess this is two albums two artists released as one? 7/10 for Speakerboxxx and Hey Ya off of The Love Below. Didn't much care for the rest

Who else makes hip hop like this? Nobody! It's just Outkast. I'm sure some people who are balls deep in underground hip hop will read that and start shouting the names of a dozen rappers who've pushed the boundaries of their medium, blended a wide range of genres, and created real art. Listen nerds, I'm not talking about some dude who made one mixtape in 1997 then jumped in front of a train and wasn't discovered until suburban teens started sharing his shit on Kazaa several years later. I mean mainstream, world-renowned hip hop artists who have taken the medium to a higher plane, then went number one twice over, went DIAMOND, and won a Grammy doing it. It's just Outkast. This album has so much to take in and think about, so many interesting ideas, so many weird left turns, so many unique soundscapes, so many....fucking...songs.... It's a little long, guys. The level of quality is pretty consistently remarkable, but it's definitely still a little bloated. Like, I don't need skits, man. No skits. Stop it with those. This thing is supposedly an album a piece for either member (cool idea, by the way) but it's really a double album each in terms of length. That's god damn crazy! I enjoyed it a whole lot, but I can't give it the 5 knowing how many times I looked at the list of songs I had left and went "god DAMN!"

They’re both underrated as rappers. And the production is great. If this was edited down to a single album I’d give it a 5. As a double (really two separate albums) it’s a solid 4. Hey Ya will continue making wedding reception dance floors pop off for the years to come, but if that’s all you know of OutKast you’re missing out.

I've enjoyed OutKast since 1998. I remember hearing "Rosa Parks" and just being blown away. Still one of the greatest hip hop songs ever in my opinion. I then went backwards and heard ATLiens, which became an all-time favorite of mine and probably what I think is their best album. When Speakerboxx/Love Below came out, the hype was unreal. But I remember it not grabbing me like other OutKast albums did. As a teenager I didn't think much of it. But looking back, and especially relistening with a critical ear, it's very clear tl;dr: like most double albums, it's too bloated and would have been much better had they taken the best of both albums. Now, I understand the reasoning between the double album concept and that they were essentially two creative visions brought together to improve sales rather than risk both artists releasing solo albums to potentially mixed interest, BUT I think Big Boi and Andre 3000 are at their best when they're working together. Speakerboxx feels more like an OutKast album but missing that Andre weirdness. Most of the best tracks do feature him anyway. I think despite this, Love Below is actually the better album. It's undeniably more creative, more full of risks, and more unique and feels like it's own thing. Not to mention it has what's probably the most popular OutKast song ever, and one we'll probably hear at every wedding for at least fifty years, "Hey Ya!" All in all, it was an enjoyable listen, which is saying a lot for something I had to put two hours into (it helps that I skipped the skits), but this totally didn't need to be a double album from two distinct artists. In a way, I think I was ultimately disappointed with this when it first released because it was supposed to be OutKast's final album and it isn't *quite* an OutKast album and it feels a little like we got robbed by what it could have been. Still, skip the slop and stick around for the bangers and I think you'll ultimately end up appreciating this one.

I love this album! I am familiar with it and I either owned it when I was younger or one of my friends did.

Two whole amazing albums in one

An album with two completely different artistic directions that only seem to intersect when it came their funk sound. Speakerboxxx was way more cohesive than the love below. The love below was a bit more artistic, poetic even. Between the two, I found Speakerboxxx more enjoyable. But overall, a good album.

Love the Speakerboxx tracks with brass instruments. Especially Bowtie, which I could listen to on repeat for ages. I’d give Speakerboxx a 5 if I could, and The Love Below would get a 3.5. The Love Below has a couple great songs (Dracula’s Wedding!) but a lot of it was too experimentally jazzy for me.

My parents in 2002 (probably): Oh wow a double Outkast album? Sweet! Me, 23 years later: UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH The Love Below is a 5 and Speakerboxx is a 2

Beautiful southern blues

This is a great album.