Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Speakerboxxx: Semi chill helt ookoo tre stjärnor Love below: ganska cracked 4 stjärnor

Båda skivorna är typ en halv timme för långa var, men blir aldrig dåliga eller något sämre än trevliga (bortsett all my favorite things remix). Feelar the Love Below e kinda underrated bortsett den ena låten... Når definitivt större höjder (o e imo mer consistent) än speakerboxx. Det finns definitivt sämre album man kan använda två timmar på!

Plane from Birmingham to Belfast. Really enjoyed the first half of the album. Second half dragged. Andre 3000 is incredible though

Andre's half of the album is really great - will definitely listen again - light 4 stars for the second half

The first album in this series, 'Speakerboxxx' is the stronger of the two. It is more unified in its funk influence but does wade into industrial hip hop in a way that reminded me of Death Grips. Andre 3000's 'The Love Below' is more experimental and covers more personal topics. It takes a lot of jazz influence and infuses that with psychedelia to create something that feels a bit more thoughtful but uneven. The largest drawback of this series is its length of over two hours. However, this is some of the most groundbreaking hip hop I've ever heard and it's hard to think of what I would personally cut. Overall, Speakerboxxx may be the strongest, but there's something about the imperfect The Love Below that I really enjoyed.

Mezcla de hip-hop, funk, soul... Un megahit. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

Really fun and imaginative. I would say the Speakerboxx half was stronger because it was a little more complete and wholly enjoyable, but the whole album was a testament to how strong longer albums can be and the scope of this thing is stunning. A great record.

Enjoyed

Now i understand that key and Peele skit 4

Too much filler on Andre’s side. Love below has the biggest singles, but speakerboxxx is the stronger album for sure.

can't believe its 20 years old - sounds fresh. And undoubtedly an epic but too long. 4

It's great. Outkast are phenomenal in terms of their energy and cohesive sound, as well as just being incredibly fun. The fact that this goes as hard as it does, for as long as it does, is outrageous

Too long for a 5

Album divertente. Ho apprezzato gran parte dei brani nonstante non sia un ammante dell'hip-hop.

first listen little long for my taste, but ultimately good and a lot of different stuff

What a day, wake up bleh, but beautiful day. Walk to national cathedral via Bagel etc (good deal but small?), read in sun and shade. Walk back, nap warm, bok choi stir fry (average), drink, other swann, bike, rave on mall, slide on lincoln, back and talk a bit, bed

Love the composition of this album. Andre knows how to make the albums have feeling and entertain

Following the success of their previous album, it was only natural for Outkast to release a …. Double solo album? Of course! This is a really ambitious project. I honestly enjoyed this listen. I can’t choose which disc I like more. Speakerboxxx is more of a hard southern rap vibe while The Love Below is more smooth and a bit more experimental. Bangers all throughout. There are a few songs I could do without, but overall it was an enjoyable listen.

I didnt understand the hype around outkast, but this made me get it

Some solid bangers in here.

Well, forty tracks are a lot to process, and I wish I had had more time to spend with them today. However, as it was, I quite loved the funkiness of this music. "The Way You Move" and "Hey Ya!" are both classic favorites of mine. There are some delightful rhymes (Fallopian and Ethiopian comes to mind) and a few WTF moments as well. I really would like to go back and be able to spend more time with this. Today's score will just have to be as a work in progress.

Since this is our 400th album, I'll accept an album of epic length without (too much) complaint. I definitely enjoyed Speakerboxxx more than The Love Below but both contained some excellent tracks. Loved GhettoMusick, Bowtie, Church, and Knowing from Disc 1; and Behold a Lady (whatever tf that means), with its literal "clap-clap"s, and the jazz version of My Favorite Things played at break-neck speed from Disc 2. I don't know if I'll ever listen to all 2 hours and 15 minutes again but a playlist with the aforementioned favorites might make me very very happy.

I thoroughly love Outkast. This is the second album 1001Gen has given me and it's fantastic. Speakerboxxx is definitely the stronger side of the two and is probably a 5/5 with some absolute bangers on The Love Below. I wish I could give this album or Stankonia which I've reviewed a 5/5 but they both fall short for me.

Lots to like here, but both sides of the album are a bit bloated. 4/5

So, it's long. Super ambitious. Some amazing singles here. Overall I think it could've been a bit better with a little trimming, but it's still damn good. Certainly never boring!

The first CD is really a rap album, the second one more pop. Both were really nice !

About time I come across the 'Kast and what an album to listen to! A confirmation of their peak as well as the beginning of the end, these two solo albums rolled into one album is Outkast flexing the biggest flex they can and flaunting capabilities either anticipated or unexpected. One may like Speakerboxxx more than they like The Love Below and vice versa but what is certain is that this is Outkast at their most culturally powerful and they chose the perfect moment to bow out. Speakerboxxx: full listen. The Love Below: Love Hater, Happy Valentine's Day, Spread, Prototype, She Lives in My Lap, Hey Ya!, Roses, Behold a Lady, Love in War, My Favorite Things, Vibrate, A Life in the Day of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete).

I liked some of the songs off of Speakerboxxx, but I didn't think much of it. Not that it was bad, just not my thing. I probably would have given Speakerboxxx a three by itself. However, I really liked The Love Below. The interludes in The Love Below usually made me laugh and we're enjoyable to listen to. My favourite songs were My Favorite Things, Prototype, and She Lives In My Lap.

Hey Ya! wasn't even my favourite track, surprisingly

Too long, too good

While intimately familiar with Outkast and many of these songs, I had never listened to the 2hr+ double album before. I could have done without a lot of the interludes, but there is just so much gold on the album.

great double album, has some cool bangers (ignore hey ya) me: likey favs: roses and spread (ha)

En excluant les Beastie Boys et Cypress Hill que je mets dans une catégorie à part, avec Gorillaz, c'est probablement l'album qui m'a tranquillement permis de faire un pas de plus vers le Hip Hop que j'ai longtemps détesté. C'est l'album le plus connu et probablement le plus vendu du groupe grâce à Hey Ya!. Le concept de présenter un album double où il s'agit en fait de deux albums avec deux ambiances différentes est intéressant. Par contre, ça aurait pu être condensé ou sortie en deux album séparés parce que c'est très long (mais ça aurait probablement donné l'impression d'une séparation du groupe). La production est superbe. Plusieurs idées sont très intéressantes. J'ai longtemps préféré The Love Below à Speakerboxx, mais j'ai bien aimé mon écoute de Speakerboxxx. Un beau succès des années 2000. Une étoile de plus pour l'ambition du projet.

4.5

Great album, piss a bit long

Truly a timeless and diverse album.

favorites: unhappy, bowtie, the way you move, church, reset, last call, spread prototype, she lives in my lap, draculas wedding, take off your cool

andre is fire

Enjoyed it more than I was expecting, especially the Love Below section Interesting mix of hip-hop, jazz, electronica, a bit of classical

Listened to it all. Ambitious undertaking with many perfect moments.

I listen to The Love Below cover to cover, a LOT. As far as I'm concerned it's 100% perfect. Speakerboxxx, mostly meh. So listening to this fresh was a nice reminder. 5+ stars for one, two for the other.

This was huge when I was in high school! Speakerboxx was such a great rap album and Love Below was an amazing alt rap album. It’s amazing that they created two side by sides. Being a double album it’s very long and not every song is a banger but this is still my have outkast album.

This double album shows the difference between andre and big boi. This song has plenty of hits and if it was a shorter album it’d probably be one of their bests. Since it’s a double album it is a bit lengthy. There are some skits that are lame and some songs aren’t that special. But overall it’s a pretty solid album. Big boi raps about Atlanta and fame and big time life. Andre is a bit more introspective and raps about his life and love. Partially why the duo couldn’t continue to make albums together. The jazz and southern influences are great throughout and big boi and Andre use them differently. The writing was on the wall and hey ya showed how much Andre didn’t care about making hits and could do it so easily. A really great album but a bit long. 8.2/10

Only heard the hits before and whilst a long album, I thoroughly enjoyed it

Some really great tracks on this, probably a bit long

So many memories set to this album.

Hip hop, funk, 2003. For the lovers of the genre this record is undoubtably one of the best albums of all time. Almost all the tracks are really interesting for both their sound and their lyrics. Maybe the small problem is that it's very demanding to listen the whole LP in one session, but to be honest it's made as a double album, so that's quite fine.

- Fun - Hypy

Deservedly a classic. Delivers both quantity and quality.

This album was an interesting listen. I remember when it came out it was compared negatively to Stankonia, which is fair because it's not as good as Stankonia, but this album still contains tons of high quality Outkast material. 4/5

Very interesting double album. Front half slaps, really nice backing beats. Back half is completely off the wall

An influential album with iconic songs. 4.2⭐

Speakerboxxx 5/5, surprisingly good album, I'm not a fun of this style of rap, but it was a real pleasure to listen to Big Boi. Nothing outstanding, just a very solid album from top to bottom. On the other hand, I was expecting a lot from Love Below. Hey Ya and Roses are great songs, that are still etched in people's mind 22 years later. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is, in my opinion, very average. I had to skip few songs, as they were a bit monotonous. There is a chance, that you have to be in a very good mood to enjoy it properly, but from my neutral perspective it was just a chore to go through the whole album. Two timeless songs and a looong bunch of noise. 3/5 Altogether, I would gladly enjoy another Speakerboxxx journey in the future, and for sure I was play on repeat two hits from Love Below, but the album as a whole is not even close entering my pantheon of best in history.

This record has been my queue for several years; When it popped up here, I became conscious of my worry about the length. Certainly Hey Ya was enough? I didn't have to sink two hours into the strangely split double album? Thankfully, that unease was incorrect. This holds up well and hurts my opinion of OutKast not a bit. The ordering is a bit unfortunate: Love Below has more interesting music overall but feels less cohesive and important an hour in.

Decent album. Some tracks were fantastic and some not so much.

Baš sam nekidan slušao raniji antaliens, i po mom mišljenju su outkast jedan od najboljih komercijalnih hip hop izvođača ikada. Uz missy sigurno najbolji crossover tog doba a tu me pilite s nekim dreakeovima. Ma hajte najte

So long! A lot of great stuff but quality control would have been appreciated. It's basically two solo albums from the two members, guess they couldn't work together any longer.

This is an eclectic record. 21st century 'White Album' perhaps? Certainly the two artists represented by the two 'CD' track listings felt they could do whatever they wanted no matter how crazy it was or what the other thought, I assume. Some catchy stuff and OK raps I suppose. I'll give it another listen but it runs over two hours already. I haven't got a favourite disc.

3/5 speakerboxxx is great but not excellent. 5/5 The love below is amazing. many interesting songs outside the normal hip hop style that serve as a breath of fresh air to speakerboxxx. some of the songs are a bit long though; as if they are an incomplete idea.

Mezcla de hip-hop, funk, soul... Un megahit. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

It's goooood stuff. Obviously very long but if you just think of it as two separate albums they are both excellent.

One of the few rap/hip-hop records that broke through into my indie-rock consciousness during the 2000s. This is a sprawling record that I owned and admittedly only listened to a couple times. "Hey Ya!" was obviously the hook. Even my dad covered that song in his acoustic trio. Wild times.

This album (these albums?) are loooooong. It took me three days to get through it. But - I love it. OutKast is like their own genre. It's rap, sure - but it's like everything wrapped into one (funk, gospel, crooner, broadway, rock). The production level and sheer number of people involved in this is impressive. Definitely a must-listen.

I'd heard quite a bit about Speakerboxxx/The Love Below before, from the hip-hop circles I've very tentatively dipped my toes into. A total split down the middle from Outkast's two members, the general cliché about it I've heard seems to be that Big Boi's disc (Speakerboxxx) is solid hip-hop but Andre 3000 blows him out of the water with the more ambitious, transcendent and genre-hopping "The Love Below". Having listened to both in their entirety a few times, I've surprised myself by siding with Big Boi here. His delivery is clear, focused and sharp and he never loses track of the melodic hearts of each of the songs. "GhettoMusick" sports a breathless killer chorus and some whiplash inducing tempo/style changes. "Bowtie"- maybe my favourite Speakerboxxx track- has such incredible, effortless swagger, "The Way You Move" deserves every inch of its classic status, and "The Rooster" ups the ante to some frantic energy. All of them are complimented by sensational live brass which makes the whole set come alive. "Speakerboxxx" isn't without its diversions. After an amazing first half devoid of any filler, "Tomb of the Boom" feels disappointingly unremarkable and brings the momentum right down, while "Flip Flop Rock" and "Reset" are fine but don't quite possess the same fervour as other cuts here. By comparison, "The Love Below" has taken me much longer to get on board with. I was somewhat disappointed that the peerless "Hey Ya!", the one EVERYONE knows, is not at all a fair representation of the rest of the disc. On balance, Andre 3000 aims for something much darker, denser and more sprawling. The hooks are not the end-goal here: there's about twenty minutes more material than Speakerboxxx and a lot of it takes the form of extended instrumentals (hello, drum n bass "My Favourite Things") or eccentric skits ("Good Day, Good Sir" and "Where are my Panties" are fun, but feel inconsequential). It's a shame, because the good songs here really are great. "Prototype" is a sun-soaked dreamy jam and "Happy Valentine's Day" justifies the litany of Prince comparisons thrown at Andre. "Take Off Your Cool", a refreshingly stripped back duet with Norah Jones, is the last hurrah. But in general, it confirms my feel that Outkast could have put out the album of the decade with a little more refinement and cooperation. Still, it's absolutely one of the best hip-hop albums I've heard on the list so far.

je viens de découvrir que j'aime trop André 3000 néanmoins 2h15 d'album c'est inhumain André

Great music, but enough for three albums...

What a gorgeous mess of an album this is. I first put it on while working and every once in a while something would catch my ear and I'd think WTF was that? (and not in a good way). Next step listening in the car...louder, less distracted and my WTFs became...Hmmm isn't that interesting? Then a listen on the big rig at home and I'm all in. Does anything boring or unintelligent ever come out of these guys talented minds. Reminds me of a Hip Hop Clash Sandanista. All kinds of influences that are filtered through Andre's fertile imagination. This guy is a music lover and he's brilliant. 4.5 stars

Great album. Seminal title in hip hop

A double album and all of it a delight. 8.5/10 Fave: Roses

Hard album to evaluate. It's broadly speaking very good, but it's massively overlong. Even if you view it as two albums that just got bundled together, each disc of this loses momentum and meanders. Outkast were one of the best hip-hop acts of the 2000s, but this album should have been shaved down and tightened up. Rap double albums rarely, if ever work. Also, if anyone didn't already know, The Love Below is the far superior of the two discs.

Good overall

Used to have a housemate that loved Outkast so I have some familiarity with this album... I think back in the day I preferred "The Love Below" (maybe just for the presence of the hit single?) but these days it seems a bit cringily misogynistic. This play through, definitely enjoyed "Speakerboxxx" more... Fave track - "Tomb of the Boom"

https://youtu.be/WrFJdfYTH9w

Wow this album was a big boi. I enjoyed the first half, great energy, and then the second half went so so hard at times, but also had a fair few bizarre and even boring moments. It might be a bit messy and obviously too long, but I've already forgotten everything but the bops, so Hey Ya might drag this one up to a 4

There is so much happening in this album(s) that you kind of walk away in a haze. Did I just get hot boxed? There were so many interludes that maybe this is a montage? Also, who isn't on this album? 'Jova, yep. Rosario Dawson? Yes, and why... cause why not. Huge radio hits? Yep. Random radio plays? Yep. What is this? It's stanky. Also, it's long. Real long.

heeeey yaaaa

Both discs start put strong. With bangers after bangers. Yet it losses steam after a while. In the latter half, it's pretty boring already. So, what happens when two of these get stacked in one H U G E album? It's quite an adventure, ngl. But maybe if they stripped down this 134 minute whopper of a double album, it would've been a solid 5/5 album. Still, it's a great album. I'll come back to most of its songs. But not on the whole album. Sorry Run the Jewels, but I think I have a new favorite hiphop duo now.

this album is clearly one of the masterpieces of hip hop. But, OMG, there is so much of it! Nearly 2.5 hours! Some (much, most) of this is really excellent, but there was opportunity for editing. One star off for exhaustion.

What "is* this album?? I'd never heard anything beyond the single "Hey Ya" so the first part of this was wholly unexpected. Often it sounds like an updated Parliament which *thumbs up* or a modern version of smooth 70s R&B; hints of Curtis Mayfield. It's...weird. mostly amazingly so. Then the second half hits and maybe I expected it to be less weird and something more traditional....nope. Piano flourishes, goofy lyrics almost with a Flight of the Conchords bent. Negative: too lonnnng. Over two hours for anything is a lot to digest. There are just a few definitively lousy songs (e.g. "Tomb of the Boom") which is a bummer - momentum is occasionally lost. I'm never a fan of little interludes or comic bits either. I know they serve as resets but they always take me out of the vibe and do again here. A bit of editing and shaving a few cuts off this would have made it solid gold. As it is tho, grading on the best material there's a lot of strange and great music here. I have to redigest this much more slowly. I was thinking a three star for a while and maybe is on a personal level but man did they make something different and odd and I feel like this could grow even more on me. 7/10 4 stars for massive ambition.

Some really good stuff on here, and I unironically still like Hey Ya and Roses. However, the full 2 hours is a lot.

If they had separated this into two seperate albums instead of a double album both could very well be on this list. It's just good in every genre it touches. And on the second album even though I knew it was there I was not expecting "Hey Ya!" to come in where it did. All in all a great album and just a fun listen.

HEY YA I LOVE THIS ALBUM! War has a really good middle section with the fade out and in to a different feeling. The song Church is very good, it has a great flow and drum beat.

Surprisingly I really enjoyed most of this album. It was upbeat and fun.

Speakerboxxx - 3 stars / The Love Below - 5 stars

Great listen especially Andre 3000's part! Almost a 5.

Great album

⭐⭐⭐⭐ While I've heard the hits before, it was cool to listen to this album front to back.

Very long and instrumentals were on point. Love how it told a story.

Really enjoyed it solid

Great album. I only knew a couple of songs from before. Very bold, provocative and groovy

Of course I've heard "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move", you can't avoid that song no matter what you try. Thankfully they are both pretty good. Haven't listened to any other tracks on here before, but overall not too bad. Definitely some cool production/mixing here, the concept album of each person with a side is kind of neat. It's not my preferred style of hip-hop but I can't fault it really.

actually full of bangers

already enjoying

A 3 probably. No this album is a 4 at least, and I 100% need more time to swallow this behemoth of an 'album'. It is 2 albums, so naturally I'd need one more day. At least, there is so much to unpack. There is too much good shit for one album, and it's too good to not give a 5. But it doesen't quite rival B.O.B. One of the best albums. Awesome collabs, especially "Take Off Your Cool". I did not expect to see Norah Jones here, but it is so good.

Outkast is great and I enjoy their music. The double album was an interesting choice given that the albums are so different. Both albums are good and have fantastic songs. However, if you listen to both discs back to back it is well over two hours.

This is a long album! It demands time from the listener with his over 2 hrs/ 40 songs. Luckily, are easy-to-listen songs; actually, I am loving some of them from the very first listen. I only knew the singles, but ignored some of the gems hidden in those two records. This is good work! I see why is here

4/5. A great one, but Long long long

A classic. Too bad they stopped making records.

Some great tunes from the two Andre's here. even the Intro to speakerboxxx is good. They were innovative in 2003 and they sound relevant nearly 20 years later. I like "Ghetto Music" and of course the classic "Hey Ya" don't have this in my collection but well worth it's place here in the list!

2 (well 3ish) Outkast albums in 3 days. If Aquemini is on this list (and you can certainly say that it should be) maybe I'll get it soon as well. Like Stankonia this album has some nostalgia me. There are some solid songs to be heard on both discs (let me pretend it's still 2003 when I was still a teenager, had hair, and hope for the future) The only downside is I never really go to these albums with regularity. I prefer Andre and Big Boi doing their thing together. Big Boi's more conventional album is a nice juxtaposition to Andre's more experimental project but it just doesn't feel quite right to me. This is a 3.5 for me but I'll give it a 4 because I'm sure a lot people gave it a low score without even listening to these albums.

Cut out the skits and some of the slower songs, 2 hours is too long, stout album tho

Long but good

Has great singles, but not a big fan of the intermissions. Not favourite outkast album.

Overly long but there's some true gems buried within

This is the second OutKast album we've had since starting the 1001 group... and it's a double album, 40 tracks, 2hr 15mins runtime, blimey! Not my usual taste of music, but listening along (with headphones) I kinda lost myself in it, good beats. Some of the skits and interludes were funny. I preferred Speakerboxxx over The Love Below.

better than I expected the single is really good but not really a bad track

Trots den utmattande längden gav fortfarande albumet en lyssnevärd upplevelse. Vanligtvis kan äldre rap fastna i en funktionell men upprepade struktur och förbli i en trygghetsram. Det vill säga med ett plant beat och kontinuerliga status-referenser kopplat till de manliga könsnormerna. Till exempel Ekonomisk framgång, makt och sexuell erfarenhet. Detta tyder albumet på till en viss del. Det exemplifierar manliga könsnormer men lyckas med en strukturell komplexitet och musikalisk originalitet. Trots längden höll albumet en instrumental variation vilket underlättade lyssnandet. Trots hur kvalitativ musiken är försvagas ändå albumet på grund av längden.

Quality hip hop

Too much of it but still great.

I mean, very different albums but both were awesome. Outkast is legit.

This is a long double album with 2 distinct sections. Since it is actually 2 albums in one, separately rated Speakerboxxx gets a 4 stars and The Love Below gets 3. 2RS

Extremely long; but brilliant anyway. I say this about a lot of double albums, but condense this into a single LP and you’ve got yourself an all time great!

This was a very interesting album. Once again, Rap is not usually my thing, but I liked this one.

2u15??? niet doen! Gelukkig zijn het er eigenlijk twee. En we love 3 stacks. De Topschijven zijn ook gewoon de topschijven (ooit allertijden): The way you move roses - crazy bitch hey ya

Speakerboxxx shits all over The Love Below but definitely a 4/5. Roses obviously the overall highlight.

its a good album eventhough its not really my taste, a mix of all kinds of genres with a couple hits inbetween too

Wow. So this was quite an endeavor to finish in 1 day but I got it done. I have to say I do prefer The Love Below more than Speakerboxxx, but in general they were both good. I will definitely be returning to outkast in the future

Double album so I feel like it makes more sense to rate these separately and then combine the scores - it's much too long to rate as one project. That being said, I love the double album concept and like how each is its own individual venture. Speakerboxxx: 5 This was phenomenal. Love the P-funk influence, features were great. Doesn't necessarily have the bigger hits of The Love Below but feels really complete. The Love Below: 3 Yeah this one lost me a bit. Middle is very strong with Hey Ya and Roses and I liked the concepts of the beginning but the end didn't really gel for me at all. Felt a little all over the place. Combined score: 4 Already Saved: Hey Ya! Saved After Listening: GhettoMusick, Bowtie, The Way You Move*, The Rooster, Bust, Flip Flop Rock, Last Call, She Lives in My Lap, Roses

Saved Prior: The Way You Move, Hey Ya!, Roses Off Rip: Unhappy, Bowtie, The Rooster, Bust, Church, Tomb of the Boom, Knowing, Spread, Reset, God (Interlude), She Lives in My Lap, Dracula's Wedding Cutting Edge: She's Alive Overall Notes: Cut like 20 minutes from this and it's an easy 5. It's a little bloated (particularly on André 3000's side) and I don't think it would've been that hard to trim the fat here to get it at least under 2 hours. That being said, there are a plethora of great songs on here and if that extra 20 minutes is the price I have to pay to get songs like Roses, Hey Ya!, Unhappy, and She Lives in My Life then I'll gladly pay it

Bijzonder goed album maar helaas niet mijn stijl

Not the most consistent OutKast album, but still full of masterful moments and singles. Both sides have their own atmosphere and both have a lot to offer!

wait, hang on. i like an outkast album? which way is up?? but srsly...yeah, this is was really good. he's got a far better flow than i'd expected from his one massive hit. super tight, and not being utterly misogynistic is a plus, too.

Like the album, really funky The album is really long 4/5

It’s a pretty solid trick to make this long of an album not feel overlong or padded out, and the two quite different elements complement each other better than would seem possible on paper

Feeling good, feeling great, how are you?

)

All time songs in this album like Roses and Hey ya, but too long and too many interludes to my taste to hear in one go.

I love this album. I prefer The Love Below over Speakerboxx to be honest. Hey ya, into Roses is just amazing. Such a Solid piece of Art. Andre 3000 and Big Boi are probably my favorite Duo.

Great album. Long (over 2 hours). Love both their voices.

Long, but enjoyable. A few bangers in there and very solid production and vocals

Essentially two individual albums by each member of Outkast. Sonically impressive, sprawling, probably too long and with too many interludes. Trim those and some of the fat ('My Favorite Things' instrumental I'm looking at you) and this would be close to the best hip-hop/rap/r'n'b/soul double album of this century. That title probably belongs to their previous album 'Stankonia'. As it stands however, 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' whilst not quite as vital or important as 'Stankonia', is still pretty fucking good.

love the cover art. im so in the mood for this after the 2342343 rock adjacent records ive listened to. TWO HOURS? idk if i can make that commitment rn, will try tomorrow lol. okay its tomorrow. intro already sounds way cooler than anything this website has had to be offer in almost 2 weeks. LOVE A CHANGE IN PACE MID SONG. okay i kinda got lost in it and forgot to write but ive been enjoying it sm, i love how they have a lot of ppl 'over' and theres soooo much variety in sound and topics and for once i dont mind interludes. buuuut lyrics some time made me go ewww so. last 10 or so songs werent that good. saved: tomb of the boom, reset, love hater.

Okay so this is actually surprisingly good. It has Hey Ya! which is just a great song! It is freaking long though!!

A sprawling, fantastic classic.

Nice

Zu HipHop hab ich ein gespaltenes Verhältnis. Hier gefällt mir, dass es häufig ziemlich grooved, Funkyness besitzt, abwechslungs- und ideenreich ist. Und dann meine ich noch wahrgenommen zu haben, dass man sich auch selbst nicht so 100%ig ernst nimmt. Daumen hoch!

Shake it like a polaroid picture! Bisschen 2000er-mäßig clean aber sind ein paar Hits drauf und zum Hula Hoop Training hats bestens funktioniert. 4 Sterne für die Partylaune!

when it's good, it's amazing. concept is brilliant, although i prefer Love Below to Speakerboxxx. my complaint is that even as a double album, it feels a little bloated. if they couldve trimmed it a bit--like 45 minutes each--i feel like itd be perfect.

7.25

Too many skits and interludes kept this from being a full 5 stars. Love this album. LOVE this album, but every time I listen I hit skip at least 7 times. That shouldn’t be the case.

Very good, very close to getting a 5.

Super good, a double album that's actually worth the two discs for once!

8/10. I’m impressed with how this kept me pretty engaged throughout the whole thing, and how well it holds up in 2021. The biggest issue I have with it is that it wasn’t super consistent, there were definitely weaker tracks here and there. Still a great album

Speakerboxxx is almost a 5/5...the love below is...not

4.2 - Epic. Speakerboxxx comes on hard and nasty. Bottom heavy sludgy beats. Notable cameos from Killer Mike and Jay Z. The Love Below starts off highly introspective and takes a much different and very interesting turn, exploring the concept of finding one's own true love. It's an epic journey, an undeniably varied and dense of body of work and the sheer volume of music here boggles the mind. Small aside - it's rare that I think the skits make a hip hop album. In this case, the skits provide the glue within the narrative, which makes listening this as an album that much more rewarding.

I’m not a hip-hop fan but there’s lots to like on this 2XCD. Creative, experimental with lots of funk, jazz and humour!

I think I'll rate these separately because they're so different. Speakerboxxx was a little boring tbh. I like the overall sound but it's a long time to spend listening to songs that are pretty samey and multiple interludes. Also kinda pissed that the album starts with an Intro but ends with a Postlude (why not intro/outro or prelude/postlude??). The Love Below was more up my alley, even though it was really long. A lot of the lyrics and interludes were dumb but I liked the music a lot more. 7 for Speakerboxx, 9 for Love Below, 8 overall I guess

It is just two solo albums but they're pretty good

4.3* bangers but also some bum

Back in 2003 I wouldn't have listened to this purposefully, even though I truly enjoyed its three main singles. Nowadays I'm better prepared to enjoy it, and enjoy it I did. Beautifully crafted album!

Some absolute bangerrrrs.

classic

Klassiker. Bra samples. Bra features. Andre3000 klockren, big boi likaså.

Speakerboxxx: pretty average. The Love Below: 5 star.

It’s probably too long but it’s great

mmm

The next one I have Speakerboxxx/The Love Below the double album from the southern rap group Outkast - released in 2003. I've listened to this in the past, and I recall it being difficult to make it through the whole thing. It's over two hours and I just started it. The first part is Speakerboxxx and the side known as the Big Boi side. I'm enjoying the energy and bounce on the Big Boi side, it's really helping me stay awake in the middle day on a random Tuesday. Having lived through the early 2000s I was very aware of this album, and the two hit songs were everywhere for a long time. Outkast was the biggest thing in the world at the time, funny how it was really the end - though I think hope someday they will re-unite. Enjoying this album today.

4 for Speakerboxx, 3 for The Love Below (would've been lower but damn, those singles!!). Way too long but I'll prob only listen to Speakerboxx in the future!

Outstanding!

I prefer the love below to speakerboxxx but it’s still amazing as a whole

Great. Great. Great.

Bell me piaciut, so fort gli Outkast

Has all of Outkast's greatest hits. Has almost a vaudevillian theme to it. May not be the best way to describe.

Great double album had it when it came out

A chef-d'œuvre from the coolest motherfuckers on the planet. I nearly gave it a 5 but “Hey Ya”, like a steaming turd in a freshly mown lawn, ruined an otherwise immaculate hip hop album.

Speakerboxx was better than The Love Below but overall this was funky and fresh and I loved the vibes. Would revisit.

Epic album. Outkast is stellar

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

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

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

Too long

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

Dnf. Whalevah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Undeniable highlights but VERY bloated

I can't believe I listened to two hours of babies babbling into mics and women thinking "where they panties are" just for Hey Ya! and Roses.

Some great tracks. Very eclectic. 2 guys with their own sounds coming together

Really disappointed with this as I thought it would be one I liked. Kept on waiting for Hey Ya but how to endure a lot of mediocre before we finally got there.

So given I didn’t know OutKast was two dudes and not one, let’s keep it simple. It was quite entertaining and Album 1 dude is much better than Album 2 dude. Plus add in standard grumbles about double albums being bloated. Nuff said.

This album hasn’t held up very well.

This was my second day in a row with an album over two hours long (Metallica live yesterday). Although I generally like Outkast I was not looking forward to this record of theirs, knowing it was a double album and knowing that their stuff is usually longer anyway. I was intrigued by the concept, having never listened to it but aware of the dynamic of the very separate records that were released. My biggest "concern" ahead of listening was that it was all going to be way too much. And indeed it was. In other reviews it seemed people really preferred Speakerboxxx, and going in I thought I'd feel the opposite. After listening, I got fatigued by both of their albums midway through. They're both very different and had some interesting bits, but they truly could have pared this down significantly and it'd have been far more entertaining. Instead it all just felt overindulgent. There was tons of talent here and the production was top notch, but I wanted each of their albums to just end long before they were done.

I honestly don't quite know how to rate this album, because they're essentially two different albums mashed into one. Outkast is basically a rap duo of Big Boi (who's responsible for the first disc, Southern hip-hop with a very strong blend of funk and soul) and André 3000 (who made the second disc, the genre of which is very difficult to describe – it's some kind of psychedelic soul-jazz-rap). It would have been logical if they'd each released a single album and been like that, but the label said, "Nah, either the public will buy a double Outkast album or they won't buy anything." The result is a black-and-white mash-up lasting almost two and a half hours. Are these good albums? They're okay; the first half sounds lively and rich. André overdid it in places on the second, but there are far more interesting discoveries, plus the band's main hit. But two hours was too much, it had to be cut.

3.4/5

I enjoyed the first half much more than the second half. The first half had a lot of really good songs. They were still surrounded by songs and interludes that I wasn’t interested in, but I thought the good far outweighed the bad. I thought some of the music in the second half was enjoyable, but the lyrics really put me off, and they were still surrounded by songs and interludes I didn't like. Hey Ya! is a lot of fun though. Fav song: Hey Ya! Least fav: Behold a Lady

Some absolutely goated songs on here but again with OutKast albums it is soo long and some of the other songs / skits are shit. I mean where are my panties what even is that. Also revealed a dislike I never knew I’d have to voice- that an album doesn’t have to say its title over and over again. I know which goddmamn album I’m listening to. Specific rating - 3.1 Fav song - hey ya! Least fav- love in war

I don't know why but before listening I assumed I'd like The Love Below a lot more than Speakerboxxx, I think it was mainly a name based judgement and because Hey Ya! is on The Love Below. And then I heard Unhappy- and immediately added it to my playlist. Speakerboxxx is probably one of the best (if not the best) hip-hop albums I've listened to while doing this project. I forgive all the other interludes because it means we got Bamboo- this is how you put your kid on an album, not the fucked up way Eminem did it. And in contrast I hated The Love Below so much more than I thought I would. I found the God Interlude funny (A-lady!) and Hey Ya! is such an incredible and iconic song. But there were so many songs I just didn't like: overly horny, (literally) shitty lyrics and musically underwhelming. I could happily have never listened to any of the non Hey Ya! tracks on The Love Below (fine, I liked Take Off Your Cool). Favourite song: Unhappy (It's probably actually Hey Ya! but out of protest I won't give it to a song from The Love Below!) Least: Prototype

very disco groovy but it didnt really move me

Man, I thought I liked this album more. I hadn't really listened to it much in recent years. There are moments when this is extraordinary; they're just way too few and far between for me.

"Speakerboxxx" is creative and interesting, but"The Love Below" is, at times, both puerile and self-absorbed. The instrumental cover of "My Favorite Things" is good, and "Hey Ya!" might be the best song on the album, but I could have done without the rest of the songs.

Too bloated

And that’s just because of André 3000, cause Speakerboxxx is shit.

This album is far too long and very mixed. There are tracks with a strong echoes of classic soul which work well. Even the rap (of which I'm not a fan) is well integrated at times. There are some strong female vocals and the instruments featured are wide ranging and add a lot of variety. Some excellent musicianship with lots of different production sounds. But just when I'm enjoying a track it is followed by something much less sophisticated and poor quality. 40 tracks of such varying quality marks this down for me, despite some good songs. Hey Ha is a great single.

unfortunately speakerboxxx brings this down. if it were just the love below it might be a solid 4. between the way you move, hey ya, and knowing are great. tomb of the boom is fun tho

No nyt oli levyllä pituutta, tupla albumi joista kumpikin levy oli tarkoitus julkaista erikseen. Siksi kumpikin puoli kuullostaa erilaiselta. Vaikea sanoa kumpi parempi, toki jälkimmäisellä on Hey Ya!. Ymmärrän miksi levy on niin pitkä, mutta hyviä kappaleita aika vähän. Tai omaan makuun sopivia. Mielenkiintoinen kuunneltava kummiskin ja kappaleet on massasta poikkeavia. Väliskitit hauskoja. Parhaat: Hey Ya!, My Favorite Things, The Way You Move

Hey Ya is such an anomaly across both of these albums. I think they did too much here. 3 singles, that I can recall from back in the day across 2 albums? Not great odds. I guess Hey Ya was so big it doesn't matter? Idk, I expected to enjoy more than I did for a 2+ hour long album 2.5 and only because of Hey Ya

Feels a lot like they're cheating by sneaking two albums into one listing, but overall I enjoyed it I think I preferred the the second album but it averages out with a three

Great tunes. Fun music.

the Singles are inconic. Listening back 23 years later, it's kind of not that great. It had it's moment.

This is good. But dropping a star for length. Way too long.

This one’s a tricky one to rate, because it is essentially 2 different albums packaged together. Speakerboxxx was definitely the stronger of the two in my opinion. Both had their high points, but this was way too long an experience. 3/5 I guess.

Not my cake again two raps in a row , this is a bit different though and unique kinda better

i actually quite enjoyed speakerboxxx and specifically "ghettomusick" and "church" for their synthy aspects. the love below is... creepy, weird, and made me uncomfortable to listen to; the only thing it has going for it is "hey ya," but i may just be saying that because that's the only track i was previously familiar with. this rating is purely for the combined qualities of both albums, speakerboxxx would probably get a 4 from me on its own

Very fun album. Andre 3000's distinct rapping was very enjoyable to hear. Lot of good songs to choose from but some standouts for me were The Rooster, Roses, Pink & Blue. The album length did catch me off guard at first and it does kinda feel like two albums wrapped together, but thats alright. 6.3/10

I didn't listen to everything, it's definitely unique but they only have 1-2 good songs. Not in my top though.

Speakerboxxx - 4/5 The Love Below - 2/5 Overall - 3/5

some really high highs, but just so darn long.

I was unsure of this until further into the first album. There are a good few very good songs. It's far too long though

I liked it, wayyyyy too long tho.

I have this and it is inventive and fun but it is too long. Even if you split the albums out it is too long. There is one great 40-45 minute album in here or maybe 3 more average 40-45 minute albums.

Obviously this album is way too long. I think that there is a solid 4/5 album here, but there is just wag too much filler and songs I don't care about. I really though I was going to enjoy Andre3000's half better, but besides Hey Ya, I don't think there was a single song I liked. Everything was just a skit, him talking, or a really boring ballad. Mid 3.

Has it's moments

Wild that Hey Ya basically represents this album for me — and it is wholly unrepresentative of the rest of the album

Damn. I always like this record when I hear it but I never go back and listen again. I guess that says something. I’m gonna try again later- wrong vibe for today

Wasn’t looking forward to over two hours of this. Anyway I split it in two sitting. Very listenable. Not being into hip hop so I’m no expert, it sort of lands between the de la soul vibe and the Jay z bullshit. I liked Speakerboxx more than The Love Below. Maybe cos I was getting tired of it ?

This doesn't hit me in the way some rap can. Nothing really caught my attention like a PE, Wu, Nas, Dre... album does.

too many bitches and hoes for me. some good tracks tho.

some songs were bops some were absolute trashy flops eh like a good ratio tho

Coon stuff

A double album. A gift or curse, depending on the quality of the music. It's Outkast, so André 3000's genius makes the quality pretty damn high most of the time. The production is ludicrously good and Outkast makes some amazing music. That's true for a majority of this double album, but only a small majority — call it 60%. That's how much of this is a good listen. A gaggle of 3, 4, and 5 star songs. The flip side of that is that this is more than two hours. That means you're getting roughly an hour of subpar music. And don't forget the obligatory transition pieces. I've said this about another Outkast album — transitory tracks between actual songs tend to be fun and break up an artist with minimal variety. But that really isn't needed with Outkast. The quality or fun of the transition tracks are eclipsed by the genuinely good and varied music that is here. They can definitely cut those outta here with minimal losses. On the whole, this is a good album, but it's a good reminder why double albums are such a risk. 20m of meh songs on a 60m album is a lot more forgivable than 40m of meh songs on an 120m album, despite it being the same proportion.

Several hit singles from this album, and when I think of Outkast my mind goes directly to “Hey Ya!”. The two albums recorded separately by the members of OutKast but released together was an interesting concept. However, the album’s length was a bit prohibitive in me having the time to fully immerse myself. For starters, I much preferred this album to Stankonia (previously reviewed as part of this journey) and came away with The Rooster as a standout from Disc 1. Outside of the hits, I also found I appreciated Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx more than Andre 3000’s The Love Below/Disc 2.

3 1/2 Stars: It's ambitious and and sounds great, but this double-album is in desperate need of an edit. And honestly, I don't know why they didn't just release it as to separate, individual albums instead of billing it as an 'OutKast' record. Neither side sounds anything alike with Speakerboxxx being the upbeat, melodic rap of late 90s/early 2000s, and The Love Below definitely goofier, tongue-in-cheek and more experimental. It's still a good listen albeit a little too long.

Bien, pero no me entusiasma. Me gustan las que ya me gustaban, el resto no me ha dejado marca.

I have to give big credit to versatility of this album but I almost hate this structure of sub minute "tracks". It makes me rather frustrated.

A prime example that an album can be overly stacked, even when the majority of the songs are at an excellent calibre. OutKast at their creative peak, consistent, incredibly produced tracks can still feel repetitive if there is over 2 hours worth of them. I feel good albums need a relative punch to them to enhance impact although the album divides itself, I’m Outkasted out by the first half. 6.5/10

Olvidable

Mind bending, occasionally thrilling, but ultimately too damn big. Doesn’t really make the case for the idea of releasing two solo albums together as one under a band label.

lo devo recuperare perché sembra interessante, per ora 3 politico

A game of two half's. Really enjoyed first lp would give it a 4. Second half is alright but don't know why this was a double lp.

Love OutKast and this album contributed to such a unique sound and trends in the 00s. Some fab songs but felt there could’ve been some fat trimmed from both discs to really elevate it

3.5. Lots of stuff that wasn’t for me but then some stuff that was amazing. Take of your cool (Norah jones) was a fave. Didn’t know Roses and Hey Ya came from these guys. All in all a very cool album.

I really respect what Outkast were trying to do here. It's clear they were bursting with ideas and I don't begrudge them for wanting to put them all out into the world. But there's definitely too much filler and too many half baked songs. It's really eclectic, and they're trying out a lot of different sounds, but they don't really sound committed to anything so it comes off a bit like dilettantism. It feels a little like a band rushing to fulfill their record contract. It's cliche to criticize a double album by saying the artists could have trimmed the excess and made a better single album, but I regret to admit that is exactly the case here. Who knows, though -- if someone forced them to cut this album down we may have never been granted Hey Ya, one of the greatest pop songs ever written.

You would never assume that the guys that wrote Hey Ya would have a deserved cultural significance in the music game

heyy yaaaa

Its good also 40 songs is absolute wild they are too fast and im not synced up also smashed phone on floor incase you forgot

i mean its got some pretty peak songs in it

need to finish

It's two separate albums. Speakerboxxx is great. The Love Below has a couple of singles and a bunch of crap.

Not for me, but good for what it is.

This is really two solo albums marketed as a double. Prefer disc 2 but average at best

Two hours is way too long, but classics on both discs

Speakerboxxx: 4/5. The Love Below: 3/5. Overall: 3.5/5. Originally meant to just be two solo albums from Big Boi and Andre 3000, their label encouraged them to package it as an OutKast album, leading to this over 2 hour long album who’s first disc is a Big Boi album and second disc is an Andre 3000 album. Big Boi’s speakerboxxx is much more rap focused, continuing on the trajectory the duo was following on their previous few albums. And it is mostly great, plenty of bangers like the hit “the way you move” or “the rooster.” Andre’s The Love Below is where things start to get weird. There is very little rapping, instead it’s a strange fusion of Funk, Soul, Jazz and pop that’s all about different perspectives on love. And it starts out really strong with “Love Hater” and continues on a good streak for the first 10 or so tracks, including the massive hit “Hey Ya!” Which is one of the best pop songs of its era. But then halfway through, the Love Below just really loses steam. The love below is Andre 3000 trying to experiment with new sounds as he was moving further and further away from rap, but not all of the experiments here succeed. On the whole, Speakerboxxx/the love below is very worth at least one full listen, Big Bois record is a high quality 2000’s hip hop album and Andre 3000’s is an interesting and adventurous, if inconsistent journey. But like most double albums, it doesn’t always stick the landing, leading to an OutKast album that’s quite a bit less consistent than an Aquemini or a Stankonia.

WAY TOO LONG. "Hey Ya" slaps, though. 7

Good album, the Speakerboxxx half runs circles around The Love Below. There's better Outkast albums, but I'm not mad about listening to this.

I lowkey enjoyed some of this, and why was my grade 5 violin piece in it. My Favourite Things remix was fire, 3/5. Favourite song: The Way You Move

The production on this is top-notch, which is what should be expected of OutKast. The songs are ok, with Big Boi focusing more on hip-hop and rap and Andre 3000 doing more varied forays into pop and jazzy r&b. I enjoyed Andre's "side" a lot better, honestly. The record is good, it's just not my wheelhouse.

So I did the math - this isn't a double album, it's more than a triple. 135 minutes (the length of this album) divided by 44 minutes (the length of 1 LP) = 3.068 LPs. Damn that's a lot of music! This album might offer the most bang for the buck on the entire list. That being said - Speakerboxxx (Disc 1) is pretty great hip hop. Each song has its own style - there's plenty of diversity and plenty of guest MCs, most of whom seem to be from the South. "GhettoMusick," "Bowtie," and "Flip Flop Rock" were the standouts. "Church" was so obnoxious I had to skip ahead. My only other complaint is the inclusion of so many time-wasting skits. Otherwise I'd say that's a 4 for Big Boi. Now coming into this, I thought I'd enjoy the Andre 3000 half of this record more than the Big Boi half but I was wrong. The Andre side should be cool. Very Princey, and funky, lots of falsetto. But it gets off to a weak start before it finds a groove, hits "Hey Ya," and "Roses," and then falls apart again. "Good Day, Good Sir," is incredibly embarrassing. But that's just a skit - not a big deal. The worst offender for me is "She's Alive," where Andre squeezes 1 minute of music into four. LIke - why. Dude. The album is already over two hours long. And don't get me started on the anxiety-attack that is "My Favorite Things." He clearly wants to blend jazz into his music, which is fine, but the only place it works is "Vibrate." On the other hand, "Hey Ya" is an all time banger. I appreciate the ambition, and I think Big Boi made a great record - but Andre 3000 really let the rest of us down with his side. It's underbaked, and yet overbaked. The worst baked. It's gotta be - THREE STARS

Insane that they were forced to put this out as an Outkast double album. The two albums are so very different from each other. It's not a band or a duo. It's just two guys that used to work together, working on their own albums, and forced to package them together. Weird. Andre's The Love Below is much better for me than Speakerboxx by Big Boi. Neither are perfect. far from it. And while both have some fun, enjoyable parts, I just like more of Andre's side and his collaborators. Speakerboxx has too many typical rap bits that are just average. Some dick-grabbing, I'm tough, and you bitches... His guests are meh. Ludicris - typical, and we get a cameo by one of the worst, somehow-popular rappers ever, Jay-Z. Yah, I get to dunk on that piece of garbage again! Hope he appears on some other album so I can dis him another time! I like most of it except for the interludes, skits and these three: The Rooster, Bust, Tomb of the Boom - weak, average, typical. For the Andre side, he could drop the interludes and talk-y bits too. They detract a lot. I love the jazzy bits and multi-instrumentation throughout. Sadly, it ends on a low note. Unsure why that weak rap bit is there. I'd give the Big Boi half a 2.5 and the Andre part a 3. But because they're a pretty influential group and were always willing to experiment a bit, I'm going to go ahead and round up. 3 stars

Too much filler

Loved the The Love Below. Not as big a fan of speakerboxxx

Bon album mais trop long. J’ai décroché sur le 2eme disque

Trèèèèèèès long donc ça le dessert, Le premier album est très bon et est un solide 4*, les feats passent bien, le flow est présent et l'album passe vite, j'étais donc confiant pour la suite (: Mais j'ai trouvé le deuxième album soporifique, je n'ai pas accroché du tout et j'avais hâte que ça s'arrête, j'ai juste apprécié les 3/4 derniers sons qui sortent un peu du reste de l'album Donc 3, mais avec un certain regret vu que le premier vaut vraiment le coup, et je l'aurais réécouté pour peut être mettre 5

Ok, but too long

Gesamt: 3,4 Speakerboxxx: 3,8 Highlights: Ghettomusick, The Way You Move The Love Below: 3,0 Highlights: Hey Ya, Roses

Great songs/releases push it to a 4, the lenght pulls it toward a 3 and then Andre’s weirdness brings it back up slightly to a 3.5, has to be one of the most ambitious hip hop releases ever

Too fuckin long and boring

Many bangers but at least as much filler via interludes and experiments that I am not necessarily down with. Surprised to enjoy Speakerboxxx more. "Spread" is one of the greatest beats I've ever heard but man oh man do I not enjoy that song. Highlights: "GhettoMusick", "Flip Flop Rock", "Last Call", "Hey Ya!", "Take Off Your Cool"

Very groovy, I have heard this album before, and I love the instrumentals. It is not my favourite OutKast album, though there are some amazing songs on the album. That said, and it could have just been the headspace I was in today, but the songs on this album do sometimes feel like there is too much going on at once and I prefer their calmer music, as it is easier to follow the lyrics.

I preferred the second disc more. It was easier for me to follow along with and I liked the love story going on.

There’s a 4 star OutKast album in there somewhere for me, most of it coming from Speakerboxxx. Too much shit I don’t care for or don’t care about. 3/5

First album really strong. Second album had fun conceptual moments but didn’t really come together.

I liked this one, but it was pretty long. The cover of my favorite things was very fun.

Definitely the longest album I’ve ever listened to!

Without a doubt their worst of the five albums, but I understand why it needs to be here. Honestly I would put every single one of their albums here but I'm biased. I think I prefer Speakerboxxx just because I don't think all the experiments on The Love Below succeed, but I really admire that Andre tried them all.

surprised

The Speakerboxx half i really did not enjoy, the Love below was far better but did honestly trail off towards the end

Soooooooooooooooo looooooooooooooong.

Clever rhymes and some catchy beats and melodies.

Speaker box 4 maybe 5 stars The love below. Honestly. Probably 2. Averages out at 3

Glad to finally listen to all of this. And it is very long. Too long. But there are moments. I've seen people say that you could cut this down and it would make a good 45 minute album, and I do agree. But, that would take away from what this was trying to be. But I dont know. Outkast was always best when you had the "normal" rapper Big Boi and the weirdo Andre 3000, but that also takes away from how weird Big Boi could be, and how hard A3K could go. I do think that they do themselves a bit of a disservice with the two record concept, but still, Big Boi made a pretty great rap album, and Andre made a really great Andre album. So, definitely some conflicting feelings. It was long though.

neither as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue, to different degrees (Speakerboxxx: 3 / The Love Below: 2)

Overall, it’s about as good as I expected it to be. I love Hey ya, and there were a couple other really good songs on here. Some examples are: Unhappy, Love Hater, Prototype, Love in War, and My Favorite Things. Nothing bad on here, but a few skips. At the end of the day, 40 songs is way too many, 3.8/5! (PS: Andre 3k got a bit too freaky like what was he thinking with some of these?)

I don’t think I will return to this album, but it was an interesting listen and I was impressed by the stylistic variety and adventurous spirit.

Classic but something about it wasn’t hitting for me as much as I anticipated

So as this is a double album I will divide my evaluation: Speakerboxxx The project of Big Boi is more rap oriented but there are some killer melodies that do improve the rhythm and the atmosphere of the album. The Way You Move is the highlight, as it is also a single, and the first half is stronger than the second half, as I struggled to listen to it intently. It is a strong album, but I also struggle to grasp what is magical about it. .. The Love Below The project of Andre 3000 got more mainstream and I remember how iconic Hey Ya! and Roses were to my generation, however, the album is lost in the weird narrative Andre is trying to convince the listener. So Speakerboxx is a better album but overall I will give it a 3/5, good project but way too long.

First half is good, great even. Second half spent all of it's cool points on two songs.

Interesting double album. Good, not great IMO.

Nope

intro- weird in a good but plastic way. the "speaker box" was way too...off? ghettomusick- a bit smiliar to Britney, but more upbeat. the drums are too much, way too frequent. it's like '90s cool music. it sounds like a closed mall. with few windows. robotic, but not enough. especially the bass and drums. unhappy- the harmonies are like sprite. smoothly flowing, but a bit poppy. the rap is effortlessly fire. bass is good. bowtie- smash music. almost like whatta man. those two songs are married. harmonies are fire, smooth, raps are on beat, good as hell. the way you move- a bit uncomfy topic (at least not degratory), but the music is really good. the back track is really good. smooth, flowing effortlessly, the bass is not taking up too much space, yet it has a good structure. it's not as boring as the ones before this. the rooster- the intro of it is sooo good. the guitar is funky. it's a bit too manly? like cocky. too cocky. the rap is on spot. it flows, it's smooth. but it scratches nothing in my brain. the rooster sound in the back is annoying bust- the intro is hell nah. don't talk. it's not spooky, it's annoying. the mouth sounds are way too no. nah. way too manly and cocky, it sounds like a muscly guy flexing his big car while having a sloppy dick. war- the melody of the into is a bit basic yet it scratches my brain. it's a bit off key. the rap is cool. overall: horny man music and some really harsh truth

What an absolutely wild ride. TBH, I skimmed through a lot of them because I am trying to catch up and I know this album would take a lot to listen to and I feel like I got the jist. All of the collaborations? and Norah Jones at the end?? What a wild ride. I feel like for a lot of these albums, I would need to be in the right headspace and also grow up in the time and listen to the albums with friends to get the full experience. Not just blandly listen to them in my office with the blasted overhead lighting. But it was still alright.

Wow, didn’t expect two hours of hip hop today. Listened to this in fragments throughout the day. It went *everywhere*. I had to check periodically that it hadn’t gone onto radio mode due to the end of the album. Certainly wasn’t a lack of ideas on the part of these two. Still, it wasn’t particularly coherent, and beyond the songs I recognized it was a bit meh. 5/10 Decent

Speakerboxxx was fun and well produced and just clipped along, great highway-driving music. The Love Below .... was uneven. Hey Ya was everywhere for like a solid year of college ... but Roses I never want to hear again and I'm mad about it. Partner keeps threatening me with Andre 3000's flute jazz album and I'm now both more scared and more intrigued. No clue how to rate this as one piece of media. 4 and 1 and

I was given "Stankonia" not that long ago, and despite my general dislike of rap and hip hop, I didn't hate it. I knew this album was on the list, but I didn't expect to get it so soon. I was already familiar with "The Way You Move" and "Hey Ya" because I used to listen to the radio a lot when I was a teenager. I always thought "The Way You Move" was a random interlude between the other songs on the radio for some reason, but I liked the song in its entirety here. What draws me to this album (and the other one) is the extensive use of multiple instruments, sounds, and melodies. It's not just rapping to a synth beat: it's hip hop, jazz, soul, and r&b all mixed together. The lyrics are also immediate and real, and I can feel the urgency in many of the songs. The first half of the album (Big Boi's) is the most like "Stankonia", and I thought it was the strongest side. I felt like it carried a more serious tone and I liked the instrumentation better.The second half (Andre 3000's) came across as more mellow and soulful, and though different instrumentation was used, I didn't like it as much as the first half. Overall, this album was quite a long listen (over 2 hours), and I did take a break halfway through. I think I enjoyed this more than "Stankonia", in part because of the variety of music and also because it was a clear evolution from the previous album while staying in the same vein.

a wild and wacky tour inside the minds of outkast

Joj slatki su mi oni oduvijek i par pjesama mi je baš super, ali ne mogu hvaliti cijeli album. Neki prosjek rekla bih. 3/5, 5/10

Funny mixture of different styles from hip hop to electronica.

long ass album, but pretty good for background music while discussing absolutely nothing with your friends

TapI liek a lot

Remarkedly long and honestly quite boring other than the hits. Best Song: Roses Rating: 6.0/10 Stars: 3

ok me sente lo escuche. Creo que podria haber muerto sin escucharlo. Heeeeeeyaaaaa unico momento que senti euforia 3/5

haha

Speakerboxx -1.5. Love below - 4

Over two hours of vibes with some ‘00s classics sprinkled in.

some great classic outkast songs on here but the album as a whole wasn't my favorite.

acho que gostei mais do "speakerboxxx" que do "the love below", esse hip hop mais animadinho e dançante com algumas faixas com guitarrinhas são mais do meu gosto. porém, a versatilidade do "the love below" é beeem fora da casinha e interessante. achei legal que do nada, meu mano andre 3000 lança um d&b sampleando favorite things da juliew andrews!! que inesperado.