Album Details
To call OutKast's follow-up to their 2000 masterpiece Stankonia the most eagerly awaited hip-hop album of the new millennium may be hyperbole, but not by much. In its kaleidoscopic, deep-fried amalgam of Dirty South, dirty funk, techno, and psychedelia, Stankonia was fearlessly exploratory and giddy with possibilities. It was hard to imagine where the duo was going to go next, but one possibility that few entertained was that Big Boi and Andre 3000 would split apart, each recording an album on his own and then releasing the pair as the fifth OutKast album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in the fall of 2003. Although both albums have their own distinct character, the effect is kind of like if the Beatles issued The White Album as one LP of Lennon tunes, the other of McCartney songs -- the individual records may be more coherent, but the illusion that the group can do anything is tarnished. By isolating themselves from each other, Big Boi and Andre 3000 diminish the idea of OutKast slightly, since the focus is on the individuals, not the group. Which, of course, is part of the point of releasing solo albums under the group name -- it's to prove that the two can exist under the umbrella of the OutKast aesthetic while standing as individuals. Thing is, while it would have been a wild, bracing listen to hear these 39 songs mixed up, alternating between Boi and Dre cuts, the two albums do prove that the music can be solo in execution but remain OutKast records through and through. Both records are visionary, imaginative listens, providing some of the best music of 2003, regardless of genre.
Tracklisting
Intro
Ghetto Musick
Unhappy
Bowtie performed by OutKast / Sleepy Brown / Jazze Pha
The Way You Move performed by OutKast / Sleepy Brown
The Rooster
Bust performed by OutKast / Killer Mike
War
Church
Bamboo (Interlude)
Tomb of the Boom performed by OutKast / Konkrete / Big Gipp / Ludacris
E-Mac (Interlude)
Knowing
Flip Flop Rock performed by OutKast / Killer Mike / Jay-Z
Interlude
Reset performed by OutKast / Khujo Goodie / Cee-Lo
D-Boi (Interlude)
Last Call performed by OutKast / Slimm Calhoun / Lil' Jon / Mello
Bowtie (Postlude)
The Love Below
Love Hater
God (Interlude)
Happy Valentine's Day
Spread
Where Are My Panties?
Prototype
She Lives in My Lap performed by OutKast / Rosario Dawson
Hey Ya!
Roses
Good Day, Good Sir
Behold a Lady
Pink & Blue
Love in War
She's Alive
Dracula's Wedding performed by OutKast / Kelis
My Favorite Things performed by OutKast / Norah Jones
Take Off Your Cool
Vibrate
A Life in the Day of Benjamin André...