“Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” by Outkast
Celebrate the recent 20th anniversary of one of rap's greatest swan songs.
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Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick commemorates the recent 20th anniversary of a fascinating, exhilarating hip-hop swan song.
Genre: Hip-Hop, Pop
Label: Arista
Release Date: September 23, 2003
Vibe: 👋
To call this an Outkast double LP is somewhat of a misnomer. The rap duo’s moniker is above the marquee, but you’re hearing essentially two solo records packaged together—each a fascinating listen in their own right. It was considered an audacious and even risky move at the time, especially considering how high the bar was following their 2000 epic Stankonia. 20 years later, the take-no-prisoners boundary-pushing sounds even more remarkable than it did initially. Despite this album producing several monster singles, including “The Way You Move” and the irresistable “Hey Ya,” there’s absolutely zero regard for any genre conventions or fan expectations here. Instead, Big Boi and Andre 3000 deliver two-plus hours of music that’s both proudly Dirty South and something much bigger than just hip-hop.
In the pantheon of tone-setters, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more exhilarating example than “GhettoMusick.” All whirling synths and relentless breakbeats, it’s simultaneously a nod to the South’s past and a look to the future, where rap, electronica, and psychedelia would be go-to sonic touchstones for aspiring producers worldwide. Big Boi’s gleeful experimentation continues throughout Speakerboxxx, adding flourishes that include (but are not limited to) big band swing (”Bowtie”) and mariachi (”The Rooster”). Amazingly, Three Stacks manages to top him in the eccentricity department on The Love Below. Ping-ponging from wink-wink crooning (”Love Haters”) to neo-soul (”Prototype”) to hard-bitten funk (”Roses”), it’s so intoxicating it makes you forget how “not hip-hop” it is.
Often compared to The White Album, Outkast’s swan song proves they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Lennon/McCartney.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈