Speakerboxxx/The Love Below [Edited]

Performer: OutKast
Artist: Sleepy Sleepy Brown; Jazze Pha; Jay-Z; Killer Mike; Big Gipp; Ludacris; Rosario Dawson; Norah Jones; Kelis; Cee-Lo; Lil Jon; Mello; Konkrete; Khujo Goodie; Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz; Slimm Calhoun
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Includes an untitled hidden track at the end of THE LOVE BELOW CD. Outkast: Andre "3000" Benjamin, Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. Additional personnel includes: Sleepy Brown, Jazze Pha, Jay-Z, Killer Mike, Big Gipp, Ludacris, Rosario Dawson, Norah Jones, Kelis, Cee-Lo, Lil Jon, Mello, Slim Calhoun, Kuhjo Goodie. Producers include: Andre 3000, Mr. DJ, Big Boi, Carl Mo, DoJo 5. SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW won the 2004 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and for Best Rap Album. "Hey Ya!" won for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. The song was also nominated for Record Of The Year. Includes an untitled hidden track at the end of Disc 2. Outkast: Andre "3000" Benjamin, Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. Additional personnel includes: Sleepy Brown, Jazze Pha, Jay-Z, Killer Mike, Big Gipp, Ludacris, Rosario Dawson, Norah Jones, Kelis, Cee-Lo, Lil Jon, Mello, Slim Calhoun, Kuhjo Goodie. Producers include: Andre 3000, Mr. DJ, Big Boi, Carl Mo, DoJo 5. SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW won the 2004 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and for Best Rap Album. "Hey Ya!" won for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. The song was also nominated for Record Of The Year. 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. If conventional wisdom, based on their public personas and previous music, held that Big Boi's record, Speakerboxxx, would be the more conventional of the two and Andre 3000's The Love Below the more experimental, that doesn't turn out to be quite true. From the moment Speakerboxxx kicks into gear with "GhettoMusick" and its relentless blend of old-school 808s and breakneck breakbeats, it's clear that Boi is ignoring boundaries, and the rest of his album follows suit. It's grounded firmly within hip-hop, but the beats bend against the grain and the arrangements are overflowing with ideas and thrilling, unpredictable juxtapositions, such as how "Bowtie" swings like big-band jazz filtered through George Clinton, how "The Way You Move" offsets its hard-driving verses with seductive choruses, or how "The Rooster" cheerfully rides a threatening minor-key mariachi groove, salted by slippery horns and loose-limbed wah-wah guitars. It's a hell of a ride, reclaiming the adventurous spirit of the golden age and pushing it into a new era. By contrast, The Love Below isn't so much visionary as it is unapologetically eccentric. And as the cocktail jazz pianos that sparkle through the first few songs indicate, it's not much of a hip-hop album. Instead, Andre 3000 has created the great lost Prince album -- the platter that the Purple One recorded somewhere between Around the World in a Day and Sign 'o' the Times. It's not just that the music and song titles cheekily recall Prince -- "She Lives in My Lap" is a close relation of the B-side "She's Always in My Hair" -- it's that Dre disregards any rules on a quest to create his own interior world, right down to a dialogue with God. The difference between Andre 3000 and Prince is in that dialogue, too: Prince was tortured; Andre is trying to get laid. That cheerfully randy spirit surges through The Love Below, even on the spooky-serious closer, "A Life in the Day of Benjamin Andre," and it gives Andre the freedom to try a little of everything, from mock crooning on "Love Haters" to a breakbeat jazz interpretation of "My Favorite Things" to the strange one-man funk of "Roses" and the incandescent "Hey Ya!," where classic soul and electro-funk coexist happily. So, both records are very different, but the remarkable thing is, they both feel thoroughly like OutKast music. Big Boi and Andre 3000 took off in different directions from the same starting point, yet they wind up sounding unified because they share the same freewheeling aesthetic, where everything is alive and everything is possible within their music. That spirit fuels not just the best hip-hop, but the best pop music, and both Speakerboxxx and The Love Below are among the best hip-hop and best pop music released this decade. Each is a knockout individually, and paired together, their force is undeniable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Simply put, there is no band that does anything close to what Outkast does. Big Boi & Andre 3000 have consistently managed to maintain mainstream success while obliterating the limits of what is considered to be hip-hop. Frolicking at the outskirts of language, they throw every genre into a blender and make every musical turn sound organic. SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW is actually two solo records fused together, the former by Big Boi, the latter by Andre 3000, with each mind working at an equally frantic pace to create a gloriously split sonic experience. Big Boi opens with a techno intro that fades into industrial-style grinding on "Ghettomusick," before settling into more traditional, although far from ordinary, rap tracks on "Unhappy" and "The Way You Move." His most salient moment comes on "War," an uncompromising condemnation of American politics that strikes the perfect balance of righteous rage and measured speech. When Dre takes the reins, the concoction gets wonderfully weirder with everything from the piano bar pop of "Love Hater" to the call and response of "She Lives in My Lap" to the mystery mix of the outstanding single "Hey Ya!" Following the remarkable STANKONIA, SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW cements Outkast's position as rap innovators and keeps them in the lead as the genre's primary visionaries. Simply put, there is no band that does anything close to what Outkast does. Big Boi & Andre 3000 have consistently managed to maintain mainstream success while obliterating the limits of what is considered to be hip-hop. Frolicking at the outskirts of language, they throw every genre into a blender and make every musical turn sound organic. SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW is actually two solo records fused together, the former by Big Boi, the latter by Andre 3000, with each mind working at an equally frantic pace to create a gloriously split sonic experience. Big Boi opens with a techno intro that fades into industrial-style grinding on "Ghettomusick," before settling into more traditional, although far from ordinary, rap tracks on "Unhappy" and "The Way You Move." His most salient moment comes on "War," an uncompromising condemnation of American politics that strikes the perfect balance of righteous rage and measured speech. When Dre takes the reins, the concoction gets wonderfully weirder with everything from the piano bar pop of "Love Hater" to the call and response of "She Lives in My Lap" to the mystery mix of the outstanding single "Hey Ya!" Following the remarkable STANKONIA, SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW cements Outkast's position as rap innovators and keeps them in the lead as the genre's primary visionaries.

Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.109) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003" - "The most original record to top the charts in 2003, hip-hop or otherwise..." Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.109) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003" - "The most original record to top the charts in 2003, hip-hop or otherwise..." Entertainment Weekly (12/26/03-1/2/04, p.142) - Ranked #10 in Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "Records of the Year" Entertainment Weekly (9/19/03, pp.83-5) - "...If released separately, [each solo CD would] be a candidate for Hip-Hop Record of the Year. Packaged together, they make a twofer whose ambition flies so far beyond that of anyone doing rap right now (or pop, or rock, or R&B), awards shows may need to create a special category for it..." - Rating: A Entertainment Weekly (12/26/03-1/2/04, p.142) - Ranked #10 in Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "Records of the Year" Entertainment Weekly (9/19/03, pp.83-5) - "...If released separately, [each solo CD would] be a candidate for Hip-Hop Record of the Year. Packaged together, they make a twofer whose ambition flies so far beyond that of anyone doing rap right now (or pop, or rock, or R&B), awards shows may need to create a special category for it..." - Rating: A Q (01/01/04, p.83) - Ranked #8 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums of 2003" - "[T]wo fantastic voyages to the outer reaches of psychedelic funk for the price of one..." Q (01/01/04, p.83) - Ranked #8 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums of 2003" - "[T]wo fantastic voyages to the outer reaches of psychedelic funk for the price of one... Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) - Ranked #18 in Uncut's "Albums Of The Year 2003" - "Wholly unexpected." Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) - Ranked #18 in Uncut's "Albums Of The Year 2003" - "Wholly unexpected." The Wire (01/04, p.38) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year [2003]" The Wire (01/04, p.38) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year [2003]" Mojo (Publisher) (p.65) - Ranked #22 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[SPEAKERBOXX is] a high-rolling hip hop odyssey, Andre's THE LOVE BELOW dreamy, playful, Prince-inspired R&B pop." Mojo (Publisher) (01/01/04, p.60) - Ranked #2 in Mojo's "The Best of 2003" Mojo (Publisher) (9/03, pp.99-100) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The genius of past Outkast isn't diluted or diminished across these disks, rather it's doubled, expanded and explored. And crucially, confirmed..." Mojo (Publisher) (01/01/04, p.60) - Ranked #2 in Mojo's "The Best of 2003" Mojo (Publisher) (9/03, pp.99-100) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The genius of past Outkast isn't diluted or diminished across these disks, rather it's doubled, expanded and explored. And crucially, confirmed..."

Click Here for Shipping Options and Policies

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.25