By shelz.

The evolution of Outkast has been an epic traipse through all things melodic. Their debut, Southernplayalisticadillacmusik, had to play understudy to Ready To Die and Illmatic as those two releases exploded on the rap landscape, carving out careers and acclaim for Nas and Biggie while unceremoniously putting G-Funk in time out.  However, as the Atlanta duo continued to build it was obvious that they were not going to color inside the Hip-Hop lines andthat their gift for pushing the envelope would catapult them to the top of the rap totem pole as well.

Elements were added over the years; more funk, less pimp talk, spoken word inserts. Brushes with rock, gospel, electronica and jazz as the pair tightened their sound only to branch out again.  The culmination of this gumbo style of crafting led to one of the most ambitious projects ever presented to urban music fans; Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

The double disc broke all kinds of time and technique rules, clocking in over 2 and a half hours with a dizzying combination of elements, but still managed to rule the rap roost in 2003.  3 Stacks and Big Boi barely conspired though as the critically acclaimed release proved to be two solo albums packaged under one name, which begs the question: Which side was better?

Speakerboxxx took the more conventional route of the two but was anything but cut and paste Hip-Hop.  The production was overflowing with ingredients from 80’s break beats to gospel.  He played with rock, pop and even 50’s swing while bringing it all together with a healthy dose of funk.  The unexpected combinations kicked the norm to the curb as the production team heaped hard core guitar riffs, blaring horn stabs, digital atmospherics, claps and snaps on botton heavy, heartbeat shifting basslines that meandered through musical styles deftly.  And that’s just the foundation.

Big Boi laid down style after style, flipped patterns like Versace in the summertime and tackled a myriad of subjects without losing the listener in a mele of ideas.  He un-separated church and state tackling both while getting into parenting, sexing, suitable shake club etiquette and proper grown man attire.  It’s expansive and exhaustive in a worn out with a smile on your face sort of way. However, as dope as Speakerboxx was, there are some folks who believe General Patton was bested by his partner.

With The Love Below, Andre let his hair down, relaxed the rhymes and channeled a post Purple Rain Prince.  The production was spectacularly eclectic moving from Lawrence Welk inspired bubbly orchestral to new age electro-funk. It was spacey, airy and heavy on the atmospherics as if 3 Stacks was trying to creating more of a feeling than a sound. If the mood he wanted to convey was lust, then he definitely succeeded in spades because The Love Below is a very sexy album.

Andre settles with a female God to accept the perfect women even if she doesn’t have a fat ass. How to retain your pride and find your panties at the same time after waking up next to a relative stranger is tackled in a seriously realistic way.  Dre even manages to present one of the most lascivious songs of the decade with “Spread”; a sputtering foundation that tangles with Andre’s dead on lover man hubris and loses.

Dre rapped a little, sang a lot and turned his imperfect crooning into respectable ambition.  The full sonic picture was sex without politics and love without boundaries in a new world context. On the flip side, Big Boi pushed his limits and creativity as an emcee while employing some grown man production that really did make a few dudes want to perfect that bowtie knot. However, one has to better.  Right? Speak on it.

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