Outkast’s unique album

Outkast is the hottest act in the realm of popular music today. The group’s latest album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is doing phenomenal sales, sliding down to number two with the arrival of a new release by some important artist like Alicia Keys, then reclaiming the number one position after the media hoopla about the new album has subsided. Not only that: Outkast’s Speakerboxxx and don’t forget The Love Below, which is packaged as one CD, is also being lauded as one of the best albums to come out of 2003.

Outkast is made up of Dre Aka Andre 3000 and Big Boi. They met as high school classmates in Atlanta and soon found a common taste for music and flair for writing. It was not long after those days that they released their first album as Outkast in 1994. Made up of tales about their growing up years, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, with the single Player’s Ball, easily made it to the hit charts. This was followed by more hits over the years like ATLiens, Aquemini which includes Ms. Jackson and Stankonia. Then there came Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

The latest from the duo is a first of its kind in popular music history. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is actually made up of two albums. One is Speakerboxxx and this features Big Boi. Andre gets his turn in The Love Below. Both of them are credited as producers of both albums. So what buyers are getting are two solo CDs in one package. But while admitting that they do get divergent ideas sometimes, Andre and Big Boi are also saying that they remain together as Outkast. What an idea! It actually got me thinking that if the Beatles had thought of something like this instead of fighting among themselves, we could have gotten four solos by John with Yoko, Paul with Linda, George with his sitar and Ringo with whoever in one overwhelming swoop.

Anyway, back to Outkast. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (take note, one must mention the complete titles as these are really two different albums), is not only unique. It is actually brilliant. Although classified as a hip-hop act, Outkast pushed all limits to the max to open their music to every possibility. As a result, we get their usual excellent, and this time both personal and satiric, writing, music that moves with great ease across boundaries, think rap, jazz, MOR, rock, dance and R&B, sometimes even within a single cut, and an aural feast of sound. What these guys have accomplished with this album simply blows your mind away.

The Way You Move is top choice in Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx. He is principled, angry and brimming with good intentions with cuts like Ghetto Musick, Unhappy, War and Church. Andre’s big single is Hey Ya! He is suave, sexy and brimming with romance with tunes like Happy Valentine’s Day, Behold a Lady, Roses and She Lives in My Lap. It would never have worked putting their respective tracks together in a single album. But now that they have Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast has emerged a big winner.

Just wondering, what do you think will these guys do in their next one?

Outkast retains both of the number one slots and another number two slot in the latest Billboard Magazine chart tabulation for North America. The top 10 singles are the following: Hey Ya! by Outkast; The Way You Move also by Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown; Milkshake by Kelis; You Don’t Know My Name by Alicia Keys; Stand Up by Ludacris feat. Shawnna; Walked Outta Heaven by Jagged Edge; Suga Suga by Baby Bash feat. Frankie J; Here without You by 3 Doors Down; Slow Jamz by Twista feat. Kanye West & Jamie Foxx; and the hottest new song of the moment Me, Myself and I by Beyonce.

Meanwhile the top 10 albums are of course: Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below by Outkast; The Diary of Alicia Keys by Alicia Keys who grabbed number one from the duo for a week but has now dropped to second place; Shock’n Y’all by Toby Keith; Now 14 by Various Artists; The Very Best of Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow; Closer by Josh Groban; Metamorphosis by Hilary Duff; The Singles 1992-2003 by No Doubt; Soulful, the debut album by American Idol winner Ruben Studdard which hit number one when it was released last December; and In the Zone by former bride-to-be, bride and ex-wife in a span of three days, Britney Spears.