Review: Outkast "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 20, 2003 9:00 p.m.
In a recent New York Times article addressing Outkast’s
alleged breakup, Andre 3000’s answers leave more
questions.
“I don’t feel the music the same way I did when I
first got into hip-hop,” said Andre 3000 (born Andre
Benjamin). “The next time I perform on stage, I see myself
playing in a band.”
With the release of “Stankonia” in 2000, Outkast was
seen as hip-hop’s great black hope. Now with the upcoming
release of “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” the group has
changed its trajectory. The latest album, in all its sprawling
glory, sounds like an end. And depending on where you stand on the
state of hip-hop, this is either bad news, or very bad news.
First, the bad news: Big Boi’s (born Antwan Patton)
“Speakerboxxx” could be a certified hip-hop classic,
but it’s missing a lot of Andre’s sassy androgynous
flair. It still outdoes the Neptunes or the Def Jux collective with
its own sci-fi digi-funk. The beats, no matter how fresh or clean,
are always mired in dirt and grime as tangible as the Atlanta
duo’s Southern drawls. And it’s the loud, brassy, brash
and heavy 130 BPM rave-up “GhettoMusick” that beats any
other track on the pseudo double album or quasi-double solo-album.
It’s the sound of urgency found not only in the socialization
of ghetto politics and identity, but also in the pure strength of
the beat. But what’s Jay-Z doing on “Flip Flop
Rock,” when Andre could have filled out Big Boi’s
verses with much more character and depth?
Next, the really bad news: Andre’s “The Love
Below” is the weirdest, most adventurous hip- hop album in
recent memory, but it’s intentionally sloppy. Drawing as much
from Prince as he does his own unique brand of cyber-funk,
Dré’s most fully realized reinvention is “Pink and
Blue,” a triumph of mood over groove. With a languid digital
ambiance, Andre courts his lover: “She’s sophisticated/
Just me and miss lady/ Got me talkin’ like a baby.”
Andre has called his disc a concept album, but
“theme” is the more appropriate label: He wants you to
know that musical inspiration is just as elusive and fickle as that
seemingly unattainable girl.
There are moments when “The Love Below” shines with
a visionary allure that belies its sprawling handiwork, but Andre
also wants you to hear his ambivalence. The album at its best
moments is the sound of losing the beat and being fine with it, but
it doesn’t always perfectly toe that line. If anything, the
double disc shows how the two complement each other.
“Speakerboxxx” could make use of a bit more cartoonish
flair from the duo’s leading eccentric, and Andre is in dire
need of some purpose.
It’s the best album to be released this year, and it shows
the pair are still the coolest motherfunkers on the planet. But as
a final chapter, the double album simply leaves the listener
wanting more, and with one lasting, lingering worry: If they
aren’t going to keep reinventing hip-hop, who else will?
– Andrew Lee
