aquemini - 'that's a soul album, really'

("it has singing = it is not hiphop") = cum bubblism!

what I have in mind is that I-can't-like-a-rap-album and I-like-this-not-really-rap-album often go together but need not. so that saying 'this is really a soul album' may just be an honest admission that what he likes about it seems to be soul-things, so that he can't really pretend it means he likes a rap album. he may think something else, I don't know. but being clearer on what the album is seems to me like it might make it easier to talk about white boho etc outkast fans without making assumptions about the rest of their tastes.

jess asked me 'does it have more rapping than singing?' and I said yes, but with a caveat: that their raps by this point are stylistically, formally, etc. somewhere between a lot of other rapping, and singing. this together with the song structures and styles has a lot to do with calling it 'soul' making sense. (I wonder what can be said about the content too, since I don't really know anything about soul)

Sounds to me like yeah, he feels guilty about liking a rap record, so he focuses on it's most non-traditional-rap aspects, eg. the "soul" aspects of the instrumental backing, etc. Whatever. It's hip hop. Outkast is hip hop - they expand the boundaries of it, sure, but they're still rappin.

Outkast is hip hop - they expand the boundaries of it, sure, but they're still rappin.

Well, eh, sure, but so were James Brown, Gill-Scott Heron, Joe Tex, etc.

Yes, and Link Wray was "punk".

I get yer point, but:

"Punk" = genre

"rapping" = only one part of what makes a record belong to the genre of Hip-Hop. Merely rapping does not qualify James, Joe Tex, etc. as Hip-Hop, so why should it give Outkast that quality?

Look, while James Brown, Gil Scot-Heron et al may have rapped at various points in their careers, it was not the musical/cultural environment that birthed and nurtured them. Outkast came from the hip-hop community, they are grounded in the methods and terminology of hip-hop, they use its style, its references, its codes, it informs their every move and identity even as they push the envelope. Hip hop is where they're from. I don't see how you could argue otherwise.

What's a scare quote?

HOOTIE HOOOOOO

Parts of this I absolutely adore (Return Of The G, Rosa Parks, Synthesizer, Story Telling Pt. 2) ut those long-winded jams at the end get on my fucking tits something chronic.

I had Aquemini on in the car on Friday actually, and Stankonia too. A proper Outkast 'best of', taking in Speakerboxxx/TLB, would be fucking amazing.

I hope for your sake that "long-winded jams" doesn't include "Spottieottiedopaliscious"

I still think Stankonia is their best genrefuck album.

ATLiens, though, is their best rap album.

And both are better than the other 4.

A proper Outkast 'best of', taking in Speakerboxxx/TLB, would be fucking amazing.

current best of + ...?

I never "got" Stankonia. For me, Outkast album hierarchy goes ATLiens > SPCM > Aquemini >>>>>> SB/TLB > Stankonia >>>>> Idlewild

(Note: the first three are some of my favorite albums ever.)

whats there to get about stankonia? its got lots of good songs.

stankonia was too long for me. so i would get bored and i never wanted to play it. but that's my problem. i like to listen to albums all the way through. i thought it was kinda messy too. just too much of something that i didn't really need, i guess.

ATLiens is the only one i still play on occasion. still sounds great.

Liberation is my favorite song on Aquemini!

stankonia was too long for me. so i would get bored and i never wanted to play it. but that's my problem. i like to listen to albums all the way through. i thought it was kinda messy too. just too much of something that i didn't really need, i guess.

Cosign. And it never ran much deeper than the singles for me. If I'm going to listen to an album that long, there's got to be more than two album tracks I love.

Gasoline! Gansta Shit! Xplosion! Red Velvet! Humble Mumble! Never mind THOSE two!

^ cosignatory

i looks more like dis

ATLiens (wiggly)=(wiggly) Stankonia >>> Aquemini >> SB/LB > SPCM >>>>>> idlewild

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, please listen to the album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik by the recording group Outkast right now and take some time to reconsider your position.

so sayeth the reverend

so it will be done

Preferable while driving around on a hot fucking day, because that's the best way to hear it. Better yet, stuck in traffic on a hot fucking day.

(Sidenote: the best way to listen to ATLiens is laying flat on your back at night with the lights turned off. I haven't really considered the ideal listening conditions for the others or just haven't gotten them right.)

See in my experience ATLiens is best driving on a metro loop at night. I once drove the entirety of Loop 410 around San Antonio TX listening to ATLiens three times in a row.

But definitely a night album.

I'm from San Antonio too - I agree that ATLiens is particularly pertinent to that town...

stankonia has the same kind of hardfunk, glisteny, packed-tight-with-too-many-details to it as basement jaxx. i find it tiring to listen to. i like the warm breathing space of their prior stuff.

san antonio is one hot mf'ing town

Tracer, exactly my feeling. Aquemini had this real deep and soothing grove to it in between perfect pop songs, whereas Stankonia comes off as very discordant / jarring in many instances.

my favorites are aquemini, then southernplayalistic

Agreed with Tracer & humansuit. The sounds on a lot of later Outkast records don't really congeal.

Yeah I can definitely see where you're coming from w/r/t the stuntedness. I think cohesion gets unfairly privileged too often though. A successful sense of variety/schizo on a record is definitely something I admire.

haw haw haw haw
we luv deez hoes
haw haw haw haw
we luv deez hoes

And that is the kind of crap which shows how much they slipped indeed.

You're kidding, right?

san antonio is one hot mf'ing town

-- Tracer Hand, Sunday, July 29, 2007 5:37 PM

tru dat

Yeah. What I should have said is that that track is retarded.

We disagree.

looooooooooooooooooooooooove this album

Honestly surprised that didn't end '......ooool.'

totally agree too btw wrt stankonia opinions upthread

haha xp

once i was playing 'stankonia' at work and i rang up two elderly customers while 'we love deez hoes' was playing. i think it actually was during the 'she tried to pull my rubber off with her pussy muscles/that was wrong' part, too. AWKWARD

my opinion w/r/t stankonia has changed. <3 that album. I think I was put off by its more technoid qualities (basement jaxx comparison otm, not that jaxx are techno) for a long time

Interesting article in Vibe about Dungeon fam-- Big Boi hurt Andre's feelings saying that the singing on "Synthesizer" wouldn't appeal to the streets.

xp i am glad you are enjoying stankonia more!

Maybe Rev's enthusiasm is contagious.

Storytellin 1 slays

https://theundefeated.com/features/outkast-aquemini-anniversary-twenty-years-south-something-say/

Andre 3000, real name Andre Benjamin, and Big Boi, real name Antwan Patton, two Atlanta rappers known as Outkast, took the stage to accept the award for best new artist, duo. Outkast was a relative unknown at the time on a national stage, five years before 2003’s diamond Speakerboxxx/The Love Below garnered the duo the Grammy for album of the year. In 1995, they were met with a deafening chorus of boos from a Big Apple crowd that wanted its hometown artists to win all of the awards. The two MCs clapped for themselves. Then Andre 3000 took the stage and defiantly yelled six words into the microphone that would change the course of American pop culture forever:

“The South got something to say.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJu40C0vE3g

Miss these dudez