Their unique blend of jazz, blues, soul, rock and world music along with some good old-fashioned hip-hop laced with their Southern sensibilities has constantly set the world on its ear. For the past nine years the Atlanta-based super duo, OutKast, has been consistently pushing hip-hop's envelope by expanding its musical boundaries with every album they release. Hence why so many of today's contemporary hip-hop records tend to sound alike. Most artists would rather stick to the carefully prepared scripts that brought them gold and platinum the first time. And none There's an old proverb about genius that says "talent does what it can, genius does what it must." In the world of the corporate-controlled, media-driven, trend-following music industry - where record labels pump out cookie-cutter music by the baker's dozens - it is rare that you come across mainstream hip-hop artists who are willing to push the envelope by daring to go creatively where few artist are willing to go.
With no OutKast LP since 2006’s Idlewild, it’s unclear if they’ll ever match its chart impact.īut if Stankonia forever remains this outfit’s ultimate record, it’s some achievement to call the greatest hip hop album of the 21st century one of your own.Biography: There's an old proverb about genius that says "talent does what it can, genius does what it must." In the world of the corporate-controlled, media-driven, trend-following music industry - where record labels pump out cookie-cutter music by the baker's dozens - it is rare that you come across mainstream hip-hop artists who are willing to push the envelope by daring to go creatively where few artist are willing to go. That remains their highest position to date, one better than the evergreen Hey Ya! achieved.
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It was Ms Jackson that cracked the UK for these ATLiens, charting at two. Time has painted some cuts as relative filler: the booty-clap bounce of We Luv Deez Hoez and fizzy meditation on carnal etiquette I’ll Call Before I Come are shallower of emotional depth than the still-exquisite Ms Jackson and the ( Sign “O” the Times-period) Prince-recalling Toilet Tisha. Its sequencing, its pacing, these are perfect transitions from casual vocabulary to lightning verses, electrifying. The single was no commercial high-flyer, but set a tone that its parent LP would adroitly adhere to: anything goes, so long as it flows.Īnd flow Stankonia had to, brilliantly, because for the second consecutive set its makers pushed CD capacity, filling a 74-minute run-time.Īmongst its 24 tracks are skippable skits, although these add contextual colour to the album’s singular bravado, but for the most part Stankonia serves the album format, rather than the other way around. Immediate long-play predecessor, 1998’s Aquemini, was a plaudit-magnet in its own right a platinum-seller which piqued significant domestic interest yet didn’t translate to a global audience.īut with the new millennium came new opportunities for partners-in-rhyme André 3000 and Big Boi: Stankonia is the sound of every cracked-open door being kicked off its hinges.īefore Stankonia came B.O.B – an unusual lead-single selection given its ménage-a-trois of jitterbug drum’n’bass, gospel backing vocals and a virtuosic instrumental sensibility owing much to Sly Stone and Hendrix. While Stankonia wasn’t the first taste of this dynamic duo’s inspired interpretations of rap – schizophrenic pieces that tapped funk up for its number before forgetting to call it back snapping trap-rap rockers unleashed before the world caught up with the parlance – it was the most perfect distillation of everything that’d come before it. No Stankonia: quite possibly no Frank Ocean, no Janelle Monáe, no Shabazz Palaces no southern playas taking the four elements from New York to outer space via the suburbs of the ATL. Imagine the hip hop of today without the influence of OutKast’s fourth album.
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