Sales and audience reception of Outkast’s newest album, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” is at its peak just in time for the Grammy Awards. And oh, are they nominated. For a group that the Independent (London) called one of the most underrated hip-hop acts of the past 10 years, Outkast is now set to earn its stripes – six to be exact, including Album of the Year, Best Rap Album and Record of the Year for “Hey Ya!”
Double albums are seen as daunting for pop music consumers and customarily appear as compilations. When the Beatles’ “White Album” was released, critics fussed that, aside from being too weird, the 30-track set was too much to take in. Whether Outkast’s Big Boi and Andre 3000 planned it, they bypassed the double album dilemma by splitting their efforts. The end result was their fifth release, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” two solo projects in one package.
Outkast has retained its sense of adventure. Its brand of blended southern soul, funk, rap and psychedelic genres has earned the duo a reputation as the avant-garde of the Dirty South movement.
The band’s newest undertaking never dwells on one style for too long. Big Boi’s “Speakerboxxx” announces itself with a chorus that rides on satisfying bass volleys. Then the record rips into gear with “GhettoMuzik,” a hardcore rave/shag-soul stop-and-go where whizzing synthesizers brake for slow swaying “oohs” to pass. The hip-hop fusion carries through the bulk of the disc, which signs off with a funk snippet. Throughout “Speakerboxxx,” Big Boi hits upon social issues, metaphyiscal life-death questions and indulges in a little Bush-bashing. Conversely, Andre 3000 looks inward for inspiration, piecing together his own intimate and sexually graphic realities with every track.
He even contacts his version of God: “Damn, you a woman,” he says. The cascading jazz piano on the intro track of “The Love Below” signals Andre 3000’s departure from the hip-hop essence of “Speakerboxxx.” Thick with psychedelic funk and falsetto, “The Love Below” pulses with erotic Prince vibes. The track, “Love Hater” is a jazz arrangement laced with Hendrix-style guitar howls and “wahs.”
Big Boi and Andre 3000’s decision to diverge worked to widen the musical palette of this release. The two have made the most of their opportunity to exercise artistic freedom with an energy that defies convention. In other words, they’ve shaken up the rules like a Polaroid picture.