Even the longer 7-8 minute tracks of "spottieottiegogaliscious" and "Liberation" don't drag on, setting a deep atmosphere and featuring solid intrumentation. The near entire tracklisting of the album is very consistant in quality and also range, with more of an old school approach on tracks like "Skew It On The Bar-B" featuring guest Raekewon,bizarre slow jazzy number "Aquemini" to psuedo G-funk with a southern twist of "west Savannah". Irresistably funky with a singalong chorus and greatly textured in its production. One of the standout tracks "Rosa Parks" which earned Outkast a grammy is a case in point. The result is an album that makes the genre feel refreshing, experimental and similarly as fun and carefree as it was with the likes of De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest and other such pioneers who weren't as constricted as they are now with ideas as to what rap "should" sound like. Outkast, having thier own band layer many of the songs with REAL instruments, guitar ("Chonkyfire","Rosa Parks") trumpet ("Spottieottiedogaliscious") and piano ("Liberation") among others. This is a large part of what stands this album apart from many other rap albums, and part of why it has survived over other comparitavely forgotten rap albums of 1998, not only in its lyrics but in its musical direction too. Robbin' niggas in broad ass daylight get down Seein' light so they end up being like yo' sorry ass Or to the park so they grow up in the dark never The lyrics are blatant enough when he states:īut not enough to bounce them kids to the zoo It seems even more of a suprise that he should declare his disgust with "gangsta's" in the rap game and people who claim to be "gospel rappin", in which the threat of alienating many of his peers in the business and fans of Outkasts earlier work seems likely. In an appropiate opener on the album "return of the 'G'" from the get-go Andre 3000 declares his thoughts on his critics:"Whats the deal with Andre/is he on coke'/is he on drugs is he gay./im feelin better than ever whats the matter with you?".
One of the bigger leaps however was in content, moving from "ATLiens" image of "genies" and "pimps", "Aquemini" took a more serious approach to issues facing the US black community, morality and the state of the world. Outkasts third album "Aquemini" (the name being a combination of Andre and Big Boi's star signs) played a major part in taking Outkast to mainsteam popularity (the bigger leap would be made on "Stankonia" and then the Diamond selling "Speakerbox/Love below").
0 kommentar(er)
