I think it's safe to say this is one of the most ambitious projects in hip-hop history. It's a double-album, which has done before, but it's essentially two solo albums: Speakerboxx would be Big Boi's, and The Love Below would be Andre's. I'm sure that has been done before as well, but how about this for you: this is The White Album (because it's two solo projects merged into one, as was the Beatles' world-famous double - come on, George and Ringo had five songs between them. It's a John v. Paul thing); Songs in the Key of Life (in that even the lesser songs add to the album's scope and size, and like Songs it sure has scope and size); Sign o' the Times (in that it's uncompromisingly eccentric); and London Calling (in that there are many clean breaks from OutKast and hip-hop tradition here) all rolled into one. Since this is pretty much two separate solo albums in one, I'm treating this review as a two-in-one deal. I'll start with Big Boi's disc, since it's the first one. Big Boi continues to push the boundaries of rap music, incorporating a jazzy big-band horn section to the fantastic single "Bowtie," using a Patti LaBelle sample in an innovative way rather than just taking it and rapping over it on "GhettoMusick," and incorporating a '70s soul sound and EWF-style backing vocals into the brilliant smash hit "The Way You Move" (featuring Sleepy Brown, who has a pleasant Marvin Gaye-like croon). If this is the future of hip-hop, then you can probably expect to see my interest in the genre skyrocket in the next few years. Then again, with "Ridin'" still getting airplay, maybe it's just false optimism after all. But back to Big Boi, he's proving himself as the second-coolest man in rap today, even succeeding tremendously with mariachi horns with the funky "Rooster" and with horror-movie synthesizers and wah-wahs in the same song on "Bust". Of course, it wouldn't make an ounce of sense to discuss every song on am album this long in anything that resembles depth, but let me just say this: the OutKast-business-as-usual stuff ("War," "Church," with cool synthesizer goodness, "Reset") is roughly as successful as the experimental work. And "Tomb of the Boom" rules. I don't know where they got those synthesizers, but I like them. The interludes are annoying, and I'm not big on either "Knowing" or "The Last Call" (it's got Lil John on it, and he's representative of the type of rap I do not like at all). But they even make the Jay-Z feature "Flip Flop Rock" succeed, and I'm not a Jay-Z fan either. The Big Boi disc is about as good as my favorite OutKast album, ATLiens, and that's saying a lot. And the lyrics are pretty socially conscience mostly, with little of the sex-god posing most rappers do today. That makes me happy.Now, Andre's disc is just weird. But it's a good type of weird. He's really coming off as Prince for the 21st Century, with his eccentric mix of funk, jazz, old-school R&B, rock, psychedelia, and pretty much everything but rap. It's like he's trying to hack his fan base off and just do his thing, which is another Princely thing to do. His album is a conceptual one about life and love (thus furthering the Songs in the Key of Life comparison), and it's one of those cases where I actually think the interludes are funny, especially "God". It cracks me up! "You're the best, God!" However, despite the abundance of good songs on this album, it's just too long, too sprawling, too stuffed-to-the-cracks to really succeed. It's good, but it cannot compare to even SpeakerBoxxx, let alone its obvious model, the aforementioned Songs in the Key of Life. Dre's lounge-jazz stuff (title track; "Love Hater") is pretty bad, and there are a few too many songs near the end that are definitely weak: "Pink and Blue," "Love in War," "Behold a Lady," "She's Alive," "Dracula's Wedding," his weird instrumental cover of "My Favorite Things" that's based on Trane's version but set to a hip-hop beat, "Take off Your Cool," the unlistenable "Vibrate," and the directionless rap "Life in the Day of Andre 3000". All of these songs in a row give me the feeling that this album will never end. However, some of it's still brilliant: the Paisley Park-esque psychedelia of "Prototype" is gorgeous, melodic genius; "Hey Ya!" is one of the catchiest, most invigorating hit singles of our decade, and the funk-blues-jazz "Roses" might be my favorite OutKast song ever, despite the slightly misogynistic lyrics (at least when taken out of context - in the context of the album and its concept, it sounds like the aftermath of a messy divorce) - the organ hook rules, the chorus is immortal stuff, and I find the part where Dre tries to squeeze as many words into a single phrase as possible funny, "Valentine's Day" is first-rate funk, the intentionally sexually ambiguous "She Lives in My Lap" uses a sped-up vocal (a tribute to Camille, perhaps?) to great effect, "Spread," the closest thing to a standard rap song here, is great. My advice? Just tune out after "Roses" ends, because you won't be missing loads.Basically, Big Boi's disc is excellent, and Andre's is good but uneven. It's a good album, but it's way too long for its own good. And get it first - OutKast's other four albums are much better.I'm a big OutKast fan and they have consistently delivered outstanding album after outstanding album. But they outdid themselves with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, a collection of truly excellent songs. Without a doubt their best album.I very much enjoyed the Andre Benjamin half of this double album. He has a terrific voice, the tunes are melodious, and the lyrics are listenable. The second album was not my cup of tea. The two styles were so different I wondered why they were put together.I bought this for a friend so I really never listened to it myself. But from what I did hear, The Love Below is the better half of the two CD's. I love the fact that Andre can break out of the rap box and make it sound oh so good. Well after having reached my 50 fourth bithdate i thought i had no taste for such sound, see here, i was wrong!
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